Coronavirus: Lack of university training places as interest in nursing as a career surges

Thousands more people are interested in becoming a nurse as a result of the coronavirus crisis, NHS England has said, but it warned a lack of degree places may hamper a rise in training numbers.

NHS England’s chief executive Sir Simon Stevens has called on universities to increase the number of places available to students.

Between 16 March and 15 April, 74,475 people clicked on the nursing pages of the NHS health careers website, up from 23,018 in the same period last year, a rise of more than 220 per cent.

The NHS has a shortage of around 40,000 nurses, despite record recruitment in the last five years including thousands of nurses from overseas.

Changes introduced under chancellor George Osborne meant trainee nurses now have to pay for their courses using student loans rather than government grants, which was designed to help allow universities to offer more degree places.

But half of a nursing student’s course is spent working in NHS hospitals, which also has to be funded.

NHS England has set aside £10 million to directly pay for 8,000 more clinical placements in hospitals, bringing the total to around 30,000.

It warned the lack of university degree places meant there were likely to be 4,000 more placements than degrees when courses start this autumn. It has called on universities to carry out extra recruitment of students in the spring.

Sir Simon said: “The biggest global health emergency in a century has put a huge spotlight on the crucial role of nurses not just in the NHS but also in social care.

“We have seen three generations of nurses pitching in to help, not just our current fantastic staff but also retired nurses coming back and student nurses beginning their careers early. And looking out across the years ahead we know we are going to need many more nurses.”

The Council of Deans of Health, which represents university leaders educating future healthcare staff including nurses, said the increase in interest in a career in nursing was welcome.

Dr Katerina Kolyva, executive director, said work was ongoing to expand student numbers and a new national recruitment campaign and new maintenance grant would help.

She said: “A number of universities already offer nursing courses starting in the spring term, but these tend to attract mature students rather than school leavers who often prefer to start in September with students on other courses.

“Multiple student cohorts do have implications for staffing and timetabling. Though these are not necessarily insurmountable if there is enough student interest, it would be useful to work with government on supportive measures, including more flexible student finance arrangements and policies to boost the academic workforce.

“There will also be challenges to be addressed around student placements and the provision of support in practice so long as the pandemic continues.”