> and today the country has 40,000 nursing vacancies Mainly because the NHS requires degree-level qualification for UK & EU nurses, but those hired from outsid

> and today the country has 40,000 nursing vacancies Mainly because the NHS requires degree-level qualification for UK & EU nurses, but those hired from outside the EU instead have a skills-based assessment. And there just aren't enough UK candidates willing to slog through four years of study and placement for what is a high-stress, manual-labour, high-stakes job with mediocre pay. I have three friends in the NHS and they are very much in favour of treating nursing as an apprenticeship rather than an academic qualification, so until the rules change they have no sane option but to hire from abroad. But that's a slow process and has lingual and cultural challenges.