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The Royal College of Nursing claims that the UK government’s ambitious plan to expand the NHS workforce has encountered its first setback due to a significant decrease in nursing acceptances at universities this year.
According to finalised data from UCAS, acceptances for nursing in the UK have dropped by 12% compared to last year, leaving the government well behind its targets for boosting nurse recruitment and addressing NHS staff shortages.
Under the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan for England, nursing training places need to increase by 65% to 80% compared to last year’s levels in order to meet the targets set for 2031.
Last month, preliminary results indicated that the government had already stumbled at the first hurdle of their NHS Workforce Plan, says Nichola Ashby, the RCN’s UK deputy director of nursing.
Ashby acknowledges nursing as a fantastic and diverse career option but identifies several factors contributing to the reluctance to enter the profession, including low wages and financial struggles exacerbated by the high cost of living.
Despite working a 40-hour week, many student nurses are forced to take on second jobs just to make ends meet, especially as many new recruits are mature adults with families and mortgages, Ashby adds.
James Buchan, a senior fellow at the Health Foundation, emphasizes that recruiting and retaining nurses is critical to addressing the NHS workforce crisis, considering the current shortage of over 43,000 nursing vacancies in NHS trusts in England alone. He believes that training more nurses is essential but not sufficient if the health service cannot retain its existing staff.
As applications for nursing have dropped to 2019 levels after a surge in popularity during the Covid-19 pandemic, the UK has increasingly relied on nurses from abroad, with nearly half of the new nursing joiners in 2022-23 coming from overseas countries, primarily outside of Europe.
Miriam Deakin, director of policy and strategy for NHS Providers, describes the drop in nursing applications as “extremely worrying,” especially as NHS strike action is escalating.
The vice-chancellors of Sheffield Hallam, Portsmouth, and Sunderland universities have all confirmed low volumes of nursing applicants and warned of a potential crisis for the profession.
According to Sir David Bell, vice-chancellor of the University of Sunderland, the perception of the NHS being overworked, overburdened, and underpaid has affected nursing recruitment, and he questions whether the government fully understands the urgency of the crisis.
Graham Galbraith, the vice-chancellor of the University of Portsmouth, adds that nursing students face additional pressures as their long hours prevent them from taking on casual work to supplement their grants.
The changes to the student loans repayment system have also negatively affected nurses. Sir David Bell explains that nurses’ salary levels mean they will be paying back more for longer than other students pursuing professions with higher salaries.
The Department of Health and Social Care asserts that the government is committed to addressing NHS staffing issues with its workforce plan, which is supported by £2.4bn over the next five years to fund additional education and training places.
Although demand for nursing places has “rebalanced” since the pandemic, nursing applications are still 12% higher than in 2019 when midwifery applications are taken into account, alongside “thousands” more applicants seeking to study medicine than available places, according to the department.
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