Creating diversity in the healthcare workforce: The role of pre‐registration nurse education in the UK

It has been suggested that the introduction of first the diploma pre‐registration course and then the three‐year degree pre‐registration course are likely to have an impact upon the diversity of the future nursing workforce in the UK. Using findings from three large‐scale projects, this paper assesses the nature of these changes by comparing the diversity within recently qualified cohorts of graduate, diplomate and certificate‐qualified nurses. Findings indicate little difference between the three groups in terms of gender and ethnic origin. A higher proportion of graduates had academic qualifications, which were generally higher than the qualifications held by the other groups of nurses. However, diplomates were the most diverse group overall, being older and more likely to have children, and also having greater previous working experiences. The overall conclusion is that, despite qualification differences, the level of diversity amongst degree‐qualifiers was a return to the lower levels associated with qualifiers from certificate courses. Thus the introduction of degree courses may dilute the relative success of the diploma course in terms of the recruitment of a more diverse workforce. The findings are considered in the context of current debates about the future shape of nurse education in the UK.