Applications in England to university nursing programmes have fallen by 9.8 percent in a year, resulting in leading nurses calling for government action as the NHS grapples with more than 42,000 vacancies in the profession.
Data provided by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) on Feb. 15 revealed that there were 24,680 nursing applicants to higher education providers in England by the January 2024 deadline. This represents a fall of 9.8 percent from last year, when there were 27,370 applications.
Over two years, applications have seen a decline of 26.1 percent compared with when the figure stood at 33,410 in 2022.
The number of nursing applications across the whole United Kingdom and from all domiciles saw a similar steep decline, falling by 7.4 percent to 31,100.
NHS Facing 10.3 Percent Vacancy Rate for Nurses
The nursing profession is experiencing a staffing shortage, with the latest NHS England data revealing a vacancy rate of a 10.3 percent, representing 42,306 vacancies. Concerns about the vacancies prompted leading nurses to call on the government to use March’s spring budget to fund emergency measures to boost training numbers.
The RCN’s General Secretary and Chief Executive Pat Cullen said the latest admissions figures “expose a widening gap between the aspirations of the [NHS Long Term Workforce Plan] and the level of political effort required to make them a reality. This needs immediate intervention and corrective action to protect patients now and in the future.
“A decline in applicants risks causing a cascading effect, with fewer students accepted onto nursing courses leading to diminished course cohorts and eventually lower numbers graduating and becoming registered nurses.”
Many Health Workers Are Foreign Nationals
The data comes the same week it was revealed the extent to which the NHS relies on non-UK nationals to staff its hospitals.Analysis by the PA news agency found that a record-breaking 20.4 percent of NHS England posts are filled by foreign nationals, including 36.3 percent of doctors and 30 percent of nurses and health visitors.
The findings prompted industry professionals to issue warnings over the importance of training and retaining domestic talent.
Chief Executive of NHS Employers Danny Mortimer said on Monday that the service “will not be able to continue to draw on international recruitment to fill NHS vacancies forever,” calling for expanding the number of staff trained in the UK.
Mr. Mortimer continued: “If anything, retention is just as important as attracting new staff into the NHS and will be key in the short term to preventing pressures from worsening and ensuring the recruitment base we are looking to build from has solid foundations.
“Expanding the number of staff we train here is also important, so it is vital the continued expansion of training and education, set out in the NHS England long-term workforce plan, is maintained.”
The government had pledged to toughen visa rules for international students in its bid to get migration under control.
At the beginning of this year, rules came into force which prevent overseas students bringing dependents—such as spouses, children, and parents—to the UK with them, unless they are on research programmes or are on government-funded scholarships.
