More UK nurses and midwives leaving than joining profession

[Northerner]

More nurses and midwives are leaving the profession in the UK than joining it, for the first time since 2008, figures show.

The number registered in the UK fell by 1,783 to 690,773, in the year to March.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) said the downward trend had been most pronounced among British workers. Many leavers cited working conditions.

But the government said there were now 13,000 more nurses working in England than in 2010.

In April and May this year, there was a more dramatic fall in those leaving nursing and midwifery, with a further 3,264 workers going.

Other than retirement, the main reasons given for leaving were working conditions - including staffing levels and workload - personal circumstances and disillusion with quality of care to patients, according to an NMC survey of more than 4,500 leavers.

Other reasons included leaving the UK and poor pay and benefits.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-40476867

"the government said there were now 13,000 more nurses working in England than in 2010." - but how many more do we actually need, given the growing, ageing population? And what will the future look like, given the EU nurses likely to be leaving/no longer coming and the impact of removal of bursaries?

 

[Copepod]

I think that the recent introduction of revalidation probably plays a part. It's relatively easy to carry out if employed, but for retired nurses / midwives who wanted to remain registered for voluntary work, it's considerably more onerous to get a colleague to countersign all other requirements, especially if there are no other registered nurses / midwives in the voluntary body

 

[grovesy]

I think that the recent introduction of revalidation probably plays a part. It's relatively easy to carry out if employed, but for retired nurses / midwives who wanted to remain registered for voluntary work, it's considerably more onerous to get a colleague to countersign all other requirements, especially if there are no other registered nurses / midwives in the voluntary body

I don't think that is reason for Midwives as they have had do refresher courses or prove they have done a minimum amount of study for decades.

 

[mikeyB]

I think it may just be morale hitting rock bottom for all sorts of reasons - understaffing, overwork, pay stagnation. When I worked in hospitals, by and large, nurses and midwives were happy in their work. They aren't now. When midwives are run off their feet, mishaps happen. Are they escaping so that they don't get sued?

 

[trophywench]

Copepod, are you sure it's only recent? I mean we (people in the insurance industry) had to do CPD (continual professional development) in a formal way from the mid to late 1990s, and we always did it anyway informally before then anyway. Just that we now had to get a bit of paper saying how many points the seminar we attended today had earned us, and that was entered on our employment record when we got back to work, and each year we had to get X number of points, depending on what level we were employed at.

In truth, a lot of it was simply revising what we already knew and had been doing for years anyway.

I mean doctors and nurses surely must have been meant to keep properly up to date too, otherwise potentially none of em anywhere would be able to use the current equipment or know how/when to prescribe any of the latest drugs.

 

[grovesy]

Copepod, are you sure it's only recent? I mean we (people in the insurance industry) had to do CPD (continual professional development) in a formal way from the mid to late 1990s, and we always did it anyway informally before then anyway. Just that we now had to get a bit of paper saying how many points the seminar we attended today had earned us, and that was entered on our employment record when we got back to work, and each year we had to get X number of points, depending on what level we were employed at.

In truth, a lot of it was simply revising what we already knew and had been doing for years anyway.

I mean doctors and nurses surely must have been meant to keep properly up to date too, otherwise potentially none of em anywhere would be able to use the current equipment or know how/when to prescribe any of the latest drugs.

As I said Midwives have had do for decades but it only spread to nurses more recently.

 

[Copepod]

Revalidation for nurses is new. Previously, nurses had to self declare that they did keep themselves up to day with a minimum number of relevant traning. As I explained, for some working as vollunteers, this can be difficult to get countersigned.