From Tuesday, new nursing, midwifery and other health students such as occupational therapists and physiotherapists will no longer receive NHS bursaries to cover their tuition fees. Instead, they will have to apply for student loans like other students.
The department of health says ending the bursaries will free up about £800m a year to create additional nursing roles by 2020. And the change comes as Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, announces 21,000 new posts to improve mental health services.
But will the removal of the NHS bursaries simply deepen the nursing recruitment crisis? 40,000 nursing posts are currently unfilled, and there are concerns that ending the bursary scheme will stop students from working class and mature backgrounds applying to train. Nursing students already face very different challenges from other students, says Janet Davies, chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing - for example they have little time to do paid work to cover their living costs at university as they are required to undertake clinical placements during non-term time. More than 20 charities, medical and professional bodies and trade unions have called ending the bursary an “untested gamble”.
Share your experiences
Are you a nurse, midwife or other healthcare professional who started your career on a NHS bursary - would you have still gone into this field if you’d had to pay tuition fees in full? Or have you been considering a career in the NHS, but are worried about how you will fund your training? How do you think think the ending of the bursary scheme will affect the NHS’ ability to recruit new staff?
You can share your experiences via the form below. We’ll include a selection of them in our reporting.
