Nursing degree applications slump after NHS bursaries abolished

[Northerner]

Applications by students in England to nursing and midwifery courses at British universities have fallen by 23% after the government abolished NHS bursaries, figures show.

Nursing leaders said the sudden slump revealed by the latest university application data was inevitable given that student nurses now faced paying annual tuition fees of more than £9,000.

“These figures confirm our worst fears. The nursing workforce is in crisis and if fewer nurses graduate in 2020 it will exacerbate what is already an unsustainable situation,” said Janet Davies, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing.

“The outlook is bleak: fewer EU nurses are coming to work in the UK following the Brexit vote, and by 2020 nearly half the workforce will be eligible for retirement. With 24,000 nursing vacancies in the UK, the government needs to take immediate action to encourage more applicants by reinstating student funding and investing in student education. The future of nursing, and the NHS, is in jeopardy.”

https://www.theguardian.com/educati...lications-slump-after-nhs-bursaries-abolished

Totally predictable 😡 Instead of abolishing bursaries the government should have increased them and invested in the future. What have they saved when we don't have enough nurses in the future?

 

[Ljc]

What did they expect to happen.

 

[mikeyB]

There are many factors for this. The expectation now is that every nurse should have a university degree, before they get into hospital. Many folk are put off by the prospect of lifelong debt after a uni course. If you are intelligent enough to do a nursing degree, you are intelligent enough to learn on the job, as always happened before, in my opinion.

 

[Northerner]

There are many factors for this. The expectation now is that every nurse should have a university degree, before they get into hospital. Many folk are put off by the prospect of lifelong debt after a uni course. If you are intelligent enough to do a nursing degree, you are intelligent enough to learn on the job, as always happened before, in my opinion.

At the time the policy was announced it was pointed out that many choose nursing as a second career, so embark upon it as mature students and may already carry debts and responsibilities that an 18 year old wouldn't. Plus, nursing students don't get the free time that other students do enabling them to work part-time to supplement their grants

Only a perverse government like ours could see the problem that bursaries were insufficient to meet needs and scrap them entirely, then claim more would be able to train. 😡

 

[grovesy]

At the time the policy was announced it was pointed out that many choose nursing as a second career, so embark upon it as mature students and may already carry debts and responsibilities that an 18 year old wouldn't. Plus, nursing students don't get the free time that other students do enabling them to work part-time to supplement their grants

Only a perverse government like ours could see the problem that bursaries were insufficient to meet needs and scrap them entirely, then claim more would be able to train. 😡

I know I retired a few years ago but many of the students did do part time work, many do health care bank or agency work.

 

[Lindarose]

When I started working at the hospital in 1984 nurses needed to be caring and practical with obviously common sense and intelligence. Sadly the role has changed and now involves so much computer/admin and paperwork it' needs different set of requirements. I know many wonderful nurses who probably would not have been able to go into the profession nowadays.