I work for NHS Tayside. I am doing a CPP workbased project based on School Nurses and time off from work to maintain their NMC Registration through study leave. I am secretary to the School Nurse Co-ordinator. School Nurses work term time only (39 weeks) and workload consdensed into this time. All work part time within these weeks. 1) As their workload would suffer if they took study leave during their contracted hours – should they be paid extra hours to cover this? 2) Study may be part of objective – should course fees etc be paid by Trust? 3) As responsibility is on nurse to maintain her registration – should the Trust have any obligation to pay anything? Contracts of employement cover annual leave etc but do not specify “time out” for study leave based on pro rata of contracted hours worked. With limited financial resources we do try to meet the nurses requests but there are some who “miss out”. Has anyone else had similar problems with this issue re school nursing or other part time nurses?
Julia Dodd