In Germany, the number of trainees in the nursing professions has increased. As the central Federal Statistical Office announced today in Wiesbaden on July 26, around 56,300 people in Germany decided to train as nursing specialists last year. This is five percent more than in the previous year. In total, around 102,00 people were in training across the country at the end of 2021.

In Germany, the nursing profession is obtained through three years of training and does not end with a bachelor’s degree. This is because the training is not academic, but takes place in a dual system, as is the case for many other professions. This means that the theoretical part of the training is held in nursing schools and the practical parts of the training are held in various institutions, mostly directly on the job: in hospitals, geriatric care and outpatient care.

This three-year nursing training had been reformed in 2020. Since then, there has been uniform training for nursing, pediatric nursing and geriatric nursing. In the third year of training, trainees can choose to continue with generalist training or focus on caring for the elderly or children and earn a degree as a geriatric nurse or health and pediatric nurse.