Staff at Oxfordshire's major hospitals will be invited to swap jobs in the latest bid to cut vacancies.

Nurses working at the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, who are tempted to try something new within the health service, will be able to turn to a Job Swap Shop for help.

The £20,000 initiative will allow people working at Oxford's John Radcliffe, Churchill and Radcliffe Infirmary, and The Horton, Banbury, to experience different roles without leaving the trust.

News of the project comes days after the Oxford Mail revealed that nursing vacancy rates at the ORH were the lowest they had been since 1999.

Human resources director Helen Munro said retaining staff was now a priority.

Because the ORH was such a large trust it could offer staff a range of jobs in different specialities.

She said: "For us, it's better to be transparent about it and rather than people leaving the organisation they can try something else with us.

"Rather than losing people, we try to retain them and give them every opportunity to do what they want."

Managers are setting up the swap shop as part of a careers centre being built at the Churchill Hospital, in Headington. The new centre will be launched in the summer.

It has been given £20,000 from the Thames Valley Workforce Development Confederation, the organisation which co-ordinates staff recruitment within Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire.

The swap shop has been given support by nurses' union the Royal College of Nursing.

Maura Buchanan, RCN deputy president and a sister at the JR, said: "We're bringing people into the trust, but the important thing is keeping them here.

"This swap shop is a very positive move, and recognition that the issue isn't just recruitment."

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