Diabetes specialist nurse industry faces a shortfall

Wed, 10 Mar 2010
According to a national workforce survey, diabetes specialist nursing as a profession now faces a shortfall in numbers, with over half of diabetes specialist nurses (DSN) due to retire in the next decade. The figures were revealed by a national workforce survey.

The study was headed up by University Hospitals of Leicester consultant nurse in diabetes, June James. She was reported in Nursing Times as commenting: "It takes time to train specialist nurses up. The move towards an all graduate profession means that new nurses will soon have a degree as a basic minimum but if posts are cut, or recruitment is frozen to save costs, when many diabetes specialist nurses retire there could be a significant shortfall before new nurses come through."

The Journal of Diabetes Nursing will carry the full results of the study shortly. James was reported as continuing: "We need to know how many specialist nurses there are, what training they have, where they are working and where the vacancies are. As a profession we need to be more proactive in gathering workforce data so that we can see what the trends are and where the gaps are. Only then can we lobby government [to protect diabetes specialist nursing posts] on your behalf."

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