A university in the South of England is hoping to ‘fight stereotypes’ and ‘put positivity back into the nursing profession’ amid a drop in nursing student applications across the country.
The University of East Anglia (UEA) has put a renewed focus on its ‘This Nurse Can’ campaign – first launched last summer – to improve student nursing numbers and highlight the opportunities a nursing degree can bring.
The campaign uses a series of case studies to highlight the diversity of career options that nursing brings and the range of settings that nurses can work in, from community, mental health, to cruise and air ambulance nursing.
The renewed focus comes as new figures from the University and College Admissions Service (UCAS) found that applications to study nursing in the UK have fallen for a fourth consecutive year.
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According to UCAS, 34% fewer nursing students are expected to start nursing courses in September compared with 2021.
UEA hopes its campaign will ‘increase engagement’ with people who have not previously considered a nursing career.
Simon Rose, director of admissions, recruitment and marketing for the School of Health Sciences at UEA, said the campaign aims to showcase the ‘diverse range’ of employment opportunities in nursing and to ‘fight stereotypes’ about who a nursing degree is for.
‘The main aim is to put positivity back into the nursing profession,’ he explained.
‘The campaign looks at perceptions of nursing, but there’s not just one single variable that we need to tackle, there’s also the cost of living and the impact of visa restrictions.’
Despite the challenges, Mr Rose explained that the campaign is focused on championing nursing ‘as a career’ and highlighting opportunities for personal development in a nursing role.
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The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has recently calculated that the attrition figure for nursing students is 21%.
Last December, the RCN reported that over 32,000 student nurses could drop out of their courses by the end of the next parliament, enough to fill every nursing vacancy in the NHS in England.
Speaking at the time, RCN general secretary and chief executive, Professor Nicola Ranger said that high training costs and the likelihood of low pay was pushing many student nurses away from the profession.
‘Transforming care cannot happen without investment to transform nursing. That means changing the way we recruit into the profession and making it a more attractive career by raising pay,’ she said.
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The Department of Health and Social Care has been contacted for comment.
