Falling nursing applications may make it ‘impossible’ to fill places in Ireland, warns OECD report

A continued decline in applications to study nursing in Ireland will make it “increasingly difficult (if not impossible)” to fill available places, according to an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report.
On Tuesday, the OECD published its annual health in a glance publication for 2024, which focused on health workforce shortages and promoting healthy longevity in an ageing population.
The organisation said there is a “severe” workforce shortage across the EU, with an ageing population of staff, as well as a decline in the interest among young people to take up these careers.
According to the report, European countries have increasingly relied on recruiting foreign-trained health professionals.
In 2023, more than 40 per cent of doctors in Norway, Ireland and Switzerland, and more than 50 per cent of nurses in Ireland were foreign-trained.
“While providing a quick solution to pressing needs, an overreliance on foreign-trained health workers risks exacerbating workforce shortages and overall fragility in source countries, often lower-income nations already grappling with acute health workforce constraints,” the report said.
On average across EU countries, there were 8.4 nurses per 1,000 population in 2022. Norway, Iceland, Finland, Ireland and Germany had the highest number of nurses per capita in 2022, with at least 12 nurses per 1,000 population.
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Ireland also has one of the highest proportion of new medical graduates in 2022, however the report notes this is largely a reflection of the success of medical schools in attracting international students.
As a result, “in most cases” these international students leave the country after graduating due to “to limited postgraduate specialty training opportunities or better career prospects in their home countries”.
The report notes a decline in interest in pursuing nursing as a career, with a reduction in interest being “particularly marked” in a variety of countries, including Ireland.
“The number of applications has been decreasing in recent years in countries like Ireland and Italy. If the decline in applications continues, it will become increasingly difficult (if not impossible) to fill all available places,” the report said.
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Overall, Ireland’s performance in this year’s report is relatively positive with a high uptake of flu vaccines among older people and high levels of physical activity among children and teenagers.
Smoking rates among 15-year-olds is lower than average, while 15 per cent of this age group reporting repeated drunkenness, much lower than rates in other countries such as Denmark, Hungary, Bulgaria, Austria, Italy and Germany. However, drug use among young Irish adults is among the highest in Europe.