‘Workforce planning must be based on patient need, not budgets’, says new RCN Chief Nursing Officer

The RCN Chief Nursing Officer Lynn Woolsey has said that she will focus on workforce, practice and regulation across all fields and levels of nursing and in the four countries of the UK in her new permanent role.

She will also work to address the key issues facing nursing staff, including workforce planning being based on the budget available, rather than patient need, stressing that the RCN Institute of Nursing Excellence can provide robust evidence to make positive change a reality.

“We have patients being packed into every space available – workforce planning is based on the budget available, and not on patient need,” Lynn said. “As a college, we need to define and map what the future looks like – for the profession, for the nursing workforce, for the membership, for patients and for society. Investment in nursing brings so many benefits.”

Addressing the public perception of nursing is also a priority for Lynn.

“Public perception of the profession has not kept pace with modernisation. It’s important because this antiquated view of nursing impacts on our future. Outdated perspectives are influencing children in school today to choose not to go into nursing. The more accurate the image of nursing is, the better the chances that students will choose nursing as their future profession," she said.

“Small things matter. But the RCN can do big things and can generate large changes.”

Lynn joined the RCN as the UK Deputy Chief Nurse in September 2023. She was previously Deputy Chief Nursing Officer in the Department of Health Northern Ireland, Assistant Director of Nursing and Midwifery for Workforce and Education, and Assistant Director for an acute mental health and learning disabilities hospital.