Updates

The NHS has pledged to expand the number of training places for nursing associates to 10 500 by 2031/32, as part of wider plans for expansion across the nursing professions.

Since joining the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) register in 2019, 5500 nursing associates have started working in the NHS. NHS England says that ‘the nursing associate role provides a career pathway for healthcare support workers and is a potential progression route into graduate level nursing. Over the last 5 years, thousands of healthcare support workers from NHS Trusts have enrolled on training nursing associate programmes’. It says there are plans to increase the number of nursing associates to 64 000 full-time equivalents by 2036/37.

The nursing associate role in England was introduced in response to the Shape of Caring review to ‘help build the capacity of nursing teams and support the delivery of high-quality care’. The role was formally announced by the UK government in 2016 and developed by Health Education England (HEE), with the NMC becoming the legal regulator in January 2018. As part of their training, nursing associates are educated in medicines management and, within the confines of local employer policies, administer prescribed medicines safely and appropriately. Alongside the regulatory standards for the role, HEE has published guidance to provide clarity to all NHS organisations about how nursing associates can be deployed to administer medicines safely and effectively: https://www.hee.nhs.uk/our-work/nursing-associates.