‘Without right workforce, you can’t provide service’

In hospital wards, Scotland is facing a vacancy crisis in nursing. Colin Poolman, director of RCN Scotland, said there were around 5,000 nursing and midwifery vacancies in Scotland.

“Nursing is the largest part of the professional workforce,” he said. “If you don’t have the right workforce, you will not be able to provide the services that you want to provide.”

There are issues for nursing in both recruitment and retention. In terms of recruitment, fewer and fewer young Scots are choosing a career in nursing. Figures released last week show the number of applicants for nursing courses in Scotland is down 8.3 per cent compared to the same point last year – something Mr Poolman described as “an extremely worrying trend”.

By the January deadline, 4,650 people had applied to study nursing in Scotland, compared with 5,070 at the same point last year. This is the third year in a row where there has been a fall in numbers. In Scotland, the number of applicants remains below prepandemic levels.

Once in post, nurses are experiencing immense pressure and difficult working conditions, the RCN said. Last year, a nurse from the NHS Lothian area spoke of how working 13-hour shifts in both care homes and hospital settings had become the norm.

Over her years working in the NHS, the anonymous nurse said “staffing has reduced while demand has stayed the same”, causing problems for morale and stretching staff across more and more patients.

“Morale is lower, certainly than it was ten years ago”, she said.

A recent RCN survey of more than 1,000 members found 21 per cent had difficulties managing their finances or missed bills in the last year, while 23 per cent had gone without food or skipped meals.

“There needs to be a discussion with the public about what services should look like going forward,” Mr Poolman said.

“There needs tobea discussion with the public about what services should look like going forward

Colin Poolman, director of RCN Scotland