Premium
The end of growth? Analysing NHS nurse staffing
Author(s) -
Buchan James,
Seccombe Ian
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of advanced nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.948
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 1365-2648
pISSN - 0309-2402
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2648.2012.06118.x
Subject(s) - staffing , workforce , nursing , service (business) , skill mix , business , workforce planning , health care , government (linguistics) , health policy , medicine , public health , economic growth , marketing , economics , linguistics , philosophy
Aim To present an overview of UK N ational H ealth S ervice nurse staffing changes across the last 10 years. Background N ational H ealth S ervice funding is now being constrained as part of the overall measures to reduce UK public expenditure. This has implications for future staffing levels and deployment. Government and professional associations are disagreeing about the current extent of actual and likely National Health Service nurse staffing decline. Design The paper reviews ‘official’ data and evidence on N ational H ealth S ervice staffing to assess actual N ational H ealth S ervice nurse staffing trends in recent years, highlights the results of scenario modeling of future National Health Service nursing numbers and relates this to national policies on staffing. Discussion The available evidence now points to nurse staffing growth having tailed off and a likely pattern of overall decline in National Health Service nurse staffing is emerging. This is a policy concern in the UK , but also in many other countries. Implications for nursing Whilst there has been a ‘recession benefit’ to the UK nursing labour market, this supply side boost cannot continue indefinitely. Any continued trend towards reduced intakes to training and reduced staffing levels will intensify the debate about the appropriate staffing levels and skills mix. Conclusions We have seen significant N ational H ealth S ervice nurse staffing growth in the last 10 years, which is likely now to reverse. The real measure of the effectiveness of local and national National Health Service nursing workforce policy is not how many nurses are employed, it is that sufficient are deployed to provide safe care.