Making sense of nurse numbers.
The RCN's survey of care home staff (page four) echoes the almost constant concerns in the mainstream and professional press about the shortage of nurses. However, a careful look behind the doom and gloom headlines is required to understand how many nurses and other health and social care workers we are likely to need to meet the needs of older people in the future, and to appreciate and make the most of the many opportunities there may be to develop new nursing roles and innovative models of service provision.