South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust's (SWFT) Education, Learning and Workforce Development Team has been shortlisted as a finalist in the Nursing Times Workforce Awards 2024 for their "Explore Nursing" challenge badge for Girl Guides.
Created to attract and recruit future nurses, the project has earned a spot in the "Best Recruitment Experience" category.
The "Explore Nursing" challenge offers a variety of interactive and educational tasks designed to spark curiosity about nursing. Five groups from Coventry and Warwickshire have completed the challenge, which includes fun and educational activities about General Nursing Knowledge, First Aid, Nursing Care, Nursing Skills, and the Qualities of a Nurse.
As the first group to complete the challenge, Kineton Girlguides collaborated with SWFT’s Learning and Workforce Development Team on the badge design, with the final design receiving funding from SWFT Charity to produce the badge for pilot groups.
Feedback has shown a positive increase in participants considering nursing as a future career. The next steps include piloting the 'Explore Nursing' challenge badge with Scouts and making it available to school careers advisors.
Jane Aston, Project Lead for SWFT, said: "Nurse recruitment begins with an innate desire to help, make a difference and be able to problem solve. Nurses have inbuilt superpowers, and it is our job to make young people see theirs and spark that desire to enter into a life-changing, worthwhile and rewarding career whilst working through this exciting, diverse and interactive challenge badge."