Lithuania will offer free training to hundreds of young people training as nurses to shore up its struggling health system, Euronews reported.

Under the new scheme, 10 colleges and universities will accept 535 people into state-funded nursing programmes for the 2025-2026 academic year, the Lithuanian health ministry said.

This is 100 students more than last year, the ministry added.

Roughly the same number of students will be given unfunded places, meaning they will have to pay for their nursing training - unless they agree to work in certain medical centres for two years after graduation. In that case, the training institutions will cover their tuition fees.

The programme is expected to save the self-funded students between €10 500 and €16 400 each.

"We would like to invite school leavers and other young people to connect their future with a noble mission that is much needed in the country - the nursing profession," said Laimute Vaidelene, Deputy Minister of Health. 

Upon graduation, students will be encouraged to return to their hometowns for their two-year internships. They can go into any field they like - whether it's general practice, emergency care, psychiatry, pediatrics or something else.

The EU will provide €17 million for the programme as part of a wider effort to tackle a block-wide shortage of nurses, which is being caused by both an ageing population in need of more healthcare services and retirements and other forms of exodus from the healthcare workforce.

In 2022, for example, Lithuania had 27.6 registered nurses per 100,000 people, ranking it 11th among 33 European countries with data. But 51.5% of its nurses are aged 55 or older, a higher percentage than anywhere else.

"Nursing is more than just a job," Weideliene says. "It's an opportunity to help, to care, to be needed, to contribute to people's health, public welfare and the preservation of life, and to continually develop as a person and a professional." | BGNES