However, in modern times the role of the nurse has changed considerably. Nurses are not a homogeneous group. As with the medical profession, there are several specialisms requiring further training and qualifications, such as midwifery, district nursing and health visiting, and branches of nursing include child health, intensive care, learning disability and mental health. As medical treatments increase in scope and complexity, so does the role of nursing within them. Nurses are playing an increasingly integral part in government initiatives to improve healthcare delivery, and as a result their role is expanding into new areas of expertise, such as prescribing and running primary care practices.
Nursing is currently in a state of crisis.
At the same time, the number of student nurses is falling. In the NHS, in particular, chronic shortfalls in nursing staff are increasingly requiring the use of nursing banks and nursing agencies, which were originally designed only to provide emergency cover. In the future, demand for nursing care can only increase under the pressures of an ageing population and advances in medicine. Accordingly, as demand increases, so will the pressures on nursing staff. The number of nurses will increase gradually as government measures take effect, to give a nursing workforce of 563,112 by 2004.