Expanding the NHS Nursing Workforce: Retention and recruitment

Abstract

The nursing profession is the largest clinical workforce in the NHS but a sustained undersupply of registered nurses relative to demand led to a significant shortfall in the NHS. In December 2019, the previous government launched an ambitious plan to increase the total number of registered nurses working in the NHS in England by 50,000 by March 2024.

This research is a large-scale evaluation of a national NHS workforce policy (The N50k Programme) to understand ‘what works’ and ‘what could be improved’ in recruiting and retaining nurses in the NHS.

Whilst the 50,000 target was met early, this was largely due to international recruitment. Here we outline four key findings and actionable lessons to ensure long-term sustainability in the NHS nursing workforce; with the key message that long-term sustainability requires a balance between domestic training and recruitment, international recruitment, and retention of existing nurses

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Identifiers

ORCID for Joanne Turnbull: orcid.org/0000-0002-5006-4438

ORCID for Ourega-Zoé Ejebu: orcid.org/0000-0003-0608-5124

ORCID for Jane Prichard: orcid.org/0000-0001-7455-2244

ORCID for Jane Ball: orcid.org/0000-0002-8655-2994

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