In February HR magazine reported from this year, new nurses must have a degree qualification in order to be recruited into the profession.
Siân Thomas, joint acting director of NHS Employers, told HR magazine 20% of newly qualified nurses have a nursing degree, while the other 80% held a diploma in nursing.
She added: "Countries like Australia are heading towards an all graduate nursing profession. I understand by taking this step toward graduate nurses in the UK we could be putting more people into debt as students, but this is one innovation the NHS is prepared to take to improve healthcare."
But James Parsons, director of the Arrows Group warned the change could lead to a drop in the number of people choosing to become nurses at a time when specialist nurses are already in short supply.
He said: "This is a commendable move - the Government says these new rules aim to improve the standard of patient care, which of course is of utmost importance. But it runs contra to the most pressing issue, which is nursing skills shortages across the NHS. By introducing these stricter requirements, the NHS may in fact find itself with lower standards of patient care, because it will struggle to find the talent it needs.
"An increasingly high percentage of nurses working in the NHS are foreign nationals and raising the bar at entry point would have to be communicated clearly and rolled out internationally as the NHS is staffed by an international resource pool. There are critical staffing shortages across the NHS and the most pressing issue is looking at options that solve this rather than complicating it."
