NHS to offer mature students £5k to become mental health nurses

The NHS is set to offer mature students a £5,000 bonus to become mental health or learning disability nurses as part of a long term plan to help boost the sector, it has been revealed. 

The additional payment is being offered in a bid to tackle the nursing shortage being seen in two area that NHS bosses and ministers have agreed to prioritise, according to The Guardian.

The "earn and learn support premium" is likely to focus on students aged over 25 who agree to specialise in nursing that deals with patients that have learning disabilities or other mental health needs. 

“Improving care for people with mental health conditions and learning disabilities are absolute priorities in the long term plan so it makes sense that we try and incentivise people – mature candidates – to train as nurses in those areas”, one official told The Guardian. 

In recent years applications for undergraduate degree courses in nursing have plummeted by 32 per cent since bursaries for student nurses were scrapped in England in 2016, despite warnings that the move would backfire. 

Applications from mature students to study mental health and disability nursing fell even more sharply – by 40 per cent – between 2016 and this year. Interest has dwindled so dramatically that many universities are considering axing their specialist courses.

Prof Donna Kinnair, the Royal College of Nursing’s acting chief executive, said: “With nursing student numbers falling and the number of unfilled nurse jobs projected to rise as high as 48,000 in the next five years, the situation is desperate."

However, she questioned whether the move would have a big enough impact given the limitations of the grant only applying to mature students.

A spokesperson for NHS England said: “Supporting NHS staff and improving NHS mental health and learning disabilities are both priorities for the NHS and earlier this year we launched our largest ever campaign to recruit and train nurses in these specialist fields.”