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Healthcare support workers (HCSWs) have played a key role in the NHS workforce since their inception. Part of the unregulated and unregistered workforce, they support good patient care by helping registered nurses, midwives and other healthcare professionals in a variety of settings. The HCSW role has continued to expand and…

Lucy Letby does not represent nursing, members of the profession have firmly stated as they reflect on the impact of her horrific crimes and the steps that must be taken following her conviction. As well as the shock and sadness they felt as nurses, they told Nursing Times the case…

Universities across the UK are “willing to do things differently” to tackle recruitment and retention issues across the health and education sectors, nursing education leaders have said. In their first interview with Nursing Times since being appointed, the new chief executive and chair of the Council of Deans of Health…

Nurse educators and employers are being faced with the challenge of massively boosting nursing numbers at a time when interest in the profession seems to be declining. They share their thoughts with Nursing Times. The NHS Long Term Workforce plan, released at the end of June, contained targets to significantly…

A Nursing Times investigation has found that thousands of adverse incidents on inpatient mental health wards were linked to understaffing last year alone. Data obtained from Freedom of Information (FoI) requests revealed that the number of recorded incidents linked to staffing has increased dramatically in recent years. A total of…

A hospital trust at the centre of a national review into maternity and neonatal safety has aired concerns over the future of its midwifery workforce. At recent board meetings of East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust, leaders warned the closure of a nearby university’s midwifery course could disrupt its…

The fight for fair pay and safe staffing is “not finished”, the chief nursing officer (CNO) of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has said. In an interview with Nursing Times, Professor Nicola Ranger reflected on the challenges facing the nursing profession in recent years and what the UK might…

The most senior nurse in the world has said that now is the time to change the historic undervaluing of the nursing profession. The chief nursing officer (CNO) of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr Amelia Latu Afuhaamango Tuipulotu, has called on national governments to listen to the voice of…

The UK’s future nurses say they are primed to lead the response to climate change from inside the profession. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), almost two-thirds (64%) of the UK public are worried about climate change, and a Health Foundation poll suggested around a quarter see it…

A descendant of Florence Nightingale has spoken to Nursing Times about how he hopes the seminal nurse’s legacy will continue in the future as a charity he was running in her honour closes its doors. It was announced this month that the Nightingale Fund (NF) would be wound down and…