University News Last updated 18 December 2014
"80,000 people saying they can’t get on to a nursing course is more to do with suitability rather than capacity", says health academic in defence of nursing education.
Figures released on Tuesday show that up to 80,000 UK students can't find places on nursing courses, despite hospitals hiring almost 6,000 foreign nurses last year, up from 1,360 the year before.
"The skills implied to be weak in foreign nurses are tested for in university recruitment processes and a lack of jobs is certainly not the case in the Midlands", said Michael Adams, Associate Head of the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work at Birmingham City University.
It also emerged it costs the NHS £70,000 to train a nurse for three years – but for the same amount it could hire three qualified foreigners on an average salary of £23,000.
"This seems like an argument to try and engineer cheaper nurse training away from universities. I would argue to defend university education all day long – and I didn’t train as a nurse in a university", said the university lecturer.
"There is no doubt that nursing numbers need to rise to ensure patient safety, but any rise in numbers needs to be alongside continued robust and high quality training that UK universities in partnership with the NHS provides.
"I would question where £70,000 to train a nurse has come from – a university gets around £6,000 per year and the Trusts get a similar figure."