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One of the most important changes in the environment of schooling during the last decade has been the establishment of educational markets and inter–institutional competition which, in turn, has led to the development of a new management culture in schools. In the light of these developments, this paper draws together the research on heads’ responses to marketisation and suggests theoretical hypotheses on the impact of its underlying features on their psychological well–being. Our argument is that the major features of educational marketisation may promote the emergence of both the determinants of professional growth and self–renewal and of occupational stress and job burnout among headteachers. These determinants, in turn, lead to the appearance of two types of well–being among school heads. To support our hypothesis we refer to the work of others and empirical findings from various fields of study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The majority of young people make a career choice without regard for salary, and base their decision on interest and enjoyment or a desire to help people. This paper examines students' perceptions of nursing as a career at a number of key stages in their education decision-making, and how this information influences their subsequent career decision either to choose or to reject nursing. Factors relating to image and status are also explored and some comparisons are made between nursing and young people's own choice of career, to highlight a number of significant issues. The findings indicate that although young people expressed admiration for the work of nurses, this was rarely matched by an envy of nurses, or a desire to become a nurse themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the interpretation of nursing statistics, the problem of counting how many nurses there are in the workforce, and the need to be aware of how statistics are compiled when presenting numerical data to support arguments relating to nursing and the nursing workforce. Argues that NHS workforce statistics provide considerable evidence for claiming that there is a significant decline in the number of nursing staff doing the work of nursing in the NHS. Explains that although there was an increase in the number of qualified nurses working in the NHS throughout the 1980s (over a ten-year period the number of qualified nurses increased by 22 per cent), the increase in qualified nursing staff has not compensated for the loss of student learners in the workforce. Emphasizes that during the last three years for which figures are available, however, these gains have been wiped out, and the number of qualified nurses has declined to pre-Project 2000 levels.

States that the number of enrolled nurse conversions completed during the last ten years has had a significant impact on the number of registered nurses (RNs) available for employment in the National Health Service (NHS), and the contribution made by the enrolled nurse conversion course programme to the NHS workforce may have delayed the impact of the "demographic time bomb" on nursing recruitment. Emphasizes that the winding down of the conversion programme, and a fall in the number of RNs employed in the NHS, combined with a decline in entries to preregistration (initial) training, could signal the beginning of the long-awaited crisis facing the nursing profession.