Nursing’s ‘Big Quit’: why flexible working and retirement matter

The NHS is facing an unprecedented staffing crisis and needs older experienced nurses to stay, which will require policies that support staff choice on working hours

The ageing of the UK’s nursing workforce is an issue that is in danger of dropping off the policy agenda, displaced by international recruitment and the decline in applicants to nurse education.

Yet the issue has major policy implications, and as a country we ignore the need to retain older nurses at our collective peril.

One in five nurses in the UK aged over 56

Keeping mature and experienced nurses at work will become even more of a challenge for employers over the next few years, but must be a critical element of