QICN Surveys the Nursing Workforce about Forced Demotion
23 April 2025
The Queen’s Institute of Community Nursing (QICN) is opening a new survey to determine how registered nurses and nursing support workers are being affected by forced demotions in their career.
The survey will be undertaken by the QICN’s International Community Nursing Observatory (ICNO) led by Professor Alison Leary MBE.
The QICN is concerned by anecdotal evidence the nursing workforce are accepting lower paid roles in order to achieve changes in their working life, for example changes to working hours, flexible working, working conditions or further education.
Roles may also have been down banded for other reasons such as service reconfiguration, or nurses may have taken a job at a lower grade to avoid a negative workplace or due to being overworked.
Prof Leary commented:
If you have taken a job in a lower band or lower grade or a lower paid role for any reason, in any setting, we would like to hear from you. We want to understand why this happens and how employers respond, for example to requests for flexible working.
Dr Crystal Oldman CBE, the QICN’s Chief Executive commented:
It is unacceptable that nurses are obliged – formally or informally – to accept jobs at lower pay grades, for example to further their professional development. It is common practice to see an experienced Band 6 Registered Nurse accepting a place to undertake the District Nurse Specialist Practitioner Qualification but then finding that they are placed on a lower pay band for a year while they undertake the course.
This is unfair to the individual and leads to inequity in the workplace; it also acts contrary to staff development to meet the needs of patients, progression and retention within the whole health and care system.
I cannot think of another profession that would be subjected to this demotion when developing clinical professionals to meet the needs of the people we serve
The survey opens on 23 April 2025 and the results are due to be published in autumn 2025.
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