We are returning nurses’ campaign wins prestigious awards

Health Education England’s (HEE) campaign to encourage more nurses to return to practice scooped four awards at the Data and Marketing Association (DMA) Awards.

The DMA Awards celebrate the very best in marketing and campaigning across the private and public sector. Recognising result driven and money saving campaigns.

Run by Health Careers and HEE’s return to practice team, ‘We are returning nurses’ won gold awards for Best Public Sector, Best Business 2 Consumer and Best Customer Journey. It also picked up a bronze award for Best Moving Image and Audio.

The campaign, which included a partnership with Mumsnet, led to estimated savings of £500,000 in NHS recruitment costs. The campaign was led by real stories of current “returners” told through relatable and inspiring films, empowering people to remember their own nursing experiences and create applications to return to nursing.

Ian Cumming, Chief Executive, Health Education England said

It is fantastic that HEE’s work to encourage nurses to return to practice has been recognised through these awards.

The “We are returning nurses” campaign is inspiring nurses to return to the NHS by making clear the opportunities and support available to build rewarding, lifelong careers, and is helping to ensure that we have more nurses giving the high quality care patients deserve.”

The Mumsnet campaign saw over 26,000 visits to the campaign information with a further 13,000 visiting the Health Careers website (a 305% increase compared to the same period for the previous year).

Over 886 people signed up to the campaign with 133 of those telling us they applied for a return to practice programme.

Find out more about the award winners on the DMA awards website.

For more information on returning to nursing https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/explore-roles/nursing/returning-nursing