A new petition calling on the government to protect the job title “nurse” in UK law has gained more than 10,000 signatures already, meaning ministers must respond with a statement.
The petition was launched just five days ago on Monday and calls for the title of “nurse” to be protected in UK law so that only those qualified and registered can use it.
Currently, the title “registered nurse” is protected but “nurse” alone is not, meaning anyone can legally call themselves a nurse.
The petition has been created on the UK Government and Parliament website by leading nursing workforce academic and Nursing Times editorial advisory board member Professor Alison Leary.
Under the rules of the website, if a petition gains 10,000 signatures, the government will be required to issue a formal response.
On Thursday night, the petition passed the 10,000 signature mark and is currently standing at around 11,240, meaning it has triggered the need for the government to respond.
Meanwhile, the next milestone for the petition is 100,000 signatures. If it reaches that number over the next six months, the petition will be considered for a debate in parliament.
Separately, the Nursing and Midwifery Council is also seeking to open a dialogue with the government over whether “nurse” should become a job title protected by law.
The NMC revealed this week that it told ministers its current powers related to preventing misuse of titles are insufficient, as part of its submission to a recently ended consultation on regulation.
Professor Leary highlighted that, under current legislation, people could be operating under the title “nurse” even if they had no nursing qualifications or experience, or had been previously struck off.
“To protect the public, the title nurse should be limited to those who are registered with professional regulators such as registered nurses and dental nurses,” stated the petition.
“This would be the same as titles such as paramedic and physiotherapist, which are limited to those on the professional registers.”
Alison Leary
Professor Leary’s campaign is already gaining high-profile support from organisations such as the Queen’s Nursing Institute, the Foundation of Nursing Studies and the Royal College of Nursing Leadership and Management Forum, as well as fellow nursing professors.
The issue of the nurse title not being protected in law is one that has long caused concern among some in the profession. However, all attempts so far have failed.
Back in 2010, the Prime Minister’s Commission on the Future of Nursing and Midwifery in England highlighted it as being in need of tackling.
It called on the NMC to take urgent steps to “ensure public protection and safety and to allay current confusion about roles, titles and responsibilities by protecting the title ‘nurse’ and limiting its use solely to nurses registered by the council”.
As recently as 2018, Professor Jane Cummings, the former chief nursing officer of England, announced that she would work with the other UK chief nursing officers for a legal change to ensure only those registered as a nurse could use the title.
But two more recent incidents have brought the issue back on to the agenda and, in part, sparked the creation of the new petition.
In December 2019, a newly-elected Tory MP, who was also a healthcare assistant, was accused of misleading voters after he repeatedly referred to himself as a nurse during his election campaign.
Then earlier this month, an anti-vaccination campaigner who denies the existence of Covid-19, told Nursing Times she planned on continuing to call herself a nurse despite being struck off by the NMC for putting the public at risk of harm.
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