Nursing in the United Kingdom
Brent East MP Dawn Butler introduced a bill in Parliament in February 2025 to protect the title of 'nurse'.
[7] The core function of the NMC is to establish and improve standards of nursing and midwifery care to protect the public.
The NMC code presents the professional standards that nurses and midwives must uphold in order to be registered to practise in the UK.
But the majority of NHS employers use "in-house" training for such staff, including induction programmes and ongoing education to achieve a recognised qualification.
This is termed secondment (whereby the trust/health board continues to pay them for the duration of their training, and often guarantees employment following successful completion).
As of September 2013, degree-level nurse training programmes were required, with no option to study for a diploma.
Nursing courses adopt a 50/50 split of learning in university (lectures and examinations) and in practice (supervised patient care within a hospital or community setting).
The first year is the common foundation program (CFP), which teaches basic knowledge and skills required of all nurses.
Skills include communication, taking observations, administering medication, and providing personal care.
[25] It was announced in the Chancellor's Spending Review of November 2015 that from 2017 the NHS bursary would be removed for future nursing, midwifery and allied health professionals in England.
[27] Registered nurses must update their skills and knowledge at the rate of at least 35 hours every three years, as part of its post-registration education and practice (PREP) requirements.
[28] Nurses can add certifications in areas such as cannulation, venepuncture, intravenous drug therapy, and male catheterisation are common among many others, such as Advanced Life Support.
Financially, in England, it was more lucrative, as diploma students get the full bursary during their initial training, and employers often pay for the degree course as well as the nurse's salary.
Master's degrees exist in various healthcare related topics, and some nurses choose to study for PhDs or other higher academic awards.
Prior to October 2016 an outside UK RN would have to undergo an Overseas Nursing Program known in short as the ONP.
[32] Non-registered staff typically working in direct patient care (often on wards), performing tasks such as personal care (washing and dressing), social care (feeding, communicating to patients and generally spending time with them) and more specialised tasks such as recording observations or vital signs (such as temperature, pulse and respiratory rate, or TPR) or measuring and assessing blood pressure, urinalysis, blood glucose monitoring, pressure sores (see Waterlow score) and carrying out procedures such as catheterisation and cannulation).
Some unregistered staff work as phlebotomists, ECG technicians, and smoking cessation therapists beyond the hospital.
Advanced nursing practioners, sometimes known as advancecd clinical practitioners, normally study a postgraduate qualification and take on a more medical role.
[38] In the November 2015 spending review,[42] George Osborne stated that he would remove the NHS Student Bursary from 2017.
Kat Webb also decided to start a petition on the government's e-petition site, which received over 150,000 signatures[43][44] The student bursary debate has been raised in parliament at Prime Minister's Questions, and is the subject of the 'Early Day Motion (EDM) 1081 – THE NHS BURSARY', which was sponsored by Wes Streeting MP.
[45] In December 2015, several hundred people protested the recent removal of the NHS student bursary as announced in the November 2015 spending review.
[60] In 2019 clinical pharmacology, spinal injuries, paediatric surgery, neurosurgery and neurology were the worst-affected specialities.
[63] A 2015 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development survey reported that 21.7% of NHS nurses were born abroad, compared with 26.9% in Ireland, 9.8% in Italy, 14% in Germany and 5.9% in France.
[78] The RCN Chief Executive Janet Davies stated that "The fact remains that pay awards for NHS staff have been severely constrained since 2010".
[81] In 2015 the government announced that there would be a gradual introduction of pay caps for agency nurses working under NHS England.
In 2016, several publications appeared in the media, claiming nurses depend on food banks and payday loans to survive.
[83] In October 2016, Western Circle published research, claiming that the sector of NHS Nurses are heavily dependent on payday loan.
[84] This research brought the matter of the low wages nurses received in the UK to the attention of media outlets.
The claims were that nurses' salaries were frozen for more than 6 years and in some cases, resulted in financial distress, clearly as wages have not kept pace with the cost of living increases in this time.
The lack of pay increases for, particularly nurses within the NHS continues to be an important topic of public discussion in the UK.
