The new American head of Britain's biggest nursing union yesterday pledged to break the glass ceiling holding back nurses' careers and preventing patients from getting the best possible care.

Dr Beverly Malone, a former adviser to Bill Clinton and a former head of the American Nursing Association, also told an audience of nurses that "shortages and retention of nurses is one of the biggest issues" facing the NHS.

"We have to be able to tell them how there is going to be a career, not a glass ceiling," Dr Malone told the Royal College of Nursing's annual conference in Harrogate.