Interest in the nursing profession among teenagers has dropped in three out of four European countries following the COVID pandemic. While it brought the globe to a standstill, the COVID-19 pandemic served to highlight the critical role of frontline health workers. It also spotlighted the challenging and demanding conditions within the healthcare sector, exposing many parts of our health systems that have been chronically understaffed.
According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the latter has led to extended overwork and severe stress for healthcare workers. This, in turn, has resulted in widespread job dissatisfaction, burnout, and an increased inclination among workers to reduce their hours or exit the profession entirely. Nurses are at the heart of these challenges, and there are growing concerns that the nursing profession may become less attractive to young people.
Based on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data, the OECD has found that in many European countries, fewer young people are aspiring to become nurses. Interest in nursing among 15-year-olds declined between 2018 and 2022 in 19 out of 25 European countries. The decrease was particularly evident in several countries, where it exceeded 0.
5 percentage points (pp), given that the average interest rate was 1.72 per cent across Europe. Norway and Denmark reported the highest declines, each at 1.
2 pp. Interest in nursing also dropped in Finland and Iceland, .
