England’s former chief nursing officer (CNO) has described the removal of the bursary for student nurses as a ‘catastrophic decision’ that has had a lasting impact on the nursing workforce and during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking at the UK Covid-19 Inquiry earlier today, Dame Ruth May stressed the domestic supply of future nurses and midwives in England was ‘key to a future pandemic’.
She suggested there were 5,000 fewer nurses and 700 fewer midwives at the beginning of the pandemic than there would have been if the nursing bursary – which helped with tuition fees and the costs of training – was not scrapped in 2015.
Dame Ruth said this would have been equivalent to around 40 extra nurses working in every hospital during the pandemic.
At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, there were nearly 40,000 nurse vacancies in England.
Dame Ruth noted the government’s 2019 programme to have an additional 50,000 nurses in England and said that while she did support it at the time, the goal ‘should have probably been’ closer to 85,000 to meet pre-pandemic demand.
The bursary in effect meant student nurses had their university fees and maintenance grant paid for, with many nursing courses reporting a significant drop in applications after the bursary was cut.
‘Removing the bursary, for me, was a catastrophic decision,’ Dame Ruth told the inquiry.
The former CNO, who retired earlier this year, said the 5.000 extra nurses would have ‘made a difference’ to the pandemic, helping to reduce staff burnout and psychological distress, as well as improving patient to staff ratios.
Dame Ruth stressed the need to develop domestic workforce supply and ‘bring back the full educational package or write off debt’.
‘The domestic supply of future nurses and midwives in this country is key to a future pandemic,’ she said.
Cost-of-living grants were introduced in 2020, but student nurses in England are still required to take out a loan to cover tuition fees.
Dame Ruth said it ‘was a privilege to be a nurse’ during the pandemic but warned that ‘nurses bore the brunt’ of the impact of Covid-19 on healthcare.
She recalled the particular impact of the pandemic on black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) nursing and healthcare staff.
‘It was tough for them, tougher for them than people from my background,’ she said.
‘I think back to the Nightingale [hospital] – there were 30 patients and all but one of them were from a black, Asian or minority ethnic background, and that was replicated in critical care units.
‘If you were staff treating patients that were also looking like you, that was tough for them. Very tough.’
Dame Ruth also recalled a roundtable she attended in July 2020, where it was reported that four nurses had died by suicide, with one further nurse in an intensive care unit (ICU) and another member of staff who had made an attempt to take their life.
Commenting on Dame Ruth’s comments today, Royal College of Nursing (RCN) general secretary and chief executive Professor Nicola Ranger said: ‘The removal of government funding for nursing places is still being felt today with tens of thousands of vacant posts across the whole of health and care and there remains a collapse in the number of people applying to join the nursing profession.
‘As a direct result of this, millions are now on waiting lists and lack of staff leaves patients being treated in corridors and other inappropriate conditions.’
Professor Ranger pointed to the publication of the Darzi review, which identified a lack of investment in community nursing.
‘The only way to reverse this is through funding for nursing education, such as a loan forgiveness model that attracts and retains more people into the profession and does not leave nurses deep in debt as they begin their career,’ she added.
