Despite growing calls for mandatory minimum nurse-patient ratios, government cuts are reducing the number of nurses on the wards.
In 2013 three high profile investigations (Francis, Keogh and Berwick) identified inadequate nursing levels as a key factor in high mortality rates and poor patient safety. On the back of these findings, the RCN’s Running the Red Light report warns of a critical nursing crisis.
The report finds that 5,870 full-time equivalent nursing posts have been cut since May 2010 and an estimated 20,000 posts are being kept vacant. 27% of NHS employers have plans to further reduce the nursing workforce this year. By the government’s own reckoning there will be a shortage of 47,545 nurses by 2016 (with a worse case scenario of nearly 200,000 shortfall).
Some trusts are now recruiting but there are not enough student nurses to fill the vacancies. Since 2010 there has been a 15% drop in the number of student nurse placements. 22% of trusts are actively recruiting overseas with a further 9% exploring this option.
The report argues that trusts are not commissioning the universities to train the next generation of nurses. But there is also a problem of retention; many newly qualified nurses leave the profession within a few years, driven away by impossible working conditions.
