Nurses Invisible, Undervalued for Too Long

Nurses are often put on a pedestal when things go right and blamed when things go wrong, but too often they are simply not part of the conversation.

In a joint report published on Wednesday by the Royal College of Nursing and Oxford Brookes University, we unequivocally ascribe most of the problems and challenges facing the image and status of nursing to the fact that the profession is and has historically been a female-dominated occupation.

The report, Gender and nursing as a profession: Valuing nurses and paying them their worth, asks a fundamental question: in an occupation facing dangerous levels of shortages, why don’t wages rise to attract more new nurses and prevent current workers leaving?

We found that nurses are the lowest paid among all health care professionals and that, compared with other occupations, their earnings increase less over their careers. In comparison with health care managers and doctors, there are fewer opportunities for progression and access to leadership positions.