UK is 25,000 nurses short - and numbers could increase

Main Category: Nursing / Midwifery
Article Date: 09 Feb 2004 - 0:00 PDT


According to the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), the NHS still has a major nurse shortage. They say the National Health Service needs another 25,000 nurses (according to an annual survey).

All signs are that things are going to get worse, the society says. One in nine nurses plans to quit over the next two years.

The UK Department of Health, on the other hand, says that things are getting better. They say the 55,000 new nurses have been recruited since 1997.

According to the RCN, the nurses who are most likely to leave their jobs are the ones who work on a rotating pattern of day and night shifts.

Although many nurses dislike this rotating shift system, it is widely used in the NHS (in hospitals).

Nurses find this rotating shift system damaging for their relationships with their families and friends.

A Department of Health report (last July) shows a different story. Apparently, according to them, there were only 8,000 vacant posts (in nursing).

The Department of Health is only counting posts that have been vacant for more than three months. According to the RCN, this leaves out thousands of vacancies from the figures.

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