This Nurse Can: student recruitment campaign smashes stereotypes

Falling nursing student numbers prompt innovative university campaign highlighting breadth of nursing roles, including air ambulance and global employment opportunities

Think you know what it means to be a nurse? Think again.
A trailblazing campaign that challenges the traditional image of the profession has been launched to tackle falling university application numbers for nursing courses.
A world of opportunities in nursing
The ‘This Nurse Can’ campaign includes a compelling video showcasing the wide variety of roles and global employment opportunities the profession can offer – from nurses flying in helicopters as part of air ambulance teams and travelling the world on cruise ships, to becoming nursing lecturers or even dabbling in poetry.
Produced by the University of East Anglia (UEA), the campaign aims to change the perception of what a day-to-day nursing role can look like.
Nursing can be ‘aspirational and exciting’
Campaign manager Simon Rose said: ‘The campaign is desperately needed against a backdrop of a prolonged period of negative media, strike action and falling application rates to nursing degrees.
‘When creating the concept of This Nurse Can, we found that lots of previous campaigns looked at nursing as a ‘feel good’ career, a career that is rewarding and highly regarded in society. While this is true, it is also much more than that. Careers in nursing can be aspirational, exciting and boundless in opportunity.’
‘I’ve had lots of different careers in nursing’
Air ambulance nurse Amy Buxton, who features in the campaign, said: ‘I think the biggest misconception for me is that it’s only for girls or women and that we just care for people. But there is so much more to nursing that that.
‘I have been privileged to have had lots of different careers within nursing that have been unique. I’ve been a health visitor, I have worked with sexual assault patients, and now I work with the air ambulance service. These are very specialist roles, but these opportunities do exist.’
Latest figures from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service show applications to study for a nursing degree in the UK have fallen by a third (32%) in three years, from 46,040 in 2021 to 31,100 in 2024.
Call for ‘students from all backgrounds’ to study nursing
The Council of Deans of Health, which represents university faculties for nursing in the UK, has called on the new government to prioritise student recruitment and expand and diversify healthcare placements.
Responding to the new campaign, the council’s chief executive Ed Hughes told Nursing Standard he would like to see a national coordinated drive to advertise the wide career opportunities in nursing.
He added: ‘The council commends the impressive UEA recruitment campaign. Healthcare courses often attract students from groups that are under-represented in higher education.
‘We need to invest in outreach interventions and ensure students from all backgrounds are aware of opportunities and supported throughout their time in higher education, to increase social mobility and ensure a diverse workforce.’
In other news