The government has launched a call for evidence as part of plans to stop people from falsely using the title ‘nurse’, warning the issue is putting patients at risk.
On Thursday (30 July), ministers announced they were seeking views on which professions should be allowed to use the title ‘nurse’, before introducing legislation. The consultation is due to run until the end of September.
Earlier this year, the government announced plans to make it a criminal offence for anyone who is not a qualified nurse to describe themselves as one.
The news follows the death of four-month-old Madison Bruce Smith, the grandson of football manager Steve Bruce, after a coroner criticised the ‘misleading’ use of the title ‘maternity nurse’.
Madison was found unresponsive by his father, former Leeds United and Fulham striker Matt Smith, in October 2024.
Smith and his wife hired a maternity nurse after their son struggled to sleep. However, the woman, whose only medical qualification was first aid, advised that Madison should sleep on his front despite longstanding guidance that babies should sleep on their backs.
In a Prevention of Future Deaths report, Alison Mutch, senior coroner for Manchester South, said: ‘Any person can describe themselves as a maternity nurse or a sleep nurse or a post-natal nurse.
‘No qualifications are required and there is no regulation of persons holding themselves out as maternity nurses or the agencies that offer training courses or their services.
‘In this case, the maternity nurse and the owner of the agency had no medical qualifications other than a basic first aid qualification.
‘The use of the word nurse gave the impression of a level of knowledge and skills that were not present.’
The announcement comes in the same week that former NHS employee Amran Hussain was sentenced to four years in prison after lying about his qualifications.
Health minister Baroness Gillian Merron said efforts to protect the title ‘nurse’ would improve public confidence and improve patient safety.
‘The title carries huge trust, and anyone misusing it risks undermining not just public confidence, but patient safety too,’ she said. ‘That is why we are asking for views on how best to protect the title, stop misuse and make sure patients know they are in safe hands.’
Professor Lynn Woolsey, chief nursing officer at the Royal College of Nursing, has welcomed the decision. She said it was a ‘significant win and step towards protecting the title of nurse.’
‘Nursing is a highly skilled, safety-critical profession and it is essential to patient safety that our title is protected,’ she added. ‘Patients and their families deserve to trust that when they are told they are being treated by a nurse, it is a registered nurse providing their care.’
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