How the lack of a bursary has affected nursing students

The decision to stop granting bursaries to students on nursing and courses for allied health professionals was made in 2017, replacing this financial support with student loans. The consequences of the decision by the then Conservative Chancellor George Osborne has been detrimental to both students and their universities.

As we are all aware, there is a shortage of nurses, with jobs outweighing the numbers of qualified nurses by an estimated 70 000. Following the scrapping of the bursary there was a drop of 13 000 in first-time nursing student numbers in 2018, widening further the gap between job vacancies and available nurse numbers. It is quite likely that the scrapping of this major support for nursing students has made many think twice about whether or not to choose nursing. This drop in student numbers will, in turn, affect the number of home-grown nurses that the country produces, especially in fields such as mental health.