Half of care workers say friends don't understand demands of caring profession

More than half of people working in the care profession feel their friends do not understand the complexities and demands of the caring role they fulfil.

In the poll of 173 people working in the care sector, including nurses and social workers, only a third of respondents felt friends had a sophisticated knowledge about the roles and responsibilities required of someone in a caring position.

Recruitment and HR service providers Randstad Care published the survey alongside its calculations predicting the UK will need to recruit an additional 209,000 nurses by 2050, to meet the needs of a growing population.

Managing director of Randstad Care, Victoria Short, said: “Not enough people appreciate the complexities or the benefits of the caring professions. Nursing and social work are not simple jobs; they’re complex roles with a huge amount of responsibility.

"Both need to attract more high-achievers who will make a success of the job as a long term career – but also people who see it as a vocation and a career where they can make a difference. We know we need to attract more graduates into the care sector but if they have an erroneous idea of what the job is all about, they aren’t going to be motivated to succeed in the job in the long run.”

With a projected population of 74.5 million by 2050, the UK will need 938,000 extra nurses and 162,000 more social workers to meet the future care needs of the country.

Ms Short continued: “Both nursing and social work suffer from unhelpful and inaccurate stereotypes. The problem is that people think they know what these jobs entail – although very few have an accurate idea.

“Nursing professionals are often belittled as battle weary matrons – neither an accurate or helpful comparison. And few professionals can expect to receive as much hostility or negative stereotyping as social workers. The image of social workers as trying to part children from their carers is particularly damaging. No wonder we struggle to attract and retain quality candidates into the profession.

“The sector needs to work with TV and other media when they’re running relevant story lines to ensure scripts are as accurate as possible. We also need to back the sectors’ leaders when they put their heads above the parapet – it was great to see the head of the College of Social Work step into the line of fire and attack media organisations for preying on social workers for instance.”