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This paper aims to understand the preparation that a group of black male pre-service students received during their course and its impact on their willingness to commit to entering the teaching profession.

The paper draws on findings from a small-scale qualitative study of black and minority ethnic student teachers’ experiences in one initial teacher education institution.

The paper raises questions as to whether black pre-service teachers’ experiences of a lack of acceptance in schools during their pre-service training contribute to the under-representation of black male teachers in English schools.

There is limited research on the experiences of black male student teachers. The paper brings new insights and offers reasons for black male student teachers not entering the teaching profession.

The statistics and associated literature reveal a chronic shortage of nurses and midwives and difficulties in recruiting and retaining D and E grades, the main providers of hands‐on patient care. This qualitative exploratory study of nurse satisfaction, dissatisfaction and reasons for staying provides empirical support for a conceptual model “the nurse satisfaction, quality of care and patient satisfaction chain”. The in‐depth interviews reveal a spontaneous and explicit linking of organisational resources to nurses’ ability to provide the level of patient care commensurate with their desire and patients’ needs. Nurse job satisfaction derives from knowing that they have provided good care as well as the attributes of the job such as a career, skill acquisition and the “people I work with”. Job dissatisfaction stems primarily from staff shortages, the behaviour of patients and negative media comment. The interviews demonstrate the critical role of the “ability to give quality care” and the satisfaction derived from patients’ demonstration of their appreciation and the influence of this on nurse retention.

This paper proposes an integrated approach to examining and dealing with the complex issue of nurse recruitment, retention, healthcare quality and patient satisfaction. The paper depicts and describes a generic conceptual framework or chain derived from a review of the literature on nurse recruitment and retention, service quality and human resource management. The chain is made up of the following components: NHS and Trust conditions and environment (internal quality) –service capability – nurse satisfaction –nurse retention – quality of patient care – patient satisfaction. The value of the chain is derived from its synthesis and display of the prime constituents or drivers of nurse satisfaction, quality of patient care and satisfaction. From this holistic picture it is possible for both national and local initiatives to be integrated in a mutually reinforcing way in order to achieve improvements in nurse recruitment, retention, quality of care and patient satisfaction.

This paper presents the findings of a qualitative study, based on interviews with over 130 nurses and midwives in four London Trust hospitals on: the main factors influencing nurse satisfaction and retention; empirical support for the robustness of a conceptual framework or model “the nurse satisfaction, service quality and nurse retention chain”; and some managerial considerations for recruitment and retention. The three main factors influencing job satisfaction were patients, the inherent characteristics of nursing and the nursing team; the two main sources of job dissatisfaction were staff shortages and poor management and amongst nurse retention strategies improving working conditions was more important than increased pay. For recruitment, as well as retention, improving the image and reputation of nursing along with improvements in work‐life balance were pre‐requisites for meeting the challenging target of an additional 20,000 nurses on the wards by 2004.

This study investigates labour market fluctuations and gender issues in the health and care sector. A large data set from public registers has allowed us to compile a comprehensive picture of the job categories that particularly attract men. We find a polarisation of men in the upper and lower positions in the job hierarchy. In the metropolitan area, men tend to be discouraged from taking jobs in the health and care sector, as opposed to the peripheral region, where alternative job offers may be more scarce. A logistic regression analysis shows that (young) age is the major explanatory factor for leaving the health and care sector to find occupation elsewhere. However, gender (male), wage levels (low), marital status (single) and education (none) are also significant. The study discusses seven theoretical perspectives for male and female careers in the health and care sector: The need for flexibility. Destandardising of jobs. Devaluation of feminised work areas. Human capital as a stabiliser. Feminisation. The prospects of boundaryless careers. The spatial dimension.