Understanding those ‘future nurses’

As we await the 2022 application figures for pre-registration nursing programmes, I am hopeful that the upward trajectory set last year continues. In 2021, a press release from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) stated that UCAS nursing applications in England reached 48 830, up from 35 960 at the same point in the previous year, representing a 34% increase. The figures for England also showed (DHSC, 2021):

Ford (2021) pointed out that the jump in applications was attributed in part to ‘people being inspired by the work of nurses during the coronavirus pandemic’ and quoted the Chief Nurse at Health Education England (HEE), Professor Mark Rutherford, as saying ‘the tireless and outstanding commitment of all our nurses over the past year … is the best possible advert for the nursing profession’. There was much comment at the time regarding ‘nurses of the future’.