Not to put too fine a point on it, but the UK is facing a nursing crisis. In the next 10 years, 200,000 nurses are due to retire and according to the Royal College of Nursing (RCN, 2010) there are insufficient newly registered nurses entering the profession to replace those retiring. This is especially true of community nursing services, which have a markedly older age profile than other groups of registered nurses, meaning that the impact of these retirements will hit the community sector earlier and harder.
