Name: Joan Gowans
Job: Senior nurse, children's health
Salary: £37,500
Leading children's nurse, Joan Gowans adores her native Scotland. Born and brought up in Dundee, the furthest south she has travelled was London - until this year.
In February, the 44-year-old made the 560-mile trip from her Edinburgh home to the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust in Truro where she has taken up a new post.
Now working as senior nurse for the trust's child health directorate, she says the trust's willingness to find a job for her husband, Jim, was a deciding factor in bringing her to the west country.
"Moving to Cornwall was a big wrench and impacted on my husband's life as well. But it was a decision we took together," she says.
"We came down several times to look at the area before I accepted the job. My husband is also a nurse and has found work, and the trust was very supportive in facilitating this."
Gowans, who was the clinical manager for paediatric community nursing at the Edinburgh Sick Children's Hospital, earning £29,500 a year, has seen her salary rise by around £8,000.
She has no regrets about the move. "The south-west is very nice and warm, and the quality of life is much better, even though properties are more expensive. After a busy day, you can head out straight to the beach."
This opportunity of having a "fulfiling lifestyle in magnificent surroundings" is the main message of a major £50,000 recruitment campaign launched in April by the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust. The trust, which employs around 3,000 nursing staff, has opened new wards and has a shortage of 120 nurses across all specialties. Its campaign features pictures of famous landmarks and emphasises job flexibility and help with relocation expenses.
According to Adele Cane, senior nurse for practice development, 60 people have been interviewed as a direct result of the campaign, many coming from outside the region.
"Some are people who come from the area and want to move back, others are keen to get out of the rat race," she says. "It's a fantastic place to live."
