Workforce issues
costing around £64,600 to complete training. To shore up the domestically trained NHS workforce, which in nursing has seen new joiners drop by almost a third in two years, the Nuffield Trust examines strategies used in other countries, including tie-in initiatives to keep staff in the NHS, paid training placements and a loans forgiveness scheme. The Nuffield Trust concludes that loans
forgiveness should be immediately made available to the 28,000 nurses, midwives and allied health professionals (AHPs) joining eligible public services each year. Such a scheme would gradually write off outstanding student debt – currently averaging around £48,000 per nurse – reducing it by 30% after three years of service, 70% after seven years and writing it off completely after ten years, in recognition of workers’ contribution to public services. The proposal is outlined in detail in
an accompanying paper jointly authored by Dr. Billy Palmer of the Nuffield Trust, Dr. Gavan Conlon of London Economics and Dr. John Cater CBE, a leading University Vice-Chancellor.2 The authors argue that such a scheme would increase the number of applications to clinical education courses, reduce attrition during training and grow participation in NHS, social care and other eligible services. It would
Nuffield Trust’s key findings on attrition in the NHS
l More than 83,000 students accepted a place to study an undergraduate or postgraduate clinical degree (including medicine, nursing, midwifery and the allied health professions) across the UK in 2022.
l £2.6 billion was spent on undergraduate education and training in 2022/23 in England, with a further £2.5 billion spent on postgraduate medicine and dentistry.
l Only half of nurses, midwives and nursing associates (52%) and two in five doctors (39%) joining the UK professional registers were trained domestically in the latest year of data.
l Around one in eight nursing (13%) and radiography (13%) students did not gain their intended degree between 2014 and 2020, compared with 5% for physiotherapy.
l Attrition was on the rise for nursing, physiotherapy and radiography in the two years before the COVID-19 pandemic – for radiotherapy it was up to one in six (17%) in 2018/19 compared with 13% in 2016/17.
l Only one in 14 nursing graduates (7%) do not begin their career as a nurse after graduating. However, around one in nine midwifery graduates (11%) and one in seven
occupational therapy graduates (15%) do not immediately join their respective profession.
l 6,325 fewer new nurses with a UK nationality joined NHS hospital and community services in the year to March 2022 compared with the two years before that (a fall of 32%).
l Around one in five radiographers (17%), nurses (18%), occupational therapists (21%) and physiotherapists (21%) have left NHS hospital and community settings within two years. This is broadly twice the level seen for midwives (10%), although some professions have more alternative employment opportunities than others, both inside the public sector (for example, general practice) and outside (for example, private practice and social care).
l Most medical students successfully graduate and start their first foundation year (which they must complete to become fully registered) but only 30% of those completing foundation training in 2021/22 continued straight into GP or consultant training posts.
l Fewer than three in five doctors (56%) in ‘core training’ remained (even in a different role) in NHS hospital and community services in England eight years later, with half (24%) of this attrition seen in the first two years.
February ‘24
READ NOW AT
TIMESCO.COM
March 2024 I
www.clinicalservicesjournal.com 65
t
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68
