IT is incredibly saddening news today to have to report a dramatic decline in nursing applications.

An inspiring profession, nursing is a true vocation, but it is impossible to argue that financial considerations are incapable of deterring even those most committed to an NHS career. The simple fact of the matter is that, with the loss of the nursing bursary, comes the loss of many people who now simply cannot afford to pursue their dream profession.

As a vocational degree, nursing attracts many mature students whose choice to change career is borne out of invaluable life experience and arguably greater insight into their own ambitions and abilities. Many of these people will, however, have mouths to feed and mortgages to pay - never mind the potential for an existing student loan already waiting to be paid off.

Putting aside the practicalities of having to find £9,000 a year in tuition fees, there are questions to be asked about the basic fairness of the move.

Trainee nurses spend around half of their degree time on clinical placement, that is, directly providing care for their patients. It is a tough, tough time for those students, who spend long hours learning the ropes on the wards while also being expected to write the essays and sit the exams which make up the academic side of their learning. The hands-on care they provide to patients is invaluable, the “trade-off” for what could arguably be called free labour having always been that, at the end of three years, they would have a degree certificate to show for their efforts.

Yes, nursing is a vocation. Of course it should attract only those who are committed to and passionate about the profession. But how committed to a career would any of us have to be before we were willing to pay £27,000 for the privilege of spending three years working for no salary?

Saddening as today’s news is, it is easy to see why, for many, it came as no surprise.