Nurses 'too expensive' for NHS

THE COST of higher education could lead to a reduced proportion of registered nurses in the future, a report published last week says.

THE COST of higher education could lead to a reduced proportion of registered nurses in the future, a report published last week says.

Nursing in 2015, which was commissioned by the NMC to inform its pre-registration training consultation, highlights challenges that have arisen as a result of moving nursing into higher education.

'The NHS cannot afford an all-registered workforce – diploma or graduate,' write the authors from Glamorgan University. 'The idea therefore could be to substitute a proportion of registered nurses with well-trained HCAs.'

In two out of three possible future scenarios presented in the paper there are fewer registered nurses and a greater proportion of HCAs.