NHS is an abbreviation for National Health Service, which is the primary healthcare provider in the United Kingdom. Their services are free to all permanent residents, which is paid for through governmental taxation. However, through demographic pressures emancipating itself in an ageing population and workforce, increasing demand for healthcare services for the elderly, as well as shortages in the supply of skilled and experienced individuals to fill the ever growing list of NHS nursing jobs, the NHS is under increasing scrutiny and pressure to implement recruitment and retention strategies that will ensure the long term health of the health care system in the United Kingdom.

There has been much media attention on the topic, with the Scottish Daily Mail recently publishing an article stating that the NHS is facing its biggest nursing shortage for twenty five years, with at least 8,000 vacancies nationwide. Press releases from the Royal College of Nurses in London state that hospitals are unable to open all of their beds due to the shortage of nurses.�In fact, the shortage of nurses is cited by many hospitals�as the determining factor for the inability of the facility to efficiently process their patients.

One particular Trust, which is responsible for operating three hospitals in the Oxfordshire region, has expressed their concerns at the nursing shortages. In response to this, they have initiated their own campaign to attract nurses from Australia and New Zealand. Spokesperson for the Hospitals Trust stated that they have had to cancel operations consistently over the past six months as a result of nursing shortages. A report released by the NHS additionally identified that premature babies or those requiring special care are being placed at risk due to the shortages, with one in ten vacancies remaining unfilled nationwide.

Actively engaging in a process of recruiting nurses from overseas has become a key strategy for the NHS to address the current and future projected shortages in the nursing supply. As a result, the demand for nurses to work throughout the United Kingdom under the NHS umbrella is creating fantastic opportunities for qualified nurses to secure nursing positions that provide an autonomous work environment which encourages personal and work development, as well as providing for the personal and financial benefits one would expect of such positions in high demand. There are many opportunities to be had – to filter out the positions that are most suitable for you and the location you wish to reside, contact a leading healthcare recruitment specialist who will facilitate the process and make it easy to access the jobs you want.