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One in ten nurses plans to leave

Nearly a third of nurses who responded to this year’s annual survey by the Royal College of Nursing said they would leave the profession completely if they could.

According to the Stepping Stones survey, 29 per cent are planning to leave their current employer within the next two years, with 11 per cent already planning to quit nursing. Minority ethnic nurses are much more likely than white nurses to say that they would leave nursing if they could.

The survey of 10,000 members found bleaker figures for black and ethnic minority nurses in relation to pay and grading. Twice as many (20 per cent) said they were acting up a grade, but fewer are paid to do so than among white nurses.

For the first time the number of newly registered nurses from outside the UK is more than the number of UK-based newly-qualified nurses.

According to the report, ‘employers should be cautious of relying too heavily on international recruitment as a solution to nursing shortages’, with nearly half of the internationally recruited nurses saying they plan to leave their current employer within the next two years.

Nearly a half of all full-time nurses are working more than their contracted hours several times a week or more. For 70 per cent of nurses responding, their earnings amount to at least half of the total household income, but views of pay have remained ‘steadfastly negative over the last ten years’.