The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is warning that a rapid rise in the number of nurse lecturer redundancies and severances shows the higher education financial crisis is spreading through nursing courses in England and posing a risk to domestic workforce plans.
This comes just days after the UK government announced immigration plans which could lead to an exodus of international nursing staff, and poses a serious risk to patient safety.
The RCN believes the UK government must take action to protect all nursing courses. The capacity and state of the educator workforce must be a key consideration in nursing workforce planning. The RCN say the crisis in higher education is a real threat to the supply of nurses into the workforce and poses a serious risk to patient safety, potentially derailing the government’s new NHS 10-Year Health Plan due to be published this summer.
A nurse educator workforce strategy and funded action plan which addresses recruitment and retention issues is needed, alongside those planned for the NHS and NHS workforce.
Freedom of Information requests, sent by the RCN to universities in England offering nursing courses, have revealed nurse educator jobs decreased in 65% of institutions between August 2024 and February 2025.
Nurse educators have a critical role to play in ensuring we have a nursing workforce that's sufficiently able and equipped to deliver high quality, innovative, safe and effective care to meet current and future population needs. They're essential to growing the nursing profession and keeping patients safe.
Source: RCN, 15 May 2025
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