Figures have been released today and they show that the number of students who have been accepted onto an undergraduate course do not meet the need for nurses in the future. The latest figures show that England is very far behind in terms of recruitment and that the number of nurses who are able to offer care do not meet the increasing need for patients. Those who work in a nurse agency or even in a nursing recruitment agency will know this more than anyone and it’s a sad sight to say the least. Sure, the numbers have increased by 4% last year but overall, they are still down by over 8% when you look at 2016. There are now 1,360 less people who have been accepted onto a course and this is not good news at all. Ministers have claimed that the reform for student funding is going to boost the numbers of student places and that this is also going to affect the industry in general. Ministers have claimed time and time again that student funding is going to be boosted if they are able to offer more variation in courses, but so far the efforts have been futile. More efforts need to be made to try and support those who want to study nursing as well as giving them a high degree of support throughout their training.

The government is being called upon to invest more in the industry because if nothing is done then this is not going to spell good news for the industry in general. Right now, it doesn’t look good and if the numbers continue to fall then this will make the situation in general even worse. All in all, only time will tell what is going to happen.