In praise of nursing associates

I have a confession—I am in favour of the nursing associate role. I can say this with some knowledge and experience, having been fully immersed in the development of the role as part of a first-wave test site, supporting our ‘legacy’ cohort to graduation and Nursing and Midwifery Council registration in January 2019. I recognise the experience of those involved in the first cohort was special—coping with a new role, a new curriculum, a regulator, in-year changes and press attention. These were motivated and experienced healthcare staff who were suddenly both in the spotlight and being valued in a different way—heady stuff!

However, it is not just this experience that has influenced my support for this role. Learning from the past, alongside all of the emerging evidence of future nursing, population health and care needs, show that a rethinking of the workforce is required.

The advent of the nursing associate role is set in a post-Francis report landscape and we should not lose sight of lessons of that public inquiry (Francis, 2013).