At the Conservative Party Conference this week, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt committed to providing more funding for more placements of student nurses and nursing associates. He promised 5,000 additional trainee nursing places and said he would utilise NHS land for building nurses affordable homes.

Despite a positive response from the CEO of NHS Employers, recruiters are yet to be impressed. Your World Commercial Director, Greg Wood, told Recruiter:

"The majority of these nursing places are actually nursing associates, not nurses as such.

"It's the idea of taking nursing associates and once they have done their two-year course then for them to go on to further training and become nurses; they are estimating that 50% of the associates are going to put through."

To read more from Greg, and the Recruiter article in its entirety, click here.