Nearly one thousand registered and practical nurses asked to be struck off the register in 2022.
The National Supervisory Authority for Health and Welfare (Valvira) said it last year withdrew a total of 997 nurse licences upon request. In comparison, in 2021 Valvira only received 46 such requests.
Under Finnish law, certain social and healthcare professions require official licensing by the authority.
But while the requests to withdraw increased more than 20-fold, that number is still very low compared to the total number of professionals on the register, the authority said in a release on Monday.
"It is not possible to draw any conclusions from these applications. Professionals are not required to give a reason why they wish to withdraw their professional rights, and any reasons given are not recorded," the release stated.
Common reasons for leaving the profession, according to Valvira, included changing jobs, health reasons, retirement, but also dissatisfaction with the current state of the profession. These included the Patient Safety Act and Covid vaccine requirements for healthcare workers.
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