Number of nursing students accepted flatlines despite Government push

The number of nursing students accepted onto courses in Scotland has stagnated despite a Scottish Government target.

Data from applications body Ucas showed 3,530 students were accepted onto Scottish university courses in the field this year, compared to 3,520 last year.

The Scottish Government has come in for criticism over the figure, which had set a target of 4,536 places for this year for nursing.

Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Scotland associate director Eileen McKenna said: “Acceptances onto nursing courses have stagnated, with numbers being accepted still below pre-covid levels.

“This is an extremely worrying trend. Scotland does not have the number of nurses that are needed to meet demand for care in health and social care services right now.

“And as a result of the failure to fill places over the past three years, we will have less nurses than needed graduating in the years ahead, at a time when demand is increasing.

“This is a desperate situation and it is more important than ever that the ministerial nursing and midwifery taskforce proposes the right actions to directly address these challenges.

“The Scottish Government must back its commitment to the taskforce, and its forthcoming review of nursing student finance, with the financial resources needed to deliver change and ensure nursing is positioned as a career of choice.”

Scottish Labour deputy leader Dame Jackie Baillie said the statistics were “deeply worrying”.

“If the SNP does not act quickly to recruit and retain nurses, our NHS will be hollowed out from within,” she said.

And Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: “These alarming gaps stretch all the way back to Nicola Sturgeon cutting training places and claiming that was sensible. Now, staff are overwhelmed and stretched dangerously thin.

“Staff shortages bring big risks of putting patients in danger, while seriously compromising the quality of care.”

Health Secretary Neil Gray said: “The Scottish Government is working with stakeholders as part of the nursing and midwifery taskforce to consider attraction and retention of staff and students.

“Taskforce recommendations will be published early in the new year and will include recommendations around developing earn as you learn routes to widen access into nursing and midwifery educational pathways.”