Midwife numbers increase despite rise in nurses leaving the profession
The number of nursing and midwifery staff in Scotland is moving "slowly upwards", despite 2,750 quitting the profession last year.
A new report from the Nursing and Midwifery Council (Nmc) showed that the number of nurses and midwives registered in scotland had increased, to a total of 71,802 in march 2022
That is an increase of 1,013 on the previous year's total, and means scotland has 2,893 more nurses than were on the register in March 2018.
The register shows the number of nurses and midwives eligible to practise - but not all those on it will currently be working.
Colin Poolman of the Royal College of Nursing Scotland, meanwhile, said the country had seen the "lowest increase" of any of the four nations in the UK in terms of registered staff.
The NMC report also showed a rise in the number of nurses and midwives leaving the profession A total of 2,750 nurses and midwifes left the register in 2021-22 - with the number of leavers having increased after falling for two consecutive years previously.
The figures for Scotland showed a 16.3% increase in the number of leavers between 2020-21 and 2021-22.
Looking at the picture across the UK, Andrea Sutcliffe, NMC chief executive and registrar, said retirement and changing personal circumstances would always be the most common reasons for nurses and midwives to leave.
But she added: "Our latest report confirms the third most common reason was too much pressure, with stress and poor mental health being factors in many people's decision to stop practising.
"Mid wives were the most likely to cite this reason, closely followed by mental health nurses ."
To tackle this, mssut cliff es aid there must be a" focus on retention as well as attracting new recruits".
Meanwhile Colin Poolman, the director of the Royal College of Nursing Scotland, insisted "urgent action" was needed to address workforce challenges.
He said: "While numbers of registered nurses are moving slowly upwards, Scotland has seen the lowest increase of the four nations and the loss of 2,750 nursing and midwifery staff is being felt across health and social care services.”