A rise within the variety of nurse trainees.

This blog is written by Alwin Puthenpurakal, an experienced senior lecturer and researcher based on the University of Greenwich. He has led university apprenticeship programs from their inception and highly values ​​their impact on increasing social mobility and solving national workforce challenges. With almost 20 years of clinical experience, she is an experienced senior nurse with a critical care background who has worked on workforce transformation projects and implemented latest models of care in quite a lot of clinical settings across the country.

The Nursing Apprenticeship Program is a government-funded initiative that gives the chance to coach as a registered nurse without having to attend university full-time. Apprenticeship programs are often delivered in partnership with the learner’s employer and the university. For apprentice nurses, this can be an NHS trust or local NHS practice and universities related to the employer. Unlike traditional university courses, university apprenticeship programs offer the twin good thing about on-the-job training with an employer and a related apprenticeship with university-level academic studies.

Within the UK, the Nursing Apprenticeship Scheme was first introduced in 2017. It was introduced to each help the social participation of people that were unable to attend university and study full-time and, crucially, to extend nursing labor supply. Even though it was recognized early on that nursing apprenticeship initiatives wouldn’t be enough to handle the nation’s nursing shortage [1]

Labor shortages within the NHS remain a really long-standing problem, spanning over a decade. In 2022, vacancies for full-time nursing staff remain well above pre-pandemic levels. Nursing, a safety-critical career, continues to be a key area of ​​shortfall in NHS funding, with nursing vacancies accounting for over a 3rd (around 43,600 FTEs) of all vacancies in December 2022. [2].

Motivating and retaining staff, particularly nurses, stays a serious problem within the NHS – the fifth largest on the planet^vol largest employer and largest employer within the UK. 12 months over 12 months, the share of worker departures has increased from single digits and climbed north to fifteen%. Though The NHS Long Term Plan and The NHS Long Term Employment Plan recognize this and plenty of other indicators, “Train, Retain and Reform the principles set out within the plan have still not delivered ends in the face of a growing crisis that has lasted for greater than a decade. Significant motion is planned for 2023 under the NHS Long Term Jobs Plan, with a 50-65% increase in national education and training by 2031/32 and over £2.4 billion of additional funding to be invested in education and training by the tip 2023 of this decade. The ‘have to train’ more nurses to satisfy the national workforce shortage also exists in other healthcare professions reminiscent of medicine, podiatry etc. Particularly in medicine in 2024/25 NHS England has prepared for a medical training program under pilot project, the aim of which is to enhance traditional medical training paths.

The identical mantra of offering more training opportunities is repeated within the nursing career, assuming that the present national labor shortage may be overcome by 2031/32. By the tip of the last decade, the variety of tertiary nursing apprenticeships will increase by 28%, with priority and training places given to specialties reminiscent of mental health nursing, mental disability nursing and community nurse training [3].

Following the tutorial path of an apprenticeship has its benefits. It is a cheaper way of coaching as a nurse, especially when the UK inflation rate stays higher than the long-term average of two.80% and consumer prices remain at their highest level because the inception of the CPI national statistics series from 1997 [4]. Interns don’t pay tuition fees and are paid during their studies. Apprenticeship programs offer greater flexibility in comparison with traditional degrees, giving many learners flexibility while managing other commitments. More importantly, unlike traditional degrees, apprenticeship programs offer the chance to realize real-world experience in quite a lot of healthcare settings. Consequently, this could provide greater competitive advantage and real-world work experience in comparison with their traditional counterparts. Then again, it’s equally vital to notice a number of the general disadvantages of using apprenticeship pathways in nursing. Programs may be more demanding than their traditional degrees, where the learner is predicted to balance the expectations of each the workplace and university-level academic training. While employers have partnership agreements with educational providers, these could also be limited to specific areas and intended to support the event of grassroots talent in a selected geographic region. Then again, candidates for traditional courses welcome the chance to transfer for the sake of university experience and ongoing work experience. Apprentices are contractually certain to the terms and conditions set by the employer, which could seem inflexible to some candidates, for instance when planning a period of leave on account of wider commitments.

Despite these conditions, UK university nursing programs offer industry-leading, world-class education, regulated by OFSTED and NMC, and require top quality educational standards and learner-centred support, not only from the tutorial institution and employer, but in addition from the side of a wider group of participating members, reminiscent of endpoint assessment organizations who’re involved within the apprenticeship process to secure a job as a Registered Nurse or Registered Nursing Assistant within the NHS.

Within the UK, the apprenticeship sector is growing rapidly [5]. In 2023, the present government has committed greater than ever to training and funding opportunities to extend national capability to satisfy the growing demand for a talented workforce within the health sector. More specifically, within the nursing career, the increased recognition of sector-specific challenges across the country and the resulting ill-advised investments offer a useful method to learn and earn, especially amid nursing labor shortages. Over the subsequent decade, university-based nursing apprenticeship programs will remain essentially the most attractive and fruitful option to contemplate for anyone wishing to develop into a registered nurse within the UK.

1. Nursing practice: unwell health? (2019) Eighth special report UK Parliament Publications. Available at: Nursing Apprenticeships (parliament.uk) (Accessed: August 27, 2023).
2. NHS nurse retention: What do staff turnover trends tell us? (2022) Health Foundation. Available at: NHS nurse retention: what do staff turnover trends tell us? – Health Foundation (Accessed: August 26, 2023).
3. Breakdown of the NHS Long Term Employment Plan (2023) Bevan Brittan Limited. Available at: The NHS Long Term Employment Plan – key points and links for further reading | Bevan Brittan Limited (Accessed: August 29, 2023).
4. National Statistical Office (2023) Inflation and price indices. Available at: Inflation and price indices – Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) (Accessed: August 29, 2023).
5. Jacek, P. (2023) Apprenticeships to get £40 million in funding, Times Higher Education (THE). Available at: £40 million funding for UK apprenticeships | Times Higher Education (THE) (Accessed: August 25, 2023).

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