Four in 10 nurses consider leaving profession as RCN warns of broken pay system

Some 40% of nursing staff are considering or actively planning to leave their roles, according to the Royal College of Nursing’s (RCN’s) latest employment survey.

The biennial State of the Profession report, based on responses from 21,035 RCN members across all UK health and care settings, reveals record dissatisfaction with pay and working conditions.

The survey found that 67.6% believe their current pay does not reflect their responsibilities, skills and risks. Only 30.5% of respondents said they would recommend nursing as a career – the lowest figure since the survey began a decade ago.

A general practice nurse from south-east England said: ‘I love my job as a practice nurse, but the pay and terms and conditions are a huge compromise.

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‘Many in practice nursing accept the short straw because they love the job or the team, or the hours suit better, or there is flexibility that other services cannot afford to give.

‘But pay, annual leave and sickness pay will be the reason why I will end up leaving the role. All clinical roles should be under the Agenda for Change pay and conditions.’

The survey found that 28.4% of nursing staff are thinking about leaving their job and 11.4% are actively planning to leave. The main reasons cited were feeling undervalued (73%), low pay (60.7%), excessive pressure (59.7%) and emotional exhaustion (59.2%).

More than eight in 10 (84.5%) reported working when they should have taken sick leave on at least one occasion over the previous 12 months.

Seven in 10 (70.4%) work in excess of their contracted hours at least once a week, with around half (52.1%) stating these hours are unpaid.

When asked what would make the most difference to their working lives, 89.6% of respondents identified a pay rise as the most significant change, followed by more annual leave (37.2%) and greater flexibility in working arrangements (31.8%).

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Professor Nicola Ranger, RCN general secretary and chief executive, said: ‘Ten years on from our first employment survey and the results continue to paint a worrying picture – many nursing staff are considering or actively planning to leave their roles.

‘The current pay framework is broken and long overdue reform to the pay structure is needed.

‘No annual cost of living pay increase is ever going to be enough to deliver the fundamental change we need.’

Despite these challenges, nursing is an ‘amazing profession’, Professor Ranger insisted.

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‘Our challenge now is to make the next 10 years better than the last, for nursing as a profession but crucially for patients too,’ she added.

The RCN is calling for fair pay and recognition for all of nursing, investment for safe staffing including mandated minimum nurse-to-patient ratios in all settings, and action from employers to make workplaces safer.