Governments all across the UK need to be held accountable for the nursing workforce. This includes any shortages that they might be facing. If you work in a nurse agency or even in a nursing recruitment agency then you will know what a major movement this could be. The new staffing report is going to call on governments so that they can then implement a robust and even evidence-based workforce plan. They are also going to be using public funded settings.

When you look at the report, you will see that it points to evidence form the World Bank and this shows that investing in the workforce will protect the wider public health. It is also going to support economic growth too. More than a third of UK nurses are due to retire in the next decade but the issue is that there is not anywhere near enough nurses coming through to replace them. The workforce is going to plummet and the NHS is going to struggle as a result. The RCN have stated that the changes are not going to be delivered without an increased amount of recruits and that the policies are not going to be there to support it either. They are not going to be educated and they are not going to be able to retain the existing staff that they have right now either.

Dame Donna has come out to say that the RCN is not going to wait anymore and that they are tired of waiting for the government to act. They are now rallying the public calls and they are also going to try and make people legally accountable for trying to develop the nursing workforce. This is a great movement to say the least, and it could mean great things for the industry.