Agency nurses can find out the latest pay rates available with Mayfair Specialist Nurses on its new web site. There are published rates for nurses and HCAs for work in the NHS and the private sector.

Mayfair has developed advanced IT systems and processes for candidate compliance, management and selection. This ensures a precise match of experience and capability for every shift, the agency says, and supports a friendly and helpful service and long term relationships with both nurses and clients of the agency.

Mayfair Specialist Nurse recruits and places agency nurses for speciality posts in the public and private sector. This includes: NHS Theatre Nurses, Surgical, SCBU, Renal/ Dialysis and PICU – as well as Paediatrics, ODP, NICU, Midwives, Dental, ITU, HDU, CCU and Cardiac, Cardiothoracic, Acute Medical, and Accident and Emergency.

Registering with Mayfair Specialist Nurses enables staff to work with all five agencies in the A24 Group.

As a major national recruiter of specialist staff, Mayfair’s systems and procedures are regularly audited and updated according to best industry practice, client feedback and analyses of candidate needs. Recruitment processes include.-

• Information campaigns: national advertising programmes, including local campaigns to meet spot staffing needs
• Interviews: face-to-face interviews to assess each candidates suitability
• Registration process: CRB checks, 23-page career application form. All referees are contacted and career certification verified
• Checking and auditing: further detailed checks to confirm full candidate compliance
• Selection safeguards: automated processes to ensure continuing compliance and also mandatory training
• Complaints, Audit & Review systems: to support safety, performance and responsiveness of systems

For further information

Mayfair Specialist Nurses

http://mayfair-nurses.com

Contact Number: 0871 873 3326

Fax Number: 0871 873 3327

Email: info@mayfair-nurses.co.uk

Group House,
92 – 96 Lind Road,
Sutton, Surrey,
SM1 4PL

Timesheet deadline reminder for May 2013 Bank Holiday (w/e 05/05/2013 & 26/05/2013):

Please make sure that your timesheets arrive at Head Office (92-96 Lind Rd, Sutton, SM1 4PL) by post, fax or email, no later than:

# 12:00 midday on Friday 3rd May 2013 to ensure payment on Friday 10th May 2013

# 12:00 midday on Friday 24th May 2013 to ensure payment on Friday 31st May 2013

For the attention of all medical staff candidates: locum doctors, nurses, HCAs and AHPs

Note: The A24 Group was the first medical staffing company to offer a 24-7 service, 365 days a year. The organisation is still uniquely differentiated by the speed and efficiency of service response; its unmatched compliance processes; and advanced ICT management systems, developed in-house. It is an advantage that benefits our clients and candidates, maintained through a singular dedication to training and systems excellence.

• Award-winning enterprise and service
• The first 24-7, 365 medical staffing agency
• Database of thousands of qualified medical staff
• Advanced compliance systems, our own dedicated compliance teams
• We specialise in medical & care staffing. Nothing else
• Bespoke management ICT systems, developed in-house
• Private company, focused solely on our clients, candidates and patients

This is Depression Awareness Week  - we support the work of the Depression Alliance

Grosvenor Nursing is a specialist agency in the A24 Group with a range of mental health support jobs nationwide: if you work or want to work in this sector please contact Grosvenor today www.grosvenor-nursing.com . Positions include: SPAN Special Practitioner Adult Nursing, SPMH Mental Health Nursing, SPCN Children’s Nursing, SPLD Learning Disabilities; SPGP General Practice; SCMH Community Mental Health; SCLD Community Learning Disabilities; SPCC Community Children’s nursing; SPOH Occupational Health; SPSN School Nursing; V100 Independent Nurse Prescribing; V200 Extended Nurse Prescribing; V300 Extended/Supplementary Prescribing; and LPE Lecturer/Practice Educator.

Therapeutic relationships

Mental ill health can be brought on by a crisis in life such as depression following the death of a partner. Depression is one of the range of conditions that come under the heading of mental ill health. There are also neuroses, psychoses, psychological and personality disorders.

Therapeutic relationships between the mental health nurse or HCA, those with mental ill health, and their families is crucial to successful mental health nursing. Helping people back to sound mental health can be every bit as valuable and satisfying as caring for those with a physical illness.

Core qualities and skills

The main tool as a mental health agency nurse will be the strength of your own personality and communication skills. Nurses and HCAs will need to empathise with the people with whom they are dealing and show warmth and to care about them. There is still some stigma attached to mental illness. Combating this and helping the individuals and their families deal with it is a key part of the job.

The danger of violence is often associated with this branch of nursing and one of the special skills required is to spot a build up of tension and be able to defuse it.

Diverse settings

Most mentally ill people are not cared for in hospital but in the community instead. You might be based in a community health care centre, or a day hospital and outpatients department or specialist unit. Working as a nurse, you will need to have an understanding of the theories of mental health and illness. You would work as part of a team which includes general practitioners, psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, occupational therapists, arts therapists and healthcare assistants.

Agency nurses and HCAs want local work – handy to get to by car or public transport. So how can you ensure that our agency consultants know the best locations for you?

The best way to ensure shifts are where you want is to update your Work Areas on A24 Connect. (Work Areas are the geographical locations where you are happy to travel to for shifts).

Agency consultants search for and offer candidates shifts according to the work areas they’ve chosen. If you are being offered work in areas where you don’t want to travel to, this may highlight an issue with the work areas selected. Likewise if you are not being offered much work it may be that you have a very limited work area chosen. Either way, it’s good to check and update the information as necessary.

So where are the best places for work right now?

Vacancy ‘hotspots’ currently include Scotland and Northern Ireland; the cities of Birmingham, Bristol, London, Newcastle, Portsmouth; as well as the counties of Essex, Surrey and Sussex.

The situation changes regularly of course. But you may want to check your local travel situation to see where you can get too easily – there are some travel web sites like tfl.gov.uk in London, where you can plan a route from your home to the place of work, check which transport to use – and even how long the journey will take. http://www.a24group.com

Patient safety requires that proven processes are in place for each healthcare activity and then following them. Then regularly auditing performance to ensure the process is followed correctly. And finally ensuring the necessary resources are in place to support the whole system.

This applies to recruiting and managing staff for any healthcare setting. In the A24 Group we’ve over 100 staff dedicated just to Compliance, to follow up all references and carry out background checks and confirm mandatory training is up to date.

It requires some 2,000+ phone calls daily to register agency workers, with an average of 30 calls to validate just one nurse’s application. Weekly the department uploads 24,000+ files to the specialist computer system (which required 100,000 hours of development time). The team sends 1,000+ emails and nearly 500 faxes weekly.

The whole process – from recruitment through to registration and selection of an agency worker for a shift, and monitoring of results and payments – is audited regularly. Any complaint or deviation from the process is analysed and assessed, and reported to at board level. This means that changes are made as soon as they are required.

Always, at the start and end of the process, the focus is on the safety and welfare of each patient that is in receipt of care by the doctors, nurses and HCAs that are registered with the agency.

Nursing agency jobs and HCA temporary posts are more in demand than ever before, following public sector cutbacks. This is particularly the case for qualified staff who want to work at the times and locations of their choice – says NSUK.

In 2013 work with a reputable nursing agency offers great opportunities for those nurses who want extra shifts and pay or choose to balance their work-life commitments because they have family dependents for example.

The NSUK – Nursing Services of the UK – offers the following advice for getting the most from nursing agency work and work providers:-

1) Register with several nursing agencies in one group: to increase the opportunities for work, qualified staff can register through the NSUK web site, just once, to work for eligibility for five different agencies in the A24 Group- visit Nursing Services of the UK

2) At registration, ensure you provide all the information that is required: NSUK provides a detailed list of documents to supply. The agency meets with all candidates locally to help them complete the registration process. Initial registration may be started on-line through the NSUK web site. Documents required include a completed CRB, as well as a detailed NSUK application form; and job references.

3) Keep your registrations current: once you are registered and have on-line access through A24 Connect, ensure annual certifications are up to date – such as for training and CRB. Also, update your ‘Work Areas’ in the A24 Connect job management system– the geographical locations to which you are happy to travel for shifts. Agency Consultants will search for and offer shifts according to the work areas you’ve chosen.

4) Are you a specialist nurse in ICU or PICU, or perhaps SCBU trained for example? There is high demand for specialist nurses in many regions. Current certificates are essential as proof of your speciality, so NSUK can match your qualifications with relevant work. Also, if you do specialist training on an annual basis in your permanent job – such as Ventilator, Tracheostomy, IV administration – please inform the agency.

5) Let the agency know when you are available to work: NSUK’s on-line web diary enables nurses and HCAs to confirm when they are ready for shifts. It’s worth updating the diary at least every week. Be flexible: if NSUK knows that you will accept work at short notice – or will work some evenings, weekends or Bank Holidays – then you will get more, higher-paying shifts

6) Stay in touch: find out which NSUK consultants deal with the area where you want to work. E-mail the names of the towns and hospitals. NSUK’s consultants are there to help, and when they get to know you and the type of work you want, it will increase work opportunities

7) Social Media: it’s worth registering for NSUK’s Facebook and Twitter pages so that you are up to date on agency news and job opportunities – you can see details too at the Nursing Services of the UK web site

8) Complaints: feedback is always welcome. Let NSUK know if there is anything with which you are unhappy or could be done differently – or issues you have in the workplace. Good agencies are grateful for feedback

9) Tell a friend: if you have nursing friends who are interested in agency work, then telling them about the agency is helpful for feedback and communication. Visit NSUK’s Facebook and click on ‘Like’ or visit the web address: www.NSUK.co.uk

10) Consider your career: are you looking for specific nursing jobs or types of work or experience? If you are, then do discuss this with your NSUK consultant, as the medical staffing agency may be able to help, if you meet the standards required by clients for relevant nurses’ jobs with healthcare service providers.

Contact:-

NSUK
http://www.nsofuk.com/
Tel: 0871 873 3380
Email: info@nsofuk.com

Address:
NSUK
Group House
92 – 96 Lind Road
Sutton
SM1 4PL

Each year around Christmas time the staff of A24 Group try to give something extra back to the community by getting involved in a worthy charitable cause in South Africa. This year we decided to have our very own “shoe box” project.

The idea of the project is to give each child of Bottelary Primary School in South Africa their very own gift from Santa as a lot of the children come from impoverished families that work on the farms in the nearby areas. Most of their parents are illiterate and are not always able to help the children with their school work and this is one of the biggest challenges that face the teachers of the primary school. The school already runs a feeding scheme, ensuring the children get at least one meal and one piece of fruit a day. When speaking to the teachers at the school they explained that many of the children only come to school for that daily meal. This just confirmed to us that helping brighten these children’s day by a small act is definitely the right thing to do.

We put the challenge to our staff to each bring two shoe boxes that are wrapped with Christmas paper. We also raised money from our employees for the items that have to go into the boxes. Firstly we bought things that they are in need of like hair bands and clips for the girls and beanies for the boys. We did not stop there however, we also bought things that would bring them a little bit of joy like sweets and small toys.

It took a team and our amazing organiser Tatum Houston to utilise all their resources and we have over 420 gifts by the end of the project – one for each child. We then loaded it all and delivered them at the school. Unfortunately we were not able to hand out the gifts personally to the children but the teachers assured us that they will hand it out that very day, especially since the children saw us drive up with a car filled with presents and their excitement increased exponentially.

We would like to thank all of our staff and employees who took part in this massive project for all their hard work, donations and dedication. Without them this would not have been possible.

For more information:

Tel:  0871 873 3309

Web:  www.a24group.com

Address:-
Group House
92 – 96 Lind Road
Sutton
Surrey, SM1 4PL
United Kingdom

View the photos on our Facebook Page.

The medical staffing specialists, A24 Group, have issued a guide on implementing the AWR (Agency Workers Regulations) for medical staff working on a temporary basis with the group’s nursing and locum agencies in the UK. For assignments after October 1st 2011 agency workers are entitled to the same basic working and employment conditions as directly employed staff with a comparable grade or role in the same organisation.

Some of these rights, referred to as ‘day one rights’, are immediate and are the responsibility of the hirer of agency staff. These rights cover access to ‘collective facilities and amenities’ and includes canteen, childcare and transport services, as well as a workplace crèche, washroom facilities, food and drinks machines and car parking.

Rights of access also include information on relevant internal vacancies so that qualifying agency workers have the same opportunity to apply as current employees. Staff from agencies should therefore be informed where and how to access details of all vacant positions. Agency staff who are in any doubt should consult the guidance notes or speak to A24 Group staffing agencies, says Penny Streeter OBE, managing director of A24 Group.

The agency group is advising temporary staff – and also working with healthcare service providers on how to manage any impact of the AWD legislation on their organisations, including hospitals, care homes, GP surgeries and other users of A24 Group’s locum doctors, agency nurses, AHPs and HCA healthcare assistant staff. Further information is at Agency Workers Regulations.

Longer term, the key principle in complying with the regulations, says Penny Streeter, is to ensure that all qualifying agency workers have the same employment conditions as directly employed full-time staff. After a qualifying period, agency workers are entitled to equal pay and employment conditions such as anti-social hour uplifts and paid holidays in excess of the current statutory minimum.

A24 Group is now issuing revised terms of business and advising clients on how to ensure minimal disruption and manage the transition to the new legislation. Employers of medical staff and agency workers with A24 Group can contact the group for further details.

For further information:

Email:  awr@a24group.com

Tel:  0871 873 3309

Web:  www.a24group.com

Address:-
Group House
92 – 96 Lind Road
Sutton
Surrey, SM1 4PL
United Kingdom

Locum doctor jobs are more in demand than ever before as NHS and private sector budgets tighten, particularly for doctors who want to work at a time and location of their choice, says locum agency Ambition 24Locums.

Working through one of the leading locum agencies still offers great opportunities for qualified doctors who want extra shifts and pay or to choose to work part-time for their work-life balance. Rates are up to £120 per hour (consultant, Bank Holiday rate) at Ambition 24Locums. The agency offers both NHS and private sector vacancies, and is an accredited ‘Buying Solutions’ supplier.

Ambition 24Locums offers this advice to GP and hospital locums in all specialisations:-

1) Register with more than one locum agency: to increase your opportunities for work, you can start the process of locum registration through Ambition and register just once to work for other selected agencies

2) At registration, ensure you provide all the information required, to complete the process as soon as possible: Ambition meets with all candidates locally for face-to-face interviews and to help them complete the registration process. Initial registration should be started on-line through the Ambition 24Locums web site. Documents required include: CRB certification; completion of a detailed agency application form; recent job references relevant to experience and proof of qualifications.

3) Keep your registrations current: once you have registered with the locum agencies, ensure that your annual certifications are up to date – whether for training, CRB or other requirements. Ambition can provide details of a range of on-line and classroom-based locum training courses required for work under the NHS Buying Solutions framework, at prices from £10.00 on-line

4) Are you a specialist? In addition to the general requirements for GP and hospital doctors, there is a continuing need for a range of specialisations: Accident & Emergency, Anaesthetics, Dental, General Medicine Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Paediatrics, Pathology, Psychiatry, Radiology, and Surgical staff. Current certificates are essential as proof of your speciality, so Ambition can match your qualifications with relevant work. Also, if you do additional specialist training on an annual basis in your permanent job, then please inform the agency.

5) Let the agency know when you are free to work: Ambition’s on-line web diary enables medical staff to confirm when they are available. It’s worth updating the diary at least weekly. Be flexible: if Ambition knows that you will accept work at short notice – or that you will work some evenings, weekends or Bank Holidays – you are more likely to receive more, higher-paying shifts

6) Stay in touch: find out which Ambition consultants deal with the location where you want to work. It’s helpful to e-mail the names of the towns and hospitals so that Ambition’s staff can help – and when they get to know you and the type of work you want, it will increase work opportunities

7) Social Media: it’s worth registering for Ambition’s Facebook and Twitter pages so that you are up to date on the latest agency news and job opportunities

8) Feedback is always welcome. Let the agency know if there is anything with which you are unhappy or that could be done differently – or other issues you have in the workplace. Good locum agencies are grateful for feedback

9) Tell a friend: if you have friends who are interested in medical staffing work, then telling them about the agency is often helpful. Visit Ambition’s Facebook and click on ‘Like’ or email the web address: www.a24locum.co.uk

10) Consider your career: are you looking for specific types of work or experience? If you are, do discuss this with your Ambition consultant, as the agency may be able to help, if you meet the client requirements for relevant shifts

For further information contact us:-

Ambition 24Locums
Group House, 92 – 96 Lind Road
Sutton
Surrey
SM1 4PL

Tel: 0871 873 3300
Email: info@a24locums.co.uk

Visit our Facebook Page or follow us on Twitter

In July 2011 Mayfair Specialist Nurses is recruiting Cardiothoracic nurses. Amongst the leading UK nursing agencies, Mayfair specialises in a wide range of nurses jobs including ITU, HDU, CCU Coronary Care Unit/ Cardiac, Theatre, ODP, Paediatrics, PICU, SCBU, NICU, Renal/Dialysis, A&E, Acute Medical, Surgical, Midwives and Dental staff.

For further information please register your details on-line in the first instance at www.mayfair-nurses.com. You can also visit our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter.

Mayfair runs a range of annual training courses for its registered agency nurses at prices from just £10.00 for on-line web learning. Nurses training includes: Basic Life Support, Manual Handling, Fire Safety, Health and Safety (1974 and 1999 Acts) including Risk Incident Reporting, COSHH, RIDDOR, Infection Control, Lone worker, Handling of Violence and Aggression, Food Safety, Information Governance, Data Protection & Caldicott and POVA.

Mayfair was formed in 1998 to engage Cardiothoracic and other specialist healthcare staff for their individual professional skills and experience. Mayfair specialises in understanding the specific staffing requirements of each healthcare service provider and then matching the brief from the available skills and knowledge of the medical staff who are registered with the UK nursing agencies in the group.

Service features for Cardiothoracic and other medical staff, says director Adam Streeter, include identifying the right assignment for the professional concerned to ensure work needs and choices are met consistently, in every placement. Professional and personal support is provided so that, as one of the leading UK nursing agencies, Mayfair can ensure each assignment is the right choice for the nurse and the client concerned.

Mayfair has Cardiothoracic nurses jobs in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland – including Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Coventry, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Leicester; Liverpool, London, Manchester, Nottingham, Sheffield, Sunderland and Wakefield.

Register with Mayfair for all nursing agency jobs specialisations in addition to Cardiothoracic – the range includes ITU, HDU, CCU/Cardiac, Theatre, ODP, Paediatrics, PICU, SCBU, NICU, Renal/Dialysis, A&E, Acute Medical, Surgical, Midwives and Dental staff.