Plans for new nursing course welcomed

Student Layla Bradley was among students impressed by the set-up at the college

Plans for a new nurse-training course have been welcomed by health commissioners in Shropshire.

Keele University wants to start running the Nursing Associate course at Telford College from September.

Alison Trumper from NHS Shropshire Telford and Wrekin said the NHS was suffering from a "critical shortage" of staff, including in nursing.

She hoped the course might attract "young people who would never aspire to go to university".

The course would run for two years, with the option of an extra 18 months to qualify students as a registered nurse.

Layla Bradley, an A-level student studying a healthcare course at the college, said she was impressed by the facilities being set up to teach the students.

They include a replica hospital ward and she said: "It's basically like a hospital room decked out with the beds and the cabinets that they actually use."

The college has a replica hospital ward to help train students

The recent decision by the University of Wolverhampton to close its Telford campus had caused fears that fewer people in the county would take up nursing.

The Royal College of Nursing said that was because the campus was currently the only one in the county to offer degree and diploma level nursing courses.

Telford College director Sarah Davies said even before that announcement, "the "frustration was that the best students were leaving the county".

She said healthcare was a "huge growth" area, with a higher profile since the coronavirus pandemic and was also a big growth area for her college.

Ms Trumper said she hoped the links between Telford and Keele could be strengthened further in the future with a bus link between the two sites.