'Deeply alarming' new surge in nurses quitting within five years
Posted 19 July 2024 - 00:01
Stark NMC report reveals 25% surge in number of nurses leaving the register early in the past year, with RCN describing the figures as 'deeply alarming'
The number of nurses leaving the register before completing five years in the profession has surged by 25% in the past year, according to the latest Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) registration data.
More than 3,000 people left the register after being on it for five years or less in 2023-24, up from 2,401 the year before. The NMC Annual Data Report published today also said that one fifth of nursing and midwifery professionals who left the register in the past year, totalling 5,508, were within their first ten years of nursing. Many cited burnout as their reason for leaving.
Around half of those leaving the register acknowledged they were doing so earlier than they had expected to. The top three reasons given for exiting the profession were retirement, burnout and poor health.
The RCN called the figures ‘deeply alarming’, with skilled staff leaving prematurely ‘a tragedy for patient care’.
Record number of new registrants from India
NHS Providers chief executive Sir Julian Hartley agreed it was a ‘big worry’ that nurses were leaving the profession earlier than planned.
Meanwhile the number of joiners from India hit a record 14,615 registrants in the year to March 2024, half the number of all international joiners and one quarter of the total number joining the register.
It marks a seven-fold increase from 2018-19, when 1,719 nurses from India joined the UK register.
The NMC’s Annual Data report showed a record 826,418 people are now on the register. But the regulator warned that there had been a sharp increase in nurses joining from ‘red list’ countries – those from which active recruitment is not permitted.
The register saw an influx of nurses who had been trained in Nigeria, Zambia and Zimbabwe, despite all being on the World Health Organization’s red list. New joiners from Nigeria have increased more than ten-fold since 2018-19, from 276 to 3,178.
The latest data comes as new figures from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service published on 18 July show that applications to study nursing in the UK are down 8% in the past year and have dropped 27% in three years.
The report said: ‘We continue to see proportional rises in first-time joiners from several red list countries from which active recruitment is not permitted. We remind employers and agencies to follow the relevant codes of practice to help maintain ethical standards and support global health equity.’
While half of the 60,000 new joiners were from the UK, more than 85% of 27,168 nurses and midwives leaving the register were from England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.
The NMC conducted an online leavers’ survey of those who left the register between January 2023 and March 2024. One nurse told the leavers’ survey: ‘I felt that I was constantly fighting to get the care my patients needed, this impacted on my mental health. I was unable to stop worrying about my patients whose care was being compromised by factors I felt were outside my control.’
Government must rescue NHS workforce plan, says RCN’s Nicola Ranger
RCN general secretary Nicola Ranger said: ‘It is deeply alarming that over 5,000 young early-career nursing staff chose to quit the profession last year, most vowing never to return. When the vacancy rate is high and care standards often poor due to staffing levels, the NHS cannot afford to lose a single individual.
‘Our migrant nursing staff are incredible and vital to the delivery of our health and care services, but this over-reliance is unsustainable and unethical. The new government must step in and rescue the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan.’
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