 Will the chamber please do so quickly and quietly? The next item, the final item of business, is a members business debate on motion 4202 in the name of Jackie Baillie on Celebrating Nurses on International Nurses Day. The debate will be concluded without any questions being put, and I would ask those members who would wish to speak in the debate to please press the request to speak buttons now. I call on Jackie Baillie to open the debate up to seven minutes, please, Ms Baillie. Thank you very much Presiding Officer. I'm grateful for the opportunity to bring forward this debate on International Nurses Day. The importance of our hard-working nursing staff cannot be understated, particularly so over the last two years. They have been at the front line of the global pandemic, acting selflessly to provide essential healthcare in the most difficult of circumstances. It is fitting that this day is celebrated on Florence Nightingale's birthday, a nurse who showed similar strength, compassion and commitment. To our nurses, from the retired to the newly qualified, from palliative care to pediatrics, we take this opportunity to say thank you. However, it is not enough to stand here today to thank you or indeed to clap on our doorsteps each week. Nurses are experiencing unprecedented levels of burnout and there are record numbers leaving the profession. Vacancies are also skyrocketing. Nursing staff are reporting increasing concerns around a lack of flexible working, a lack of effective workforce planning and expressing disappointment that the health and care staffing act is not yet implemented. I recently attended an RCN round table and met nurses from across Scotland to hear some of their concerns, and the cabinet secretary was there too. Hilary Nelson, a 4th valley ICU nurse, explained how difficult it is for staff to come to work every day, knowing already that their wards are understaffed. Nursing in midwifery vacancies in NHS Scotland reached a record high of 9.3 per cent, according to the latest workforce statistics published on 1 March 2022. That is 6,674 vacant poos. We know that the work that nurses do is not easy, but this work has made yet more difficult by staffing shortages that force one nurse to do the work of many. That is unfair and unsafe for staff and patients alike. The Royal College of Nursing has repeatedly called to the Scottish Government to increase investment in the workforce and respond to those record high vacancy rates at the same time as implementing the Government's own safe staffing legislation. The Health and Care Staffing Scotland Act was passed by this Parliament in 2019, but we are still no closer to seeing the act being implemented. Whilst the Scottish Government delays any meaningful action, nurses like Hilary remain overburdened and understaffed. The Government says that they value nurses, and I believe that they do. NHS staff, nurses deserve action, not just words. With more and more people leaving the profession, not enough work is being done to replace the ageing workforce. The RCN has identified high levels of forced retirement of nurses in their 50s, causing already overstretched staff to take on extra workloads. Many of those nurses, such as Joanna Maloney, who was a senior nurse in mental health, would have stayed in their jobs if they offered flexible working, but no one was interested in retaining her skills and experience, a loss to the profession. We need to therefore tackle recruitment and retention. I know that the Government talks about having more nurses than ever before, and that is probably true, but there is no mention about the fact that there are more patients being treated or more pressure on the system and that the capacity is truly stretched. We need to see a commitment to increasing the number of nursing student places in line with workforce modelling rather than simply affordability, as well as the urgent implementation of the Health and Care Staffing Scotland Act 2019 to allow our NHS to function well. Let me give you an example. In Scotland, the ratio of specialist cancer nurses, whole-time equivalent to cancer incidents, is lower than in England for most tumour types. It is crucial that the current Scottish Government consultation on workforce ensures that the cancer nurse workforce is fit for purpose for the constantly rising cancer incidents in Scotland that comes with an ageing population. Further, the overall number of stoma nurse specialists across Scotland has declined by a staggering 50 per cent over the last 10 years, despite the number of patients with a stoma increasing by 1 per annum to 2 per annum. Patients with a stoma rely heavily on the in-depth knowledge of those specialist nurses and health boards should provide the resources that are needed to support this vulnerable group of patients and to support nurse specialists. It is hard to recruit new nurses when the level of pay on offer does not reflect the demands of the job. In fact, there has been a real terms pay cut over several years. Shirley Robertson, a school nurse, spoke passionately to us about the effects of low pay when we met earlier this year, along with the cabinet secretary. We all know that the cost of living crisis is here. It is here now. However, this year's NHS pay award is five weeks, six days and 17 hours overdue, and we are still counting. Nursing staff are waiting for the Scottish Government to act. Those delays come after the years of under-investment from the Scottish Government. To continue to withhold fair pay, particularly after the events of the pandemic, is, frankly, insulting. In response to that, I am sure that the Scottish Government will argue that, on average, nurses in Scotland are slightly better paid than staff elsewhere in the UK. Let me tell you the reality of this. The reality is that the difference is meager. It is about £8.60 a week for a newly qualified registered nurse. That is then offset by higher taxes paid by those working in Scotland. In recent years, pay for nurses has simply failed to rise in line with inflation. It is therefore no surprise that among the six in 10 nursing staff, thinking of leaving their jobs, 54 per cent cite low pay as one of the main reasons for wanting to leave. Our nurses love their jobs, but they are being asked to work long hours for low pay, often doing the job of two people for the price of one. Nurses and NHS staff were there for all of us over the last two years. Now is the time to acknowledge that work. In the meantime, we must continue to support and boost our nursing staff in any way that we can. I am delighted that, today, the RCN has launched the inaugural RCN Scotland Nurse of the Year awards, which will take place on St Andrew's night later this year. Those awards will shine a spotlight on the best of nursing and will highlight and celebrate the dedication and outstanding professional care of nursing staff across Scotland. MSPs can nominate constituents, and I would encourage all of my colleagues to do so, but let me finish by once again thanking nurses for the work that they have done and continue to do. I certainly and I know my party will continue to fight for better pay and working conditions alongside the RCN, unison and all health service trade unions, because I understand that kind words and tokens of gratitude do not pay the bills. On this International Nurses Day, I am reminded of a trade union rallying cry. What do we want? Fair pay. When do we want it? Now. Emma Harper will be joining us remotely up to four minutes, please, Ms Harper. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I thank Jackie Baillie on securing this debate and for her contribution this evening. I remind members that I am a registered nurse and I was able to practice as a Covid vaccinator over the past two years. I thank the RCN for its two very helpful briefings ahead of the debate, one for the SNP and one for the Opposition. The theme today for International Nurses Day 2022 from the International Council of Nurses, the ICN, is nurses a voice to lead, invest in nursing and respect the rights to secure global health. My contribution will focus on my amendment and I thank colleagues who have supported it. My amendment intends to celebrate the immense contribution of nurses to value nursing as a highly skilled, highly varied profession and to note the progress that has been made to support the nursing workforce here in Scotland, especially the last two years during the global Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic has definitely had an impact on the mental health of all in our healthcare workforce, including nurses, and I welcome the Scottish Government's action to address that. Nurses work in a variety of areas, including adults, children, learning disability, mental health, maternity, perioperative—that was my job when I was working as a nurse—resuscitation, diabetes, cardiac, as well as expert cancer care, as the Macmillan briefing that we received noted also. Nurses make up the largest single profession in our NHS and are at the heart of the health service. The diversity of jobs in nursing is demonstrated through their work in our hospitals, in GP practices, in homes and care homes, as well as for schools and communities across the country. Nurses in Scotland have some of the most advanced clinical skills of nurses anywhere in the world, and we are leading the way. I can go through the whole of this ICN report, but according to the ICN, there are huge benefits in investing in nurse education. ICN states that they need to meet the changing health needs and rising expectations of individuals and communities. For example, in Scotland, nurses led education to patients on the management of conditions such as diabetes, medications, prevention of ill health. It plays a hugely important role in promoting the positive health and wellbeing of the nation. However, nursing skills in Scotland are not replicated across the globe. We should therefore be celebrating the competency of our nursing workforce here in Scotland and use that competency as evidence to improve healthcare systems internationally. As co-convener of the Lung Health Cross-Party Group, I joined the recently created international coalition of respiratory nurses, the ICRN. It was initiated by Andrecha Sanjnick. She is a specialist respiratory nurse from Croatia. ICRN has political support from Siljana Zovko MEP. She is the co-convener of the Lung Health Cross-Party Group in the European Parliament. We are proposing to work together to look at Lung Health across Europe and across the globe. ICRN is a global coalition aiming to promote best practice for respiratory education for nurses. As we celebrate IND, I recognise workforce challenges. I welcome the steps that the Scottish Government is taking to address workforce recruitment and retention challenges. Scotland has a £10,000 per year bursary for nursing students. We are ensuring that nurses receive the best and fairest pay deal with nurses in Scotland being on average the highest paid in the UK. The Scottish Government's nurse and vision to 2030 is welcome and shares many of the points from the world health organisations, the other global strategy for the direction of nursing and midwifery, the WHO strategy aims to ensure that nursing is better understood by the public, increase nursing's appeal as a career option, retain a focus on supporting people who experience periods of acute ill health and promote prevention and tackling inequalities. As the Cabinet Secretary for Commitment that those will be built on, this is a day to celebrate. It is a day to be cheerleaders for our nurses. It is a day to thank nurses across the globe for all that they do on this day, International Nurses Day. I will be a man's statement to say that the topic of the NHS has been somewhat of a current theme in the chamber of late. The pandemic has thrown into sharp focus the exchange for which the people of Scotland and indeed the whole of the United Kingdom have relied on our health service to uphold our way of life. On today's nurses day, we pay tribute to a vital section of the health service without quakes for the entire operation which comes from grinding heart. The Army of Nurses and the NHS work tirelessly day and night to ensure that the patients in their charge are given the care they need. On a personal note, I have many experiences of the years in hospitals, both for myself and loved ones. In every case, the nurses have not only provided top-class care but have also been a calm and bedside presence. However, in reality, they are under vast amounts of pressure. On Monday night, my father was taken in to hospital. In the early hours of the morning, the nurses and doctors looked after him in a superb way, but there were too few of them. They were under too much pressure. We need to address the shortage of nurses quickly and efficiently. However, I want to add my personal thanks, as well as those from the chamber, to all our nurses and to thank them for the work that we are doing. Looking forward to the main issues that I have already said for me is the number of nurses that we have. There can be no doubt that Scotland is going through a difficult period when you look at the staffing numbers in nursing. Again, as Jackie Baill said, the Scottish Government will say that there are more nurses, but there are also more patients and people requiring healthcare. However, I define some encouraging news when I visited Naples University in Edinburgh just a few weeks ago. I understand that they are hoping to take in 2,000 at first-year students to study nursing in September. The facilities and training that we will get at the university are excellent. If anyone wants a good trip, I would recommend going to the university to see how the nurses are taught and learned on amazing equipment. We can be proud of those that we will qualify in the next few years. However, the question is, will they stay here in Scotland or will they go and work in other parts of the United Kingdom and other parts of the world? We need not only to train nurses, but we need to make sure that they stay within NHS Scotland. Finally, I want to make special mention, as I always have, of cancer nurses. We all know that cancer numbers in Scotland are going up, with Macmillan estimating that 110 people will be diagnosed per day by 2027. Macmillan in the recommendations assume that the Government's upcoming cancer strategy must ensure that specialist cancer nurses are made available to every cancer patient who needs one, making sure that people who are receiving care are needed. That is a big ask, but one that I would hope that the Government will continue to support and that even the Cabinet Secretary will confirm that tonight. We need our universities like Napier to bring in the truth and training, but we also need the Government to make the future brighter for those who have cancer. We need to make sure that it continues to be an amazing field of nursing across the whole of our country. In conclusion, Deputy Presiding Officer, thank you to our nurses. Thank you for what you do, often unseen day in, day out. We appreciate, we respect you, and we thank you for what you do. I thank Jackie Baillian Emma Harper for her opening contribution to the debate. The nursing experience that Emma Harper brings to the debate is extremely welcome and underlined in both her contribution today and in the amendment in her name. It has helped to ensure that the full objective set out for international nurses day is achieved and supported by this Parliament. International nurses day is overseen by the International Nurses Council and the 12th of May is a chosen date, as this is Florence Nightingale's birthday. The Lady of the lamp is possibly one of the most famous nurses in the world and, although her most well-known achievements are associated with her work with soldiers in the aftermath of the Crimean War, she was a pioneering medical educator. As Emma Harper points out, we also take inspiration from Lisa Jordan, a Scottish nurse who showed such compassionate bravery caring for soldiers during the First World War, losing her life when doing so at only 36 years of age. International nurses day is a chance to celebrate the best of nursing and thank staff for working in health and social care for all that they do. This year's theme is nurses a voice to lead, invest in nursing and respect rights to ensure global health. That could not be more pertinent in the face of the on-going global pandemic of Covid-19. Nurses have been at the front line across the world fighting against an invisible, relentless foe that has tragically killed over 6 million people. Nurses in the backbone of the NHS and social care, we know how dedicated, caring and compassionate this profession was when we especially needed them. In some cases, they were the only human contact available to those who tragically lost their lives to the pandemic. This must have been, among many other things, and a mostly draining time for nurses. I can relate to this enormously difficult situation. For my time, it is part of the nursing team at the Samargot Scotland hospital in Clydebank. To nurse someone at the end of their life is a privilege, but it is also challenging and can impact on a nurse's health and wellbeing. On International Nurses Day, as well as celebrating the work of nurses across Scotland, on behalf of those that I represent, I pay tribute to every single one of the nursing team at the Samargot Scotland hospital in the heart of my constituency. I know how much love, support and care those nurses have given to my constituents and families. I have experienced it myself with the death of my mother at the hospital. It is a time of greatest need. I am proud to have worked there and such a centre of excellence and compassion. In my constituency, I also want to thank the Royal College of Nursing Scotland for their briefings. I agree with them that this debate is a chance to celebrate the best of nursing and ensure our appreciation. I also agree that saying thanks is not enough. We must continue to work hard to provide the best possible terms and conditions for our nurses and we also support efforts to ensure that more progress has been made regarding nurses' vacancies. I am pleased that the Royal College of Nursing Scotland is using International Nurses Day to launch her nurse of the year awards. It is an excellent way to recognise and celebrate the dedication and outstanding professional care of nurses across Scotland. This has been a very welcome debate that allows the Parliament to further acknowledge the importance of our nurses and we highlight the sacrifices that we have been working through, such as turbulent times in modern medicine. We must also rejoice in the dedication of our nurses, also so determined to play the part of medicine over 12 million Covid-19 vaccinations across Scotland. I thank all nurses in my constituency and across the world for everything that they have done and continue to do. We owe them so much. I now call Carol Mocken to be followed by Collette Stevenson up to four minutes, please. I thank my colleague Jackie Baillie for bringing this important debate to the chamber and I, too, welcome International Nurses Day, marked as mentioned on the anniversary of the birthday of Florence Nightingale. The debate tonight offers us the opportunity to commend the work of our nurses, highlight the impact that they have had on our society and to pay tribute to them for the work that they carried out throughout the pandemic. Our nurses are the best of our country and I will touch more on that further along in my speech. However, Deputy Presiding Officer, what we have in Scotland is a situation where nurses feel undervalued, overworked and underpaid. They feel as though the pressures of the workplace have become too much during the pandemic, with vacancies not being filled, agency staff being used more often than normal and staff shortages, meaning that others have to double, sometimes treble their workload. It would therefore simply be wrong of us this evening to debate this motion without highlighting the clear and fundamental changes that challenges facing nurses and nursing more widely. The Scottish Government, as on many issues, certainly talks a good game, but when it comes to action, it does fall short. I have spoken to many constituents in my region of South Scotland, and they tell me time and again that the challenges facing our hospitals and care settings are like none that they have ever seen before. It is right that the pandemic has exacerbated many problems. I think that it is really important what you are highlighting, and I think that it is really important that we debate it. It is difficult to do it when we get allotted four minutes. I think that it is worth reflecting on as well. Thank you for the intervention. Of course, it is difficult in four minutes, but it is important that we address it and at least acknowledge to the nurses how important we see that issue. I hope that the cabinet secretary will address some of that in his remarks. It is right that the pandemic has exacerbated many problems, but it did not create them. They were created due to consistent mismanagement of our health service by consecutive health secretaries in the Scottish Government. However, all is not lost with the right investment in nursing, including increasing their pay and conducting public awareness schemes to encourage people to join the profession as part of the implementation of the health and care staffing Scotland Act 2019, as we have heard. We could relieve some of that stress and pressure on the current workforce force and show them the value that they truly deserve. I say to the cabinet secretary that Scottish Labour does stand ready to support positive change from the Scottish Government if it shows political will to bring it forward. Our nurses deserve to be celebrated, they work day in, day out to provide the highest standard of care to patients in different settings up and down the country, and it is right that they are recognised with accolades and awards. Indeed, each and every one of them deserve an accolade and award for their work over the past two years, but they need more, they need action from the Government. I looked to the nurses in Ayrshire and across south of Scotland and considered the tremendous efforts that they have put into providers with much need at this very difficult time. I think of the mental health nurses across the country who are also under significant workplace pressures working to reduce lengthy waiting lists, but still providing high-quality services. Before I conclude, Deputy Presiding Officer, though, I suggested in the motion I want to share my personal story, and it is of a dear lifelong friend who has worked tirelessly in my own local community. Training in a small local hospital, which I am sure she would not wish me to remind her how long ago it was, the local hospital Balochmae hospital is now closed, but the bulk of her care was to work in the community. My friend, Hilary Sharp, has demonstrated the best of nursing, the best of the profession. Despite pressures at work, she is always kind, caring and committed to her patients. I think that a great tribute to her is that her daughter, Jennifer Sharp, has now started a nursing degree at Aberdeen, and I cannot tell you how proud the family are of that, and quite rightly so. The dedication of our country to the NHS is often shown in generations of family members committed to a lifelong career in caring for others. Deputy Presiding Officer, it is without doubt that nursing in Scotland faces pressure, but we must celebrate them tonight. I now call Collette Stevenson to be followed by Julian Mackay up to four minutes. I want to congratulate Jackie Baillie on securing this debate, and I am glad to speak in it. It is great to have the chance to reflect and celebrate the contribution that nursing staff make to people's lives and thank those working in health and social care across my constituency of East Kilbride, as well as across the country for all that they do, particularly over the course of the pandemic. Nurses have been working together to deliver care under the most extreme and challenging circumstances, setting up new ways of working in response to changing demands, or maintaining staffing and equipment levels to deliver on-going and essential services. It is always interesting to hear about members' backgrounds, which we would not hear about otherwise than in members' business debates. I also commend Emma Harper for going forward as a community champion to deliver those vaccination roll-outs. Every single one of them were true heroes. May 12 was chosen as the day on which to celebrate International Nurses Day, because it is the birthday of Florence Nightingale. Florence is undoubtedly one of the most famous nurses and has earned her place in the history books. She modernised the approach to care during the Victorian Age and was instrumental in improving care with mathematical science and statistical analysis. She noted the importance of hygiene, diet and ventilation, which is all very much relevant today. Emma Harper's amendment to the motion that we are discussing today rightly recognises that Scotland takes inspiration from Louisa Jordan, a Scottish nurse who had a prominent role during the First World War. Interestingly, at the last time there was a member's debate on this subject was in 2017. There was no mention at all of Louisa Jordan in that date back in 2017, unlike today. Each year, the International Council of Nurses celebrates Nurses Day by focusing on a specific theme. As we have heard this year, the theme is nurses, a voice to lead, invest in nursing and respect rights to secure global health. The focus is on the need to protect, support and invest in the nursing profession to strengthen health systems around the world. The pandemic has drawn our attention to the vulnerabilities of our health systems that have been laid bare by the pandemic. Being recognised, appreciated and valued is important for nurses around the world. NHS Lanarkshire, having recent months, put together short videos highlighting the hostility staff have unfortunately faced in recent months. The videos draw attention to wider reports that staff and partners continue to experience violence and aggression from a minority. With the short clips ending with, please be kind. Hospital staff are still under a great deal of pressure and should not face any abuse or threats. That should go unsaid. Without the nursing profession, the NHS would be unable to offer the high-quality healthcare that it provides day in and day out. We owe them our thanks for all that they do. Their dedication and professionalism is inspiring. I would wish to advise that, due to the number of members who wish to speak in this debate, I am minded to accept a motion without notice under rule 8.14.3 to extend the debate by up to 30 minutes. I now invite Jackie Baillie to move a motion without notice. The question is that the debate be extended by up to 30 minutes. Are we all agreed? We are all agreed. I now call Gillian Mackay, followed by Alex Cole-Hamilton, up to four minutes, please, Ms Mackay. I, too, would like to thank Jackie Baillie for bringing forward this important debate. It has become almost cliché now to acknowledge the impact that the pandemic has had on our public services and the country more widely, but nowhere are the impacts of Covid-19 more evident than the toll it has taken on our health and care system over the past few years. When the pandemic was at its most precarious, when most of us were asked to stay home to protect ourselves at our loved ones and the NHS, when there were no vaccines or recognised therapeutics developed yet, our nurses and healthcare workers were on the front line, risking their own health and wellbeing to ensure that many thousands of those who were hospitalised with Covid and, indeed, other illnesses were treated and in the most challenging of circumstances. Personally, I would like to thank nurses at 4th Valley Royal Hospital for the support loved ones received over the pandemic. Without nurses in the stroke ward, mum would not have been able to have those last few phone calls with us. Without the phenomenal district nurses in Grangemouth, Grandpa probably would have ended up in hospital far earlier than he did. Nursing staff allowed us to stay with mum for as long as we needed, making sure that we had what we needed. Our story is not unique and these experiences are repeated across the country, from those who went above and beyond, from school nurses to ICU nurses and back. Though it is only fair to recognise nurses for all the great work that they do, we must also recognise the circumstances in which nurses find themselves now. Recent NHS workforce vacancy statistics published in March of this year show the continued trend of rising vacancies in our NHS, emphasising the need to refocus on retaining and recruiting staff. NHS Lanarkshire alone is experiencing a high rate of 10 per cent of vacancies of available posts. The Royal College of Nursing is also relayed that 61 per cent of nursing staff in Scotland are thinking about leaving their current posts according to the workforce survey. Those numerical factors alone underline the need for support to ensure that those within the profession are supported to continue within their role. The NHS in Scotland continues to be under significant strain as we begin to emerge from the worst of the pandemic and the approach is necessary to ensure that existing staff are retained and that recruitment is significantly stepped up to fill vacancies. Workforce planning remains central to providing long-term effective healthcare and the Scottish Government must consider its approach in light of recent publications. After all, the NHS has done for us over the past two years of the pandemic. It is vital that we build back a system where nurses feel valued and their safety and wellbeing is a priority. While I am proud of some of the measures that my party has helped to deliver over the past few years, such as creating a legal duty on the Scottish Government to ensure appropriate NHS staffing levels, I would like to join the RCN's calls and hope that the Cabinet Secretary might be able to lay out a timetable for the Government to implement that bill. The Scottish Greens have also helped to ensure that all nurses have the legal right to funded continuous professional development. We still have great strides to make to ensure that nursing is a long-term occupation for those who enter the profession, but those are tangible steps towards progress. It is also mentioned that nursing is not a singular bloc of professionals but people who split across many various and specialised areas. Recognition of mental health needs across Scotland and the historic lack of recognition have become much more focused in the public eye as a result of the pandemic. The successive lockdowns that are necessary for public health exacerbate existing mental health conditions and continuity for those who receive treatment is essential. A recovery response to the growth and acknowledgement of mental health conditions caused by Covid-19 needs to take a holistic approach that addresses the wider social, systematic and structural inequalities of health and wider society rather than entirely placing the onus on the individual. I would like to point out that this nursing day is about celebrating all that nurses do and about thanking them for everything that they do. On behalf of all nurses I have done for my family and I am sure that the families of countless others in this chamber and that I have gone above and beyond to deliver for constituents in my central Scotland region, I want to thank you for all the enduring support that you provide. Thank you, Ms Mackay. I now call Alex Cole-Hamilton. We call her by Stephanie Callerhan, who will be the last speaker in the open debate. Up to four minutes please, Mr Cole-Hamilton. Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. I start by thanking my friend Jackie Baillie for tabling this debate and the Royal College of Nurses for the tireless work that they do in representing their profession. As Jackie said at the top of this debate, we celebrate International Nursing Day on the anniversary of Florence Nightingale's birth, a truly remarkable pioneer. However, it is her contemporary and fellow nurse, Mary Seacole, who is not often talked about enough. She was born to a Jamaican mother and Scottish father. She often talked affectionately about her Scottish heritage. Like Nightingale, she nursed her way throughout the Crimean War. However, unlike the Lady of the Lamp, she was shunned from the British Army. She instead established her own hospital where she provided help to countless British soldiers and was the only person to do so right on the front line. Determined to care for those who needed it, she said that I can ask no greater or higher privilege than to administer it. That sentiment encapsulates the heart and the character of nurses everywhere. Seacole spoke openly about the racial discrimination that she faced. Indeed, it is widely believed that such prejudice means even today that she does not get the recognition that she deserves. In a parallel sense, I would like to note that it was disconcerting to read in the RCN workforce report the variation in the treatment and experiences of nurses dependent on ethnicity. As has been made blisteringly clear time and time again and has been stated many times eloquently in this debate, we owe an enormous debt to our nurses, so why is it that this debt remains so poorly serviced? A record 9 per cent of registered nursing posts are still unfilled. That is having devastating impact on workload and wellbeing. An astonishing 70 per cent of nurses feel undervalued, while almost half feel unable to give patients the right level of care. One nurse practitioner admitted that they always enjoyed the job and found it rewarding, but now it feels like we are sinking in quicksand with no way out. Jackie Baillie and I attended a round table with nurses hosted by the RCN, and we heard many such stories. It is appalling that this is the experience of a single nurse in this country, yet alone as a report suggests a commonplace one. Despite this, nurses continue to go above and beyond in the face of the inordinate pressure that they come under. I was particularly struck with this by nurses in my constituency in January due to mismanagement. We have talked about this several times in this place, leading to numerous nurses being unable to park at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh. Nurses were telling me that they were sacrificing the little sleep that they did get to wake up hours earlier than they usually do just to make it on time for their shifts. This is one of countless stories that demonstrates the difficulties nurses face and are being compounded by decisions being made by management. This Government is presiding over what will soon be, if we do not act fast, the disintegration of one of the most important workforces in our health service. There is so much more that they can and should be doing. The Government, for example, needs to set out a clear and urgent timetable for the safe staffing of the aspect of the 2019 act to be activated. The legislation has existed for three years, but it is still yet not being utilised properly. All the while staff and patients are left unsafe on the shifts that they are asked to deliver. The Government may have pledged £12 million for staff wellbeing, but we are yet to see a viable plan as to how such investment is being implemented into tangible and accessible support for staff. Instead, our plan of a burnout prevention strategy has been routinely dismissed by the Cabinet and Government benches. Meanwhile, more nurses are being pushed away from the job that they love and more patients risk losing out. I would like to end on a quote by the ineffable Maya Angelou, who said that, if you can find it in your heart to care for somebody else, then you have succeeded. Presiding Officer, if that is the metric of success, then nurses succeed tenfold every day. It is about time that we as politicians start recognising this success with more than just words. I thank Jackie Baillie and Emma Harper for today's motion and amendment. I agree that this is a day for celebration, to celebrate the dedication, kindness and passion of nurses in Scotland and beyond. Nurses are people who keep the health service going, no matter what happens. They deserve our recognition and our thanks, and they need our commitment to their future because that safeguards our futures too. My colleagues have spoken about the very important challenges and pressures that nurses and staff face in the NHS, so I will not repeat a lot of those here, but it is suffice to say that the pandemic has been extremely hard on nurses and other health professionals in their role. The role is going to be really vital as we recover from the pandemic, especially with Brexit making it harder to attract overseas passion, and this is a profession that is constantly evolving and really needs to attract more talent. However, today should not be about political disagreement because our nurses really do deserve to be celebrated. Instead, I want to talk about what makes a great nurse and why it is such a brilliant profession to join. Earlier today, I spoke with Rosalind Kerr, a Hamilton lass who is filled with kindness and compassion. Ross and her sisters, Aileen and Jeane, have dedicated their careers to the NHS and have recently celebrated their combined 100-year service. I think that that is really an inspiration. To Ross, being a nurse means being an advocate for her patients. Constantly treating people as she would wish to be treated and wish her own family members to be treated. As a member of the surgical team, Ross helps to create a sense of comfort and normality when patients have butterflies before theatre. This morning, I asked Ross what makes a great nurse. One of the first things that she said is that you need to be a really, really hard worker, that you need to be strong mentally and physically, that you really do have to be unselfish and willing to put your patient first. I do not think that anyone will be surprised that Ross said that you need really great communication skills, that you need empathy, but it is also important that you get great attention to detail, that you are just a real people person and someone that really, really cares. Presiding Officer, we should note that not only do these qualities make a great nurse, they also make a great person too. Nurses deliver exceptional care to patients, bring comfort to so many, and they themselves are rewarded too with a sense of achievement and joy, that feeling that they have made a real difference to someone's life. Ross says that feeling is absolutely priceless. Ross described the joy when a patient has a hyperneed replaced, a patient who has been suffering from chronic pain for quite a long time often, and they are just saying, wow, this I can live with. I could tell from speaking with Ross just how much she loves her profession and she really wants to encourage others to follow her and her sister's footsteps. She says that they shouldn't be put off by Brexit. If they are thinking about being a nurse, they should start on that incredible journey. Presiding Officer, I have also got a personal story of my own. In January 2020, my partner, the father of our three young children, had a massive heart attack. It runs in his family. Had he not been really fit and healthy, who knows what would have happened, probably the worst. Now, any heart attack can be fatal, but one particular kind has earned notoriety, and a scary-sounding nickname because it is especially dangerous is called the Widowmaker. This type of heart attack occurs when the left anterior descending artery, known as the lad, which supplies blood to the larger front part of the heart, is completely blocked. My husband was rushed to hear Myers hospital and had a stent fitted. The care that he received from specialist nurses and other health professionals there was nothing short of outstanding. In another country, we would have been bankrupted by medical bills, but not here in Scotland. It has been a really hard road at times, but after two long years, a reckons' health is nine out of ten compared to how it was before. I think that is amazing. Because of those nurses and doctors, my children still have their father. Our NHS to me is beyond precious, and our nurses are one of the jewels in that crown. I will end with a thank you to Roslyn, to Jean, to Arlene and to every single nurse in Scotland and to Beowint. I now call on Cabinet Secretary Humza Yousaf to respond to the debate up to seven minutes. I am tempted to say follow that after an excellent speech by Stephanie Callahan, a very powerful one. I do not think that I can follow that, but I will give it my best shot. I congratulate first and foremost Jackie Baillie for bringing an incredibly important motion to the chamber for debate. I thank members from right across the chamber for their thoughtful and personal contributions at times. However, contributions are not just rightly extolling the virtues of our fantastic nurses up and down the country, but challenging the Government around some of the significant pressures that our nursing cohorts are facing, and I will do my best to address some of them. As many have said, nurses make up the single largest profession within our NHS. They are crucial to the care of each and every one of us. We will all, no doubt, need the attention of a nurse at some point in our life for all of us. I hope that it is not too many times in our life, but I certainly reflect on what was said by many members right across the chamber that any time that I have interacted with a nurse my younger days, or indeed my not so younger days, more recently, has been with the greatest care, the greatest compassion, and I am most grateful for that. Many people have spoken about their personal stories, and I will touch upon some of them in just a second. I agree with Jackie Baillie that the one words are not enough. One words are important. That is the reason why she brought this debate to the chamber, no doubt, or part of the reason. One words are important, but they are not the most important factors. She is absolutely right that it is important that we demonstrate those words, that we are not merely focused on words but, indeed, on action. I would stand very proudly. You would expect me to say that this is Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care on our record in relation to how we have treated our staff. I do not argue that there are improvements absolutely to be made, but I will say that we have had an increase in staffing both in terms of nursing and wider staffing in the NHS since 2006. In fact, we have qualified nursing and midwifery staff gone up by almost 15 per cent since 2006. They are the best-paid staff. I think that Jackie Baillie seemed to suggest that her word was a meager £8 more. If I looked at band 5, which is, of course, an important significant banding within our agenda for change, if I looked at the maximum band 5 pay scale between England and Scotland, the difference actually is over £1,381. That is not meager. That is quite substantial, particularly given the cost of living crisis. I think that he would accept that taxation in Scotland is higher than it is in the rest of the UK, so those band 5 nurses are actually paying more than they would in the rest of the UK. However, let me look to the future. We know that inflation is heading into double digits. We are in a cost of living crisis. We are heading for a very deep recession. Do not make nurses pay the price, so will the Scottish Government provide decent pay to our nurses? In the midst of that pay negotiation, in the last financial year, the pay deal that we provided was the highest single-year settlement in the history of devolution. We have a good record when it comes to pay negotiations. In the midst of that pay negotiation, I completely understand that the trade unions want us to go faster on behalf of their members. I accept that. I also accept the point about the fact that we are well past 1 April without a pay negotiation, so I can give an absolute promise and commitment without prejudicing those negotiations that we will back-date pay to at least 1 April. When it comes to the other benefits of being a nurse here in Scotland, I want to thank our student nurses who have done an incredible job throughout the pandemic. They, of course, also do not pay tuition fees, which they will do in other parts of the UK. However, I want to touch on those challenges. Before I do that, let me thank members for what I thought were exceptionally powerful testimonies. We heard from Mary McNair about her mother. We heard about Jeremy Balfour about his own care and attention and the care and attention that his father is receiving. We heard about Gillian Mackay and the attention that her mother and her grandpa have received. We heard about Karen Watkins' friend—forgive me, I should have taken a note of the name—but I know her friend who she mentioned in the debate, who has worked tirelessly for our NHS. Most recently, we heard from Stephanie Callahan about Ros Jean in Arlene. I want to pay tribute to every single nurse up and down this country for the incredible work that they have done. However, I am the first to recognise that all our nurses, whether they are in community or in acute sites, are facing probably the most difficult period of their professional and personal lives. I know that nurses take that work home, not quite literally, but I know that those pressures do not just go away the moment they walk out of a hospital or walk away from the community site that they are working in. Nurses tell me that they have been in the NHS for 30 years, for 40 years, but the last two years have been the most difficult in their entire career. I mention that point because we have a good record on recruitment and I have given some of the statistics on that. We will continue to recruit, but Jackie Baillie is absolutely right, as were a number of other members who made that point. Retention is also key. At that round table that was attended by myself, Gillian Mackay was the Alex Cole-Hamilton in Jackie Baillie and Craig Hoy, who is not here. He was also at that round table. We heard very clearly that there needs to be better flexibility within the NHS, particularly for those who might want to reduce their hours and are not given the choice to do so, and then decide to go on agency and we have to pay them higher rates to come back in to do the shifts. I can give an absolute commitment that, on the back of that round table, greater flexibility is something that we are looking at. Taking care of the wellbeing of our nurses is essential. We have a record £12 million investment in that wellbeing, but I have heard recently from nurses who say to me rightly and fairly that that is great, but if we do not have time to access the wellbeing services, then what good is it for us? To members who are rightly raising the concerns and the challenges that nurses are facing, the reason why I mentioned the last two years is that, undoubtedly, notwithstanding that there were challenges before, the pandemic has severely exacerbated those challenges. That is why nurses tell us that the last two years have been the most difficult. They have not said that the last five years and the last 10 years—although, again, I accept that there were challenges before—have said the last two years because they have been beyond the pressure, beyond any challenge that any of us could have envisaged before. The number one thing that we can do to help to alleviate that pressure and the immediate term is to keep Covid under control if we do that. That begins to alleviate some of that pressure, not overnight. We will take time to recover at NHS, as I have said, for weeks or months. It will take weeks or months, it will take years to recover at NHS, but there are things that we can do immediately—pay, terms of conditions, recruitment, retention—all actions that we are working on just now. I was going to mention Mary Segal, and I think that it is really important to do so. Rightly, we give a lot of focus, understandably so, to Florence Nightingale, to Louisa Jordan and Mary Segal at Nurse Women of Colour, of course. As many people will know, it is an outstanding job, particularly in the Crimean war. I will not say any more about her. Alex Cole-Hamilton spoke very well about the incredible contribution that she has made to nursing. On the very final point, I know that I must conclude that I have been asked about quite rightly the health and care staffing act and the implementation of that, and that was referenced in the round table that many of the members of this Parliament attended. I will say this honestly and truthfully that we are not in the position right now to implement that because of the challenges that that would have in relation to a recovery and a remobilisation, but I have promised, in the back of that round table, to come forward with an implementation plan, which I promised to do. I promised to publish in relatively short order. Let me finish where I started, which is to thank Jackie Baillie for an incredible motion, but more so to give thanks to our nurses up and down the country for the phenomenal effort. Let me give them an absolute promise. I hear their message. It is deeds, not words, that they require, and I promise them just as we have done in previous years, that we will honour that debt that we owe them and that we will make sure that we value them and recognise the incredible contribution that they have made. Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. That concludes the debate, and I close this meeting.