Nursing locally, thinking globally - UK-registered nurses and their intentions to leave

We assessed trends in CCPS application numbers and the pattern of applied- for destination countries for the years 2018/19 to 2022/23, and put this analysis in the broader context of the entire population of nurses on the UK register. [...] We analysed the annual data for the 5-year period from April 2018 to March 2023, which includes the date the UK left the European Union in January 2020 and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic declared in March 2020. [...] Time since initial registration Figure 3 presents the number of OS-trained applicants in 2018/19 and 2022/23 as a percentage of OS- trained nurses on the NMC register at the end of that year, split by length of time on the register. [...] For example, the sudden rise in CCPS applicants to the US in 2022/23 coincided with the ‘rolling over’ of unused visas from the pandemic period, doubling the number of employment-based visas available between 2021/22 and 2022/23. [...] Any increase in the international outflow of nurses will also add to the challenge of training more nurses in the UK.