Of all the traditional public sector careers, nursing is seen as one of the least appealing. The stereotypes remain deeply entrenched: firefighters are brave, teachers are clever, doctors cure people and nurses are low-paid doctors’ helpers.

This was recently borne out by a poll of more than 8,600 children aged between 7 and 17, conducted for the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). It found that only one in 20 young people thought nursing was the professional career for them.

While “helping people” was one of the most important factors in choosing a career, nursing was the least desired public-sector job, falling behind those of police officer, teacher, doctor and firefighter.

Peter Carter, the general secretary of the RCN – a former psychiatric nurse with both a PhD and an MBA – is the doctor charged with curing some of the perceptions that surround the nursing profession. With 200,000 British nurses – nearly a third of the workforce – due to retire in the next decade, there is “no question” that there will be a shortage of nurses in future unless Dr Carter acts fast.

If this week’s annual congress in Harrogate is anything to go by, Dr Carter has at least succeeded in raising the profile of the profession among the political elite with both Gordon Brown – the first Prime Minister to address the union’s conference in its 93-year history – and David Cameron making high-profile appearances.

Dr Carter, who took charge of the RCN in 2007, can also be credited with encouraging a more “professional” attitude among the congress delegates. The ovations for both Mr Brown and Mr Cameron contrasted sharply with the boos and catcalls that greeted Patricia Hewitt, the former Health Secretary, at the RCN Congress in Bournemouth three years ago.

But economic times have changed. In 2006 the NHS was beset by deficits – it now has a £1.7 billion surplus – while the following year nurses were considering “working to rule” on the basis of the apparently meagre pay rise being offered by the Government.

Yet the three-year deal, providing rises of just over 2 per cent a year, has turned out “to be a very good result” in the light of recent deflation, Dr Carter said. But low pay still discourages school-leavers from joining the nursing workforce.

Dr Carter said: “In the last year, the number of nurses asking the RCN for advice about mortgage payments or debt troubles rose by 76 per cent. A nurse earns on average just over £24,000. In the current climate, that does not go far. We need to get across to young people that nursing really is an attractive career. It’s clear that the image of nursing does not reflect the reality.”

The average age of a nursing student is now 28, and about 40 per cent have worked in another profession. People in their thirties and forties make very good nurses, he says, but there needs to be a focus on schools, to spell out that nursing has moved a long way from its old image of the doctor’s handmaiden.

The profession now incorporates a broad range of careers with many roles involving tasks that previously would only have been done by surgeons or doctors.

“People may come into the profession with good intentions, but things can go wrong if they’re not properly trained. These days, a nurse may be leading a team of experts in a specialist hospital, helping a 40-a-day smoker to stop or caring for a sick baby in an intensive care unit. They are the glue which holds the health service together.”

Dr Carter, 58, previously spent 38 years in the NHS, training as a mental health nurse before moving into management, becoming chief executive of Central and North West London Mental Health Trust in 1995.

A keen scuba-diver, he is also a member of the Government’s new Commission on the Future of Nursing and Midwifery, proudly namechecked by Mr Brown. But the group needs to focus quickly on a few key areas if it is to be more than yet another NHS talking-shop, he says.

One priority should be standardised training for all nurses, as courses vary widely across the country at present. “Some areas are very good, providing just the right amount of textbook learning and hands-on experience, but in other areas the balance isn’t right.”

Moves to make a degree a minimum requirement should be a catalyst for change, he says, but without sacrificing the bursaries available to students to help them through courses of at least three years.

Healthcare assistants (HCAs) – who can now be expected to help to treat patients with little more than a “learn on the job” approach – should also be properly regulated, he says.

“We’ve seen recent examples in Mid Staffordshire, Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Harrow [where HCAs restrained unruly patients with sheets] where terrible things happen due to a lack of trained staff.”

The conclusion is clear, he adds: “More nurses means better care.”

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