Nurse vacancies remain high, despite rise in undergraduate course intake
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Nurse vacancies remain high, despite rise in undergraduate course intake

More people have been accepted onto undergraduate nursing courses in England this year than last, but the RCN says the figure is still too low to address current nurse vacancies.

Mental Health Practice. 23, 5, 7-7. doi: 10.7748/mhp.23.5.7.s6

Published: 09 September 2020

Universities and Colleges Admissions Service data show that this year 18,250 students from the UK have been accepted onto nursing degree courses in England – a 12% increase on 2019’s figure of 16,240.

Despite the rise in acceptances, the RCN says this will not be enough to address the 40,000 nurse vacancies in England. The college said the government needs to abolish tuition fees for nursing students, introduce maintenance grants and remove the debt accrued by nursing students since they started paying fees in 2017.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: ‘From September, all new and continuing students will also benefit from at least £5,000 a year in free additional support during their studies.

‘We are committed to delivering 50,000 more nurses and are making good progress, with over 13,500 more nurses working in our NHS compared to last year.’

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