Celebrating International Nurses Day 2023

Published on 12 May 2023

This International Nurses Day, we’re celebrating all the nursing professionals and students across the UK who work tirelessly to improve people’s health and wellbeing.

The theme this year is Our Nurses. Our Future. It’s an opportunity to reflect on the essential contribution nurses, nursing associates and nursing students make, and how we can support them to deliver safe, effective and kind care now and in the future.

Andrea Sutcliffe, NMC Chief Executive and Registrar, said:

“Most of us will receive care from a nursing professional at some point in our lives. I’ve seen from recent personal experience, what a profound impact their skill, dedication and compassion have on the people they care for and those around them. International Nurses Day is a great opportunity to celebrate and thank every nurse and nursing associate on our register, and all nursing students for everything they do across health and social care throughout the UK.

“As the regulator of more than 730,000 nurses and nursing associates, we’re here to support them, now and in the future, to meet people’s changing and increasingly complex needs. Our Code and standards reflect the evolving health and social care landscape they’re working in and set out the skills and knowledge they need to deliver safe, effective and kind care that everyone has the right to expect.

“Thank you to all of the professionals on our register, you truly make a difference to people’s lives. Thank you to our nursing educators, you are an inspiration to the next generation of nurses and nursing associates. Thank you to all our talented nursing students, you are our future.”

Further information:

  • The number of nurses and nursing associates (730,590) includes dual registrants (those registered as both nurses and midwives).
  • As of our most recent data report there are 716,060 nurses, 7,875 nursing associates and 6,655 dual registrants on our register.

Other recent news…

NMC takes next steps to tackle inequalities in regulation

Published on 25 April 2024

Our latest Ambitious for Change research found differences in nursing and midwifery professionals’ experiences and outcomes from our regulatory processes, depen


New plan to address challenges and improve people’s experience of our work

Published on 24 April 2024

We’ve set out five reprioritised areas of work for the next two years, focusing on the most significant risks to our work.


NMC publishes new holistic care resources

Published on 18 April 2024

The NMC’s latest campaign, Seeing the whole person supports better care, supports nursing professionals to continue to think holistically when providing care; t