RCN urges children to go in to nursing
Published: 12 May 2009
With nearly 200,000 nurses due to retire in the next decade, RCN Northern Ireland today marked Nurses' Day by calling on more young people to make nursing their first career choice. The call came as a new survey commissioned by the RCN revealed that nearly 1 in 10 children and young people in Northern Ireland say that nursing is the job they most want to do.
The YoungPoll survey of over 465 seven to 17 year olds in Northern Ireland showed that helping people is one of the most important factors in career choice. Despite this, nursing appeared to be the least preferred career in the public sector, with police, teachers, doctors and firefighters all rating higher.
For those children who aren't considering a career in nursing, many say that it is because they don't like hospitals or they think it is a dirty job. Older children (12-17 year olds) clearly saw a link between pay and the attractiveness of a nursing career, with more than 1 in 5 thinking that higher pay would encourage more people to become nurses. Unlike other parts of the UK, the same number of young people in Northern Ireland rate travel opportunities as the factor that would be most likely to encourage people to become nurses as higher pay. However, less than one-third realise that the range of places where nurses can work includes overseas and in the armed forces.
RCN Northern Ireland Director Designate Janice Smyth said: "With nearly 200,000 nurses due to retire in the next decade, we've all got a responsibility to tell people about the benefits of a career in nursing. It is clear that the image of nursing does not reflect the reality. Modern nursing is a dynamic career, providing an incredibly broad range of opportunities and a real chance to have an interesting, successful career that makes a real difference to other people's lives. Often older recruits join the profession after becoming disillusioned with seemingly more popular careers and wish they had done so years earlier. We want more young people to join the profession and experience all it has to offer earlier."
Nurses' Day is celebrated on 12 May each year, as a tribute to the work of Florence Nightingale, who was born on this day in 1820. Celebrating Nurses' Day is an opportunity for people to remember the valuable contributions that nurses make to society.