Challenging year of change ahead

Nursing workforce struggling to cope as we enter 2017.

So, I’m back from a ten-month secondment spent primarily commissioning articles for all the RCNi specialist titles.

I found the change of pace, the breadth of outlook and the increase of autonomy invigorating, but I am glad to be back as editor of Nursing Management.

First of all, I'd like to thank Sophie Blakemore, now on maternity leave, for her excellent editorship of the journal since March last year; she’s going to be a tough act to follow.

And what a busy ten months they’ve been. We’ve witnessed the implementation of revalidation, the introduction of nurse associates, Brexit and a new prime minister, although not a new health minister, at least as NM was going to press.

One of the big themes that has emerged already for 2017 is workforce. This month, Stephanie Jones-Berry (link) reports on how nurses 'from Scotland to London' are struggling to cope with the worst conditions many have ever experienced, while Erin Dean’s analysis (link) examines the huge rise in the number of health service staff applying to retire.

These changes take place as Brexit raises questions about how the healthcare system will cope when many of the 26,000 registered nurses from Europe return home.

Small wonder there is a drive to train more nursing associates and, from September, nurse apprentices, especially when nursing student bursaries are to be scrapped from August.

We hope to discuss these changes in the print pages of Nursing Management and online, at nursingmanagement.co.uk

Increasingly this year, you’ll be able to read articles, for example on end of life care, courage in nursing, mentorship, leadership and patient safety, online before they are in print.

And, because with an online subscription you have access every month to ten articles from other RCNi journals, you will also be able to read some of the articles I have been commissioning over the past ten months.

So it's even easier to keep up to date with the latest developments in nursing.