Nurse educators play a vital role in nursing, by teaching and training the next generation of nurses and helping current nursing staff develop their skills.

The size and makeup of the nurse educator workforce directly affects how many qualified registered nurses the UK can train, as well as the quality and availability of education for student nurses.

Despite their critical contribution, no national targets exist for the retention and recruitment of nurse educators.

At the same time, financial pressures are threatening the sustainability of the nurse educator workforce. Universities are facing significant funding cuts, redundancies and recruitment freezes as student numbers fall.

In 2024, we surveyed our members working in education settings on the impact of the financial pressures.

What we are demanding in England

• The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the Department for Education (DfE) should produce a fully funded nurse educator workforce strategy aligned with the 2025 NHS Long Term Workforce Plan. It should:
  • Set targets to expand the nurse educator workforce and plan for upcoming retirements.
  • Address recruitment and retention challenges, including improved career development and pay parity between HEIs and the NHS.
  • Improve diversity within the educator workforce to reflect the population, students and wider workforce.
  • Introduce regular monitoring and public reporting of educator workforce data (staff numbers, demographics, regions, roles).
  • Increase joint HEI–NHS appointments.
• HEIs must be consistently involved in local and regional workforce planning to ensure educator supply aligns with wider workforce needs.
• HEIs and clinical partners should create opportunities for clinical nurses to gain experience in academic settings to support educator workforce growth.

• The Government should recognise nursing as a safety‑critical profession and urgently provide ringfenced funding to protect all nursing courses and ensure sustainable growth of the nurse educator workforce.

• HEIs must ensure sufficient nurse educator staffing to maintain safe, high‑quality learning environments and publish up-to-date student to academic assessor ratios for pre‑registration nursing programmes.

• DHSC should work with partners to establish a clear career pathway for nurse educators, supporting progression, retention, recruitment and movement between clinical and academic roles.