Campaign to protect ‘nurse’ title continues as petition comes to close

The nurse behind the #ProtectNurse campaign, Professor Alison Leary, said work to secure the required changes in legislation was pushing ahead.

It comes after MPs last month voted down a proposed amendment to the Health and Care Bill that would have achieved the goal and made ‘nurse’ a protected title.

Currently, ‘registered nurse’ and ‘specialist community public health nurse’ are protected titles, as well as ‘nursing associate’ and ‘midwife’, but ‘nurse’ alone is not.

Professor Leary started her mission following several recent high-profile cases of people misusing the ‘nurse’ title, including a Covid-19 denier who had been struck off the nursing register.

Her petition calling for protection of ‘nurse’, which was launched on the UK Government and Parliament website, has now closed after hitting the six-month time limit. It received 33,488 signatures in total.

“We are working with parliamentarians and the regulator to progress the issue of protecting nurse”

Alison Leary

Despite the setback in parliament last month, hopes are still very much alive that the campaign will succeed.

The government is looking at the issue of whether ‘nurse’ needs to become protected, as part of a project it currently has ongoing to modernise the regulatory system for health professionals.

Reflecting on the closing of the petition, Professor Leary told Nursing Times: “We are really pleased to have had a great response to the petition.

“We are working with parliamentarians and the regulator to progress the issue of protecting nurse.

“Even though the amendment to the health bill was voted down, the work is going on in terms of amending the original legislation.”

Meanwhile, Andrea Sutcliffe, chief executive and registrar of the Nursing and Midwifery Council, said the regulator recognised the “limitations” of ‘nurse’ not being a protected title, and indicated that changes could be on the horizon through the regulatory reform work.

She told Nursing Times: “Through their incredible work, nurses prove time and time again why they’re the most trusted profession in the UK.

“But we know there are limitations of ‘nurse’ not being a protected title. Protecting the title of ‘nurse’ would bring more clarity on who has met the high standards we expect of registered nurses.”

She added: “The Department of Health and Social Care is reviewing the legislation that governs our work so we can be a better, more responsive regulator.

“Whether nurse should be protected in law is part of that review. We’re working closely with the department, and with our partners, and it’s great to see widespread support for this initiative.”

When approached for an update on its position, the Department of Health and Social Care pointed Nursing Times to the statement it issued in response to the petition in July.

In that, the department said it would “consider in detail whether the protection of title offences relating to registered nurses, midwives and nursing associates are the right ones when bringing forward reform of the NMC’s legal framework”.

However, the statement from the department also cited the use of the word ‘nurse’ in other professional titles – such as dental nurses and veterinary nurses – as a “complication”.