Experienced nurses are definitely harder to come by with almost twice as many senior nurses leaving the profession altogether last year compared with the same period three years ago.

The figures come courtesy of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) who analysed the responses from their membership data. The analysis breaks down as follows:

• 591 nurses with 10 or more years of experience quit in the last 12 months.
• 323 nurses with 10 or more years of experience quit in 2013-2014

Chief Executive of the RCN, Janet Davies has attributed the huge increase to: “staff shortages, relentless pressure and poor pay.”

Ms Davies went on to say: “When these people leave nursing, they are taking years of knowledge and hands-on experience with them.

“Patients get the best care when the most experienced nurses work alongside the newly trained. That practice is now at risk.”

Further emphasising this news are the official figures showing that staff vacancies across the NHS have rocketed by 10% in the last year. Astonishingly 40% of the vacancies are for nursing and midwifery positions.