Elsevier Health’s Clinician of the Future 2023 report serves as the most current pulse on the challenges and future opportunities across the global healthcare system.

Championing the experiences of 2,607 doctors and nurses worldwide, the research and information leader’s report underscores the gravity of healthcare workforce challenges highlighted in last year’s survey and puts an additional lens on the future role of generative AI in healthcare and its implications on patient care and health outcomes.

The first Clinician of the Future report by Elsevier Health identified that most doctors and nurses anticipated growing staff shortages. These shortages are now having a significant impact on the frontline workforce in many regions, and as a result, it has been identified as the number one concern globally in the 2023 report. In the UK, 93% of nurses surveyed rated tackling the shortage of nurses as a top priority to be addressed over the next 2-3 years. To add to this challenge, the report additionally reveals that 54% of nurses in the UK are contemplating leaving their current roles within the next 2-3 years.

Despite these challenges, the report does enforce the value that UK nurses place on their jobs with 85% saying they enjoy their role, a sentiment that aligns with their global counterparts. However, there are disparities in work-life balance, with only 57% of UK nurses believing they have a good work-life balance, compared to 68% of nurses worldwide.

• The perspective on the quality and delivery of patient care, along with the anticipation of its transformation was also highlighted:
  Only 49% of UK nurses feel they currently have sufficient time to provide quality care to their patients today.
• Currently, almost three-quarters (70%) of nurse-patient interactions in the UK take place in person.
• By 2028, UK nurses believe the number of in-person interactions with patients will reduce to one in two (51%), significantly lower than the global expectation of 65%.

This shift aligns with the growing importance and expectation of remote consultations, as 59% of UK nurses find it desirable for telehealth to be the main mechanism for routine check-ups in 2-3 years. With this in mind, it is perhaps unsurprising that three-quarters of UK nursing staff see it as desirable for nurses to be experts in using digital health technologies in the same timeframe.

The Clinician of the Future 2023 report further identified key insights into attitudes towards technology as an enabler to transform clinical decision-making. Currently, 10% of clinical decisions by nurses in the UK are assisted by generative AI tools, however, 35% agreed that using these technologies to help make clinical decisions in the next 2-3 years is desirable.

These findings are just a snapshot of those described in the report, which paints a dynamic picture of the current state of healthcare. If you are interested in finding out more or would like to read the full findings, download the Clinician of the Future 2023 report.