suplencias

20:05 Oct 2, 2014 

As NQuirch mentions in the previous comment the equivalent term in UK English is bank nurse. Not sure about the US term though.

18:15 Sep 29, 2014 

Please check this. BANK NURSE.
http://www.proz.com/kudoz/english_to_spanish/medical/527952-...

15:04 Sep 29, 2014 

Ah... so maybe just "substitute nurse" is best. In the US, temporary staffing agencies would often be the source of these nurses ("agency nurses"). But I suppose the "list" you mention could be a list kept by the hospital itself... which would make sense since she clearly indicates being attached to a particular hospital or unit. Thanks for the good info!

14:56 Sep 29, 2014 

In Spain there are too many qualified nurses and not enough jobs. A nurse doing a 'suplencia' covers sick leave, maternity leave, etc. Medical centres and hospitals can't afford to employ more staff so whenever they need to cover a post, they employ someone temporarily for however long is needed.

I have a feeling it works the same way as in schools. There's a list of qualified teachers (in this case, nurses) who 'wait to be called' whenever theres's a vacancy in a hospital in their area. The more a person works the more points they earn, which moves them up the list. These people also get points (merits) for doing official training courses. These credits come in handy when an Autonomous Region decides it needs (and can afford) to increase the number of nurses that work in the hospitals in the respective region and it hold 'oposiciones'.

The nurses (though it's the same for teachers and other official jobs) sit the exams and the people who get the hghest marks and have the highest number of credits are hired to work in one of the regional hospitals until they retire.

If a nurse can't find a job, the next best thing is to get professional experience