Occupational health nurses: Cinderellas of the nursing profession

Harriss, Anne (2023) Occupational health nurses: Cinderellas of the nursing profession. Royal College of Nursing blog . (Unpublished)

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Abstract

University of Cumbria Honorary Doctorate Professor Anne Harriss was recently invited to write a blog about occupational health nursing, a safety-critical yet overlooked specialism, for the Royal College of Nursing, in which she has made reference to the University of Cumbria offering excellent occupational health practice courses.

As there is currently no requirement by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) to include any occupational health theory or practice in pre-registration nursing programmes, most nurses’ knowledge of the field is limited at best and sketchy at worst. Rather like Cinderella, we do sterling work behind the scenes. Occupational health nursing is a small specialism. Identifying our exact number is difficult. Currently, the NMC counts 2,941 Specialist Community Public Health Nursing registered occupational health nurses. But not all hold the NMC-approved qualifications that confer this registration, choosing instead other undergraduate or postgraduate qualifications in occupational health that better meet their needs.

Item Type:	Article
Journal / Publication Title:	Royal College of Nursing blog
Publisher:	Royal College of Nursing
Departments:	Institute of Health > Nursing
Depositing User:	Anna Lupton
Date Deposited:	26 Oct 2023 11:40
Last Modified:	13 Jan 2024 15:17
URI:	https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/7391

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