Nursing Workforce in Scotland - Review of Progress (Dec23)

The workforce challenges affecting health and social care remain as acute, if not more so, than when we called for urgent action in our second Nursing Workforce in Scotland Report (RCN Scotland, 2023a).

We have been involved in a number of significant pieces of work that have provided the opportunity to call for progress towards the recommendations in our 2023 workforce report. These include the Ministerial Nursing and Midwifery Taskforce, the Agenda for Change review, the Healthcare Staffing Programme, proposals for a National Care Service and on nursing student finance.

Despite this extensive influencing work, progress has been slower than needed, given the scale and severity of the workforce crisis.

At every available opportunity, we will continue to press for meaningful, sustainable and fully funded proposals to tackle persistent nursing vacancies, improve retention and expand domestic recruitment.

In turn, we expect and call for stakeholders, including Scottish government and health and care providers, to step up their efforts in tackling the workforce crisis. The status quo is simply not sustainable nor is it in the interest of patients and service users.