The demise of nursing in the United Kingdom: a warning for medicine

Medicine without nursing is an untenable concept: doctors could not practice without highly educated, knowledgeable and competent nurses as part of the health care team. In the UK, nursing is under threat and could pass away, to be replaced by technicians, minimally educated health care assistants and unqualified health workers. Under the influence of pecuniary motives within the NHS, nursing as a role in health care is changing to encompass boundaries which have never been a part of a true nursing role before. Consequently, medical practice will be affected, and patient care compromised. Some senior nurses are apprehensive about these changes and believe medicine should be equally concerned. This comments paper outlines such arguments, with the aim of enlisting medical colleagues to help in the debate.