The NHS is marking the fifth anniversary of the first cohort of nursing associates joining the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) register.

There are currently more than 5,550 nursing associates working in the NHS.

The clinical role acts as a bridge between healthcare assistants and registered nurses and enables registered nurses to lead on more complex assessment and planning of care.

The role also provides a career pathway for healthcare support workers and is a potential progression route into graduate-level nursing.

The NHS Long Term workforce plan includes a goal of increasing the number of routes into nursing. The plan has pledged to increase the number of nursing associates to 64,000 full-time equivalents (FTE) by 2036/37. In order to achieve this, the NHS will expand the number of training places to 10,500 by 2031/32, as part of the wider plans for expansion across the nursing professions.

Ruth May, chief nursing officer for England, said: “It is wonderful to be marking the fifth anniversary of the role today.  Since its introduction, the nursing associate role has made a huge contribution as part of the multi-disciplinary team and provides essential care and support to patients and their families. The role contributes to improved service delivery, enhances patient care and boosts staff retention due to expanded career growth prospects.

“As well as being a vital profession in its own right, the nursing associate training pathway also plays an important role in career progression – recognising talent and offering opportunities to healthcare support workers to progress if they want to as well as providing a potential onward route from nursing associate to registered nurse.”

“I welcome every opportunity to grow our professions and we are continuing to look at how we further strengthen opportunities for career progression. As we continue to increase the number of nursing associates and open up the profession to more people, I look forward to welcoming them to the NHS.”