More than 40,000 nurses left the NHS in England last year – equivalent to one in nine of the workforce.
According to a Nuffield Trust analysis for the BBC, many of the nurses quitting in record numbers are highly skilled and knowledgeable and would have had years more of work left to give.
The government set a target of recruiting 50,000 more nurses by March 2024 and has added 24,190 over the past 31 months, but there are still 17,000 posts unfilled on any given day, according to the think tank.
It found that while record numbers were joining the UK nursing register (around 48,400 in the year to March 2022) and 44,500 joined NHS England in the year to June 2022, some 40,365 nurses left active service over the same period.
In Scotland, 7,470 nurses left the service, representing a leaver rate of 10.6% – again equivalent to one in nine nurses.
The highest average leaver rates (one in six for the year to June 2022) in England were in community provider trusts, which provide services such as district nursing and community physiotherapy.
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Care trusts were also badly hit by attrition, with one in seven nursing staff leaving over the year to June 2022. The lowest rates were seen in non-specialist acute trusts, it found.
While retirement remained the most commonly given reason for leaving the workforce, work-life balance is now the second most common reason – almost 7,000 staff said this was the driver for leaving a role. This is almost four times higher than a decade ago, according to Nuffield Trust.
The number leaving for health reasons has also quadrupled, with around 1,800 nurses citing this. Others noted staffing pressures and feeling undervalued. Negative workplace culture was cited as one of the top three reasons by 13% of nurses.
The current cost of living crisis is another factor impacting the wellbeing and retention of nurses, a separate survey has found.
A survey of chief executives, chairs and other senior health trust figures by NHS Providers has found that some nurses are struggling so badly with finances that they are not eating at work so they can feed and clothe their children.
Others are calling in sick because they cannot afford the travel costs to work, it found, and more than a quarter of trusts (27%) now operate food banks for staff. Almost a fifth (19%) plan to open one.
Miriam Deakin, the director of policy and strategy at NHS Providers, said: “There are heart-rending stories of nurses choosing between eating during the day and being able to buy a school uniform for their children at home.
“Increasing numbers of nurses and other staff, particularly in the lower pay bands, are finding they are unable to afford to work in the NHS.”
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The survey also found that a number of staff are stopping their pension contributions so they have more salary available, and that many are suffering mental health issues due to financial pressures. A number are taking second or better paid jobs in pubs or shops, the research found.
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