RCN urges children to go into nursing to avoid recruitment crisis
Published: 15 May 2009
With nearly 200,000 nurses due to retire in the next decade , the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) today marked International 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 only 1 in 20 children and young people said that nursing was the job they most wanted to do .
The YoungPoll survey of over 8,600 seven to 17 year olds showed that 'helping people' was 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 rated higher .
Seven year old children were twice as likely to want join the profession as those who were about to leave school, clearly showing that older children develop more negative associations about a nursing career the older they get . For those children who weren't considering a career in nursing, many said it was because they didn't like blood or they thought it was a dirty job . But older children (12-17 year olds) clearly saw a link between pay and the attractiveness of a nursing career. The most important factor they cited in choosing a job was the level of pay and one in three (36%) said that higher pay would encourage more people to become nurses .
RCN Chief Executive & General Secretary, Dr. Peter Carter, 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's 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."
Saffron Brown, a second-year nursing student at the University of Northumbria, said:
"Having come into nursing straight from school, I feel proud to be training for a life long career in which I aim to genuinely help people. Even as a student nurse, as well as directly caring for patients, I am starting to get involved in the broader personal and professional development opportunities available to nurses to help improve healthcare."
Ann Keen MP and Parliamentary Under Secretary for Health Services, said:
"Having started my career as a nurse, I have seen first hand just how rewarding a career in nursing can be. The range of opportunities available to qualified nursing staff is among the broadest of any profession."
Nurses' Day is celebrated on 12th 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.
This news comes as thousands of nurses gather in Harrogate for the RCN Annual Congress 2009.
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Notes to Editors
About the survey:
The survey was conducted by YoungPoll in April 2009. In total 8612 people were surveyed, of which 4298 were aged 7 - 11 and 4324 aged 12-17 years.
General statistics:
- Only 1 in 20 (5.3%) school-children want to be nurses as their first career choice
The most popular career choices overall are:
1. Vet (15.4%)
2. Teacher (12.1%)
3. Doctor (10.4%)
4. Police Officer (8.4%)
5. Firefighter (7.5%)
6. Sports player (5.7%)
7 =. Nurse (5.3%)
7 =. Musician (5.3%)
9. Actor (5%)
10. Astronaut (4.5%)
- When prompted, only just over a third would consider (36.6%) would consider a career in nursing
- Helping people is seen second only to earning lots of money as the most important factor in career choice (24% and 30.7%). Twice as many schoolchildren think helping people is the most important factor as think being famous is (24% and 12.7%)
- 1 in 3 (30.6%) older children (age 12-17) think higher pay would be the most likely thing to encourage them to consider a career in nursing
- Most common reasons for not wanting to be a nurse are thinking it is a dirty job or not liking blood (29.01% and 29.03% respectively)
- Of those who don't want to be nurses - nearly a quarter see it as a job for only girls (23.1%)
- Only 3 in 10 realise the range of locations nurses work in (28.4%), and less than half of 12-17 year olds realise the full range of activities that nurses do (40.9%)
Age-specific
- More than 1 in 10 seven year olds would like to be nurses compared with less than 1 in 20 seventeen year olds (11.4% and 4.5%)
- 30.1% of seven year olds view helping people as most important factor in career choice compared with 21.9% of seventeen year olds
- 37.9% of seventeen year olds most motivated by money in their career choice compared with 33.3 % of seven year olds
- 11.93% seven year olds are motivated by fame, compared with 6.7% of 17 year olds
- 21.8% of seven year olds think nursing is only for girls compared with 10% of seventeen year olds
- 36% of seventeen year olds think higher pay would motivate to consider a career in nursing
Gender specific
- 23.3% of boys would not want to be a nurse because they think it is a girls' job. 1 in 20 (5.3%) girls are also put off nursing as they think it is a stereotypically female career
- Less than a quarter of boys realise the range of locations nurses work in compared with a nearly a third of girls (24.1% and 32.7%)
For further information, interviews or illustrations please contact the RCN Media Office on 0207 647 3633, press.office@rcn.org.uk or visit http://www.rcn.org.uk/newsevents/media
Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is the voice of nursing across the UK and is the largest professional union of nursing staff in the world. The RCN promotes the interest of nurses, healthcare assistants and patients on a wide range of issues and helps shape healthcare policy by working closely with the UK Government and other national and international institutions, trade unions, professional bodies and voluntary organisations