Growing the nursing workforce in the United Kingdom: Aspiration and reality

Introduction This week’s blog is by Rebecca Garcia and Irtiza Qureshi. The nursing workforce in the United Kingdom (UK) has been under capacity for a long time [1]. According to the latest published figures from NHS Digital (2024) [2], there are currently 34,709 qualified nursing vacancies in England. Worryingly, UCAS figures for 2024 demonstrate a […]

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Clinical supervision for the nursing and midwifery workforce in Scotland: Getting ready for a ‘once for Scotland’ approach

  In this week’s blog, Christine Strange discusses NHS Scotland’s approach to ensuring all nurses and midwives can access high-quality clinical supervision. Participating in clinical supervision is fundamental to supporting me to develop within my role. In Scotland it is a national ambition that every nurse and midwife should have access to clinical supervision whatever […]

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Nurses need nurses for their resilience and wellbeing

This week’s blog is written by Dr Judith Benbow, Senior Lecturer, Cardiff University, Professor Danny Kelly, Royal College of Nursing Chair of Nursing Research, Cardiff University and Professor Aled Jones, University of Plymouth. Nurses seek help from other nurses as their primary coping strategy. Notwithstanding patients’ needs for more nurses, crucially nurses need more nurses […]

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The rise and rise of the nursing apprentices.

This blog comes from Alwin Puthenpurakal, an experienced senior lecturer and researcher working at The University of Greenwich. He led University apprenticeship programmes since its inception and highly values the impact it has on widening social mobility and addressing the national workforce challenges. With almost two decades worth of clinical experience, he is an experienced […]

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Our Nurses, Our Future: No more rhetoric, it’s time for action

This week’s blog is written by our Editor-in-Chief, Dr Alison Twycross (@alitwy), Honorary Associate Professor, School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Birmingham (@UniBham_Nursing). The focus of International Nurses Day 2023 is Our Nurses, Our Future. At a time when the nursing workforce is under more pressure than ever before Evidence Based Nursing (EBN) are […]

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GloSTaRs – Supporting early career professionals to thrive, not just survive.

  This week’s blog comes from Charlotte Jakab-Hall, Senior Practice Development Nurse and Peer Support Guardian and Leonora King, Practice Development Nurse and Peer Support Guardian at Gloucester Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.   Blog summary Gloucestershire Staff Transition and Retention Support Network (GloSTaRs) was co-created by two early career nurses following their preceptorship programme in […]

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Nurses working in academic settings play an important role in preparing students for their first role as a registered nurse

By Dr Jane Wray, Senior Lecturer in Nursing, and Senior Clinical Nurse Advisor (National Preceptorship Programme) @livinginhope and Desiree Cox, Programme Lead, National Preceptorship Programme, @desireecox07 The launch of the National Preceptorship Framework for Nursing in England1 in October 2022 provides important information for students and nurses preparing the future nursing workforce. The new framework […]

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Nurses caring for people in a social care setting

By Dr  Agnes Fanning  MA MSc BSc RN DN RNT, Queen’s Nurse, Queens Nursing Institute (QNI), and Dr Jane Wray, Senior Lecturer in Nursing (University of Hull), and Senior Clinical Nurse Advisor to the National Preceptorship Project Nurses working in social care settings have unique knowledge, skills and expertise1. They are delivering high quality, individualised […]

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