Nursing today is deeply rooted in scientific inquiry, technological capability and advanced analytical judgement. Across Wales, nurses apply biological and physical sciences, pharmacology, physiology, data interpretation and digital health technologies every day to deliver safe, effective, evidence based care.
Yet despite this reality, nursing is still not formally recognised within the UK’s definition of STEM subjects – a gap that affects workforce planning, education pathways and public understanding of the profession’s scientific foundations.
A STEM profession in practice
Modern nursing is shaped by rapid developments in genomics, artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and increasingly data intensive models of care. Nursing staff are leading innovation, interpreting complex diagnostic information, applying pharmacological reasoning and driving digital transformation across services.
For Wales, where health and care reform, digital innovation and workforce sustainability are national priorities, recognising nursing as a STEM profession would strengthen the visibility and value of the profession at a critical moment.
Strengthening Wales’s workforce and education pipeline
Formal STEM recognition would:
• support recruitment and retention, particularly as Wales works to grow and stabilise its nursing workforce
• enhance the competitiveness of nursing degrees, ensuring they are understood as rigorous scientific programmes aligned with the nation’s future skills needs
• increase access to STEM related investment and innovation programmes, ensuring nurses are fully included in Wales’s digital health and research agendas
• improve public understanding of the scientific and analytical expertise nurses bring to patient care
• boost representation of women in STEM, given nursing’s predominantly female workforce.
These benefits align directly with Wales’s ambitions for a digitally enabled NHS, a resilient workforce and a health and care system built on research, innovation and evidence based practice.
Welsh nurses leading scientific and technological innovation
Members in Wales are already demonstrating how nursing is embedded in STEM disciplines.
Kate Butler, specialist nurse at All Wales Psychiatric Genomics Service, describes how her role bridges scientific research and frontline care: “One of the key aims of the All Wales Psychiatric Genomics Service is to translate knowledge gained through psychiatric genomics research into clinical practice as part of the broader provision of mental health care.
“My role as specialist nurse highlights why nursing should be recognised as a STEM profession, combining ongoing scientific research and collaborative practice into meaningful patient focused care, working closely with genetic counsellors, geneticists and psychiatrists – helping patients and their families understand how genetics affects mental health and applying this knowledge to my own practice in offering a more individualised approach to the people we see in our clinic.
“This is translational nursing – utilising scientific research to inform evidence based and holistic, patient centred nursing practice.”
Kate’s work exemplifies how Wales’s genomics strategy relies on nurses with advanced scientific literacy and analytical capability.
Abigail Swindail, Clinical Informatics Lead for Community Nursing & Children’s Services, Digital Health & Care Wales, highlights the central role nurses play in digital transformation: “Nursing is fundamentally a STEM profession – rooted in the application of science, data and technology to deliver safe, effective care.
“As a clinical informatician, I translate complex data, digital systems and emerging technologies such as AI into meaningful improvements for patients and frontline teams.
“The pace of innovation in health care means nurses are increasingly leading analytical decision making and digital transformation. Every day, nurses make complex clinical judgements informed by physiology, pharmacology and data insights, yet this scientific expertise is still often under recognised.
“Recognising nursing as a STEM profession is essential to reflect the reality of modern practice, strengthen the future workforce, and ensure the profession is visible, valued and fully included in health care innovation.”
Abi’s perspective reflects Wales’s national digital health ambitions, which depend on a nursing workforce recognised and supported as a scientific and technological profession.
A critical moment for Wales
Nursing is a graduate profession underpinned by STEM disciplines. Formal recognition would not only reflect the reality of contemporary practice but also strengthen recruitment and enhance public understanding of nursing’s scientific foundations.
For Wales, the implications are clear: recognising nursing as a STEM profession would reinforce the nation’s strategic priorities, support the development of a highly skilled workforce, and ensure nurses are fully represented in STEM related policy, investment and innovation.
