Abstract
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.