'Act now to reduce impact of staffing crisis'

摘要

gnore nurses at your peril. Haven't we been saying that for so long now that you'd think the government, trusts and other organisations would start to recognise just how vital this part of the workforce really is ? Well apparently not. Failing to heed all the warnings that Nursing Times, the Royal College of Nursing and a stack of other report writers and nursing experts have been making for the past few years is soon to have a disastrous consequence. According to a report carried out by the Centre for Workforce Intelligence (see page 2), we are on the cusp of a severe nursing shortage. There simply won't be enough nurses available to provide quality and safe care. Demand is being driven by an ageing population with complex co-morbidities. And we haven't been training enough nurses to handle that increase in need. The report says the most likely scenario is that there will be a shortage of 47,545 registered nurses by 2016, created by a 5% drop in supply and a simultaneous 3% increase in demand.