Where have all the nurses gone?

Where have all the nurses gone?

For those who don’t know, we are not champagne-sipping lefties (aka as Guardian readers by trolls)! Dihydrogen oxide is our tipple. But we do post relevant articles we see there and refer to these from time to time. The Pharmacy press do not seem to explore wider views which are relevant to us all – why is that we wonder? Are we afraid to express ourselves, resulting in our slow decline towards oblivion whilst our colleague professions are out there, fighting for what they believe in! Health and Social Care is neglected by everyone, yet we all work with it and it is our future. Why aren’t we forming alliances with our colleagues for the greater good? Is what is happening to all of us leading to a good place?

A quick slurp of corporation pop before we go on. We’ll need it. Yesterday’s Guardian published a distressing article.  According to a survey by the Royal College Nursing (RCN), 32 000 nursing students are considering leaving training before qualifying, or around half. 1 in 2 is the number!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s a lot, even if you are bad at maths.

Nearly six in 10 respondents (58%) said witnessing low morale and burnout among qualified nurses had also prompted them to consider ditching their nursing degree. They can earn more doing a vital job flipping burgers, so who will do the nursing? The NHS long-term workforce plan, published a year ago, aims to increase the nursing workforce in England from about 350,000 to about 550,000 by 2036-37. But the number of people starting nursing courses has declined, and if those already at university quit in large numbers then the NHS could be left tens of thousands of nurses short.

Anyone who has read the long term plan. all 151 pages, will need their sip of the hard stuff. So many bodies contributed to it, but were you asked? The conclusions are admirable but the outcomes are not deliverable in the real world without honesty with the people who really count – patients. Patients don’t understand what a P.A., or an A.C.P. is, or what many other proposed reforms creating job titles and roles that are not obvious. The people drafting up these ideas may be nice, and well intentioned, but it doesn’t seem that they ever see a patient and learn from them what they want or explain how we aim to bridge the gaps that clearly exist.

Yes, the plan may aim to increase the nursing workforce from today’s levels of 350 000 to 550 000 by 2036/7, but what about the reality, not the plan? The number of people starting nursing courses has declined, and if those already at university quit in large numbers then the NHS could be left tens of thousands of nurses short.

People wishing to be Health Care Professionals do so because they care and want to make a positive difference to people’s lives. We need to nurture these people – flipping burgers doesn’t meet their ambitions, but it seems to pay the bills. We can’t blame them for that. But holding someone’s hand whilst they slip away from this world to the next is a special and priceless gift, as are all the other mundane tasks you all carry out day to day.

If we really want change, why don’t we all pull together and work together for a greater good – one which we understand better than planners. Change needs to start here and now. Can we/will we do it?