MORE than 200 nurses and midwives will gather at the John Radcliffe Hospital tomorrow for a special event to celebrate the work they do.

Tying in with International Nurses Day on Sunday, it will celebrate excellence in practice and will feature speeches from nurses at all levels on their particular area of expertise, including topics as varied as medication safety and end of life care.

Chief Nurse for the trust, Sam Foster, said: “I’m really looking forward to celebrating International Nurses and Midwives day in our trust.

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“Every year it’s a wonderful opportunity to celebrate excellence in practice and congratulate our nurses.

“They’re incredibly dedicated to our patients, and I’m so proud to be the chief nursing officer for the trust.”

She added: "We have some incredibly well-respected nurses working in our hospitals, and they’re all incredibly generous in sharing their time and expertise with us.”

Oxford's hospitals have struggled to recruit enough nurses and midwives in the last few years, with OUH recording a 'significant rise' in the number of those, particularly EU nurses, quitting their posts in March.

In an effort to tackle the high turnover rates the trust has been carrying an international recruitment drive with 15 new nurses coming in from India each month.