Evaluation of the current landscape of respiratory nurse specialists in the UK: planning for the future needs of patients

INTRODUCTION: The National Health Service currently faces significant challenges and must optimise effective workforce planning and management. There are increasing concerns regarding poor workforce planning for respiratory medicine; a greater understanding of the role of respiratory nurse specialists will inform better workforce planning and management. METHODS: This was a survey study. Two surveys were administered: an organisational-level survey and an individual respiratory nurse survey. RESULTS: There were 148 and 457 respondents to the organisational and individual nurse survey, respectively. Four main themes are presented: (1) breadth of service provided; (2) patient care; (3) work environment; and (4) succession planning. The majority of work conducted by respiratory nurse specialists relates to patient care outside the secondary care setting including supporting self-management in the home, supporting patients on home oxygen, providing hospital-at-home services and facilitating early discharge from acute care environments. Yet, most respiratory nursing teams are employed by secondary care trusts and located within acute environments. There was evidence of multidisciplinary working, although integrated care was not prominent in the free-text responses. High workload was reported with one-quarter of nursing teams short-staffed. Respiratory nurses reported working unpaid extra hours and a lack of administrative support that often took them away from providing direct patient care. Nearly half of the present sample either plan to retire or are eligible for retirement within 10 years. CONCLUSIONS: This survey report provides a current snapshot of the respiratory nurse specialist workforce in the UK. This workforce is an ageing population; the results from this survey can be used to inform succession planning and to ensure a viable respiratory nurse specialist workforce in future.