Nurses demand action to ‘protect’ nursing education
Student nurses are witnessing their lecturers being reduced to tears as they compete to keep their jobs amid university financial constraints, a national nursing conference has heard.
Members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) have this week demanded action to ‘protect nurse education’ – particularly nursing lecturer posts – amid concerns over financial pressures facing the sector.
Leading a debate at this year’s RCN Congress in Liverpool, chair of RCN Education Forum Dr Rachael Major urged the government to recognise nursing as a ‘safety critical profession underpinned by graduate and postgraduate education’.
She outlined the need for ‘ringfenced funding’ for nursing programmes and the nurse educator workforce, as well as a nurse educator strategy.
‘There’s no working nursing workforce without nurse education,’ said Dr Major. ‘This is why this resolution matters.
Related Article: Nursing staff ‘at risk’ amid Ebola outbreak, warns RCN
‘You cannot claim to be serious about NHS recovery while allowing the academic backbone of nursing to collapse.’
Dr Major quoted an RCN survey published in May last year which revealed that between August 2024 and February 2025, 65% of English universities with nursing programmes reported a decrease in nurse educator posts.
In a Freedom of Information (FoI) request made by the nursing union, data showed that more than half reported fewer registered nurses employed in their nursing faculties over just six months, with 88% of educators saying cuts would harm the student experience.
‘We watched our lecturers in tears’
RCN members spoke about the risks around nursing progamme closures and the impact of nurse lecturer job losses on the future profession.
Ben White, vice chair of the RCN students committee told congress how he recently watched lecturers ‘in tears’ as they ‘competed with each other just to keep their jobs’.
He said: ‘In December I stood on the picket lines outside my university alongside my lecturers.
‘Our nursing lecturing team were faced with the largest cuts of any course at our university, losing 40% of our senior lecturers with over a thousand years of invaluable nursing experience.’
Related Article: Former QICN chief and Wales CNO among nurses recognised in King’s Birthday Honours
Keannu Arnono, a nurse educator, added: ‘Without nurse education, there are no nurses.’
‘The health of education is on the line’
Daniel Kelly, from Southeast London branch, also took to the stand and warned that nursing departments ‘are being increasingly led by non-nurses’.
He said his concerns extended beyond nurse education, flagging risks to nurse research.
‘When departments of nursing close, research dies in that area,’ he said.
Dr Major concluded that nurse educators ‘want to see the future of nursing’ but reiterated concerns that the industry is losing senior staff, researchers and ‘seasoned academics’.
Related Article: Lack of jobs for new midwives ‘being worked on’, says CNO
‘We ask you to stand with us, to stand with our students, to stand with future patients,’ she said.
‘The health of the education workforce and the health of education [are] on the line.’
An ‘overwhelming’ number of RCN members voted for the resolution – to ask the RCN Council to lobby UK governments to protect nurse education from university sector economic pressures.
See how our symptom tool can help you make better sense of patient presentations
Click here to search a symptom
