With the NHS already struggling as it is, there is concern that the falling numbers of nurses could have a disastrous effect on future health stability.
Of the 16,544 student nurses who would have finished their three year courses last year, a staggering 4,027 left before they could finish.
According to the Royal College of Nursing, the majority of students are being put off applying or dropping out early due to the financial strain of the course, with grants being scrapped a few years back, as well as possible negative experiences that they’ve had on placement so far.
Despite the NHS facing a shortage in thousands of nurses, attempts to address the situation by the Conservative government have failed drastically.
According to Ben Gershlick, a senior economics analyst at the Health Foundation, the rise in drop-out rates does not bode well for the future; ‘the impact of the dropout rate is becoming more severe bearing in mind the overall shortage of nurses, vacancies in nursing posts and rising demand pressures on the NHS. The need for nurses trained in the UK has also increased as we have seen a recent fall in the inflow of nurses coming from broad.’
According to NHS Improvement, a financial aid organisation for the NHS, the service was running whilst short of 35,794 nurses back in May of this year. In terms of applications, numbers fell for both midwifery and nursing last year by a large 23 per cent after the government abolished NHS bursaries, replacing them ultimately with tuition fees and a loan system.
According to the Royal College of Nursing, the vast majority of their nurses in training have families to support or have other commitments, meaning that they cannot live on the loan system, leading many to drop out of the courses.
It appears that thousands of nurses are reluctantly refusing a career they love due to the financial aspects behind it, with the struggle to keep financially independent during the gruelling hours becoming a challenge for many.
According to Lynn Eaton, the editor of Nursing Standard, the cuts in bursaries and stresses of the job have shed a negative light on a very well respected and rewarding profession; ‘Nursing is a great career. Despite all we hear about the problems in the NHS and the changes in funding students while they study, it’s still a very attractive option.
“However, the drop-out rate, shown by our survey, is a major concern. We need to recruit enough nurses to meet the needs of our growing older population. But we also need to make sure we’re training the right people for those roles. Some students will, sadly, realise it’s not for them.’
With one in four nurses now dropping out before graduation, the Royal College of Nursing are arguing that trainees, who are not paid but do have to pay for their tuition, are being treated as a ‘cheap labour’ option; and with more and more dropping out each year, it seems rather obvious that a change has to come.
