Breakthrough for NHS England as hundreds more men study nursing
The National Health Service (NHS) England has seen a significant rise in the number of men applying to be nurses, following a recruitment drive aimed at changing attitudes towards a career long stereotyped as female-dominated.
Hundreds more men have applied to study nursing and midwifery since the start of last summer’s NHS England campaign, a nine-percent increase according to the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), the organization that arranges university courses, theguardian.com reported.
The rise is especially notable among school leavers, with the number of men wanting to do nursing degrees up by a fifth — the highest in a decade. Paul Vaughan, the director of Nursing, Transformation, at NHS England, said, “Nurses are at the heart of people’s NHS care so it’s encouraging to see such an uptake in nursing applications since the launch of the campaign — especially among men.
“We want to get young people, including boys, to think about a career in nursing from an early age, which is why NHS England has been working with families and schools to highlight the huge positive impact we can have and the many roles available within the profession.”
The We Are The NHS campaign, launched on the NHS’S 70th birthday in July 2018, ran advertising across TV, radio, posters, digital and social media, and primarily targeted the 14-18 age group. It highlighted a range of opportunities available in the NHS, with a specific focus on nursing, and prioritized key shortage areas including mental health, learning disabilities and community and general practice nursing.