By Cindy Lima

A shortage of nurses is something that almost every country deals with. The demand for nurses is increasing as time goes by, specifically in England. The NHS does not have enough nurses to meet current and future demand.

Hospitals are reporting that they have a shortfall of 28,000 nurses. England is relying on recruitment overseas in order to fill nursing spots. However, Brexit will make it difficult to recruit the amount of nurses necessary. The NHS is not good at retaining nurses once they are in training. Nurses much rather take agency work than a permanent contract. Taking a nursing job at NHS does not meet the salary requirements for a nurse.

According to the Daily Mail, an estimated 25,000 of nurses leave each year. Therefore, the NHS needs to recruit about the same number in order to meet the current demand.

According to experts, the nurse shortage is due partly to University courses being full. The number admitted to nursing school was 21,450 in 2015. That number reflects the number of bursaries available.

If the NHS wants more people to go into the nursing field the government has to lift the restriction. In doing that there is a possibility that the number of bursaries may also increase. However, there is no extra money available for more bursaries. The government is giving less money to the NHS than in the previous years.

One of the solutions to the nursing problem is to make students take out loans. Professionals argue that making nursing students take out loans will have the opposite effect. Students will be be discouraged to go into nursing because of the need to take out loans.

The government expects to fill the available nursing spots as well as another 10,000 spots by 2020. However, experts do not agree with the government’s plan. Experts say that the only way to recruit more nurses is be improving salary and working conditions.