NHS faces staff crisis as student nurse applications plummet after Tories scrapped their grants

[Northerner]

Nursing leaders today warn the NHS faces a staffing crisis after figures showed a sharp fall in applications for training places.

The number applying to be student nurses has dropped from 65,620 to 53,010 - a fall of 12,610 on last year.

The fall comes after the Government axed student bursaries for trainee nurses and midwives.

From this September they have to take out loans to cover living costs and £9,000 a year fees.

The Royal College of Nursing said the figures case doubt on the ability to train enough nurses to fill the 40,000 vacant nurse posts in England.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/nhs-faces-staff-crisis-student-10788051

More false economy

 

[mikeyB]

Well, if the government is surprised, I'll be amazed. The student loans will never be paid off by a nurse, so they might as well reintroduce bursaries. It's not rocket science.

 

[Bill Stewardson]

All those nurses using food banks are obviously using their money to pay off the money they owe for their training rather than buying food.

Lazy ungrateful students refusing to join in !!!!

 

[Copepod]

Even the RCN is finding it hard to find many nurses who are using food banks. The word nurse is commonly used to mean anyone involved in caring jobs, not just those who are registered nurses, which is a protected name. If course, nurses and carers also experience problems such as relationship breakdowns, rental evictions, hiccups in paying wages etc, and may need short term food support, just like people from all professions and jobs.
Government policies that reduce numbers of people entering the profession are not going to help numbers of nurses.

 

[Bill Stewardson]

Even the RCN is finding it hard to find many nurses who are using food banks. The word nurse is commonly used to mean anyone involved in caring jobs, not just those who are registered nurses, which is a protected name. If course, nurses and carers also experience problems such as relationship breakdowns, rental evictions, hiccups in paying wages etc, and may need short term food support, just like people from all professions and jobs.
Government policies that reduce numbers of people entering the profession are not going to help numbers of nurses.

https://fullfact.org/economy/how-many-nurses-are-using-foodbanks/

 

[Copepod]

Exactly - the RCN includes healthcare assistants, trainee and retired nurses in their figure and acknowledged numbers are not many, but are more than one or two.
Pay rates, conditions of service, stress (often due to unfilled posts), unpaid overtime etc, plus fewer trainees entering the profession, are all factors in affecting numbers of nurses working in NHS and other places, such as nursing homes, which must have registered nurses on staff, etc.

 

[Bill Stewardson]

Exactly - the RCN includes healthcare assistants, trainee and retired nurses in their figure and acknowledged numbers are not many, but are more than one or two.
Pay rates, conditions of service, stress (often due to unfilled posts), unpaid overtime etc, plus fewer trainees entering the profession, are all factors in affecting numbers of nurses working in NHS and other places, such as nursing homes, which must have registered nurses on staff, etc.

My brother is a director of a health trust, and I worked myself in the NHS for seven years, and have warmed one or two hospital beds over the last 18 months.

The obvious flavour among staff at most levels is abject depression, once people despise their workplace things slide. Altruistic people gradually give up, and this isn't something that sits on one side of the managerial fence.

Main cause is simply pay. Year on year they are falling behind the cost of living and it has resulted in people going to work to assist in preserving life on the back of worrying about the mortgage. Sure enough this is likely the case in the few factories we have left or smoke glass fronted office blocks.

Difference being NHS staff know with damning certainty that this gruesome situation will not change, indeed they will be demonised when the political need is evident.

Defining the word nurse may well enable some down playing of numbers using food banks, I prefer to take the view that ONE is too many.

Young doctors are currently forgotten by the public, leaders of nursing colleges, professors, surgeons, unions, all have been sounding the alarm for a very long time. Our leaders will talk of the need for "prudence" and the absence of a money tree.

Vote how you want, think how you want.

Is the above acceptable or even necessary ?? Where is Mr Johnsons weekly cash injection and why is he still in office ??