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At the end of the first decade of the 2000s, with the Bologna process and the entry of the European Higher Education Area, the University School of Health Sciences of the University of Vic-Central University of Catalonia (UVic-UCC) was established. transformed into a Faculty. Taking advantage of this transition, he decided to go for a broader concept that included quality of life and well-being, and also encompassed more social aspects. So they called it the Faculty of Health and Welfare Sciences. “We wanted to address needs that we were already detecting, with a more holistic and global view,” recalls its current dean, Miriam Torres. It offers degrees in Nursing, Physiotherapy, Human Nutrition and Occupational Therapy; The first two are the most in demand, and the most employable, reports the dean.

Medicine and Nursing are positioned as the most desired degrees in the health sector, after Psychology, which is the health profile on the rise among companies, according to Jorge García, healthcare manager from LHH Recruitment Solutions (Adecco recruitment profile consultancy). Overall, health and social services activities employed 6% more people under 29 years of age in the fourth quarter of last year compared to the same period in 2022 – from 277,900 to 294,600 – according to the latest 2023 report from Young people and the labor market. It is the fourth branch of activity that employs the most young people, behind the trade and repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, hospitality and the manufacturing industry.

The progressive aging of the population spurs interest in the careers that produce professionals who ensure the quality of life of others. It is, in fact, the argument used by Torres to predict good future prospects for occupational therapy. “He is a recognized healthcare professional, but with a very powerful social component,” he describes. “Life expectancy increases; We are living longer and longer, and we want to live them better,” emphasizes Sergio Calvo, director of Communication and Public Affairs at the European University (EU). He directly relates Human Nutrition and Dietetics and Physical Activity and Sports (both degrees from the private university) with health prevention.

Growing interest

“Nutrition is a professional sector that is perhaps less developed in Spain compared to other countries, but it is attracting more and more interest,” says Calvo. Especially as a second degree for pharmacists, biochemists, biologists or chemists. Torres highlights the doors that open with the incorporation of nutritionists in primary care (still timidly) and in the food industry. The employability of Physiotherapy is also high, although its graduates, like those of any other health-related degree without much presence in the public system, have to be employed mostly in the private sector, face considerable competition and are exposed to precariousness. The double degree in Physiotherapy and Physical Activity and Sports Sciences offered by the University of Seville has been the third highest cut-off mark in Spain this year: 13.6 out of 14; the first related to health and well-being sciences.

“The pandemic acted as an accelerant for races that were coming in crescendo since before,” says Isabel Vázquez, vice-rector of Studies at the University of Valencia. “We detect it in the cutoff marks and, above all, in the waiting lists,” she says. The covid-19 crisis, and the anomalous new normal established afterwards, was “chaos” for the health sector, in the words of Jorge García. The demand for nursing and medical profiles grew in a “brutal” way, due, among other things, to an unprecedented turnover, he points out. When the dust settled and normality truly returned, about a year ago, these professionals continued to be in high demand. Medicine, the crown jewel of the University of Valencia, has a cut-off mark of 13,543, the fourth most demanding this year in Spain, and a waiting list of about 5,700 students. That of Nursing is even higher: 5,852 applicants; His cut-off grade has been climbing until it stabilizes at more than 12.

The Health Sciences branch integrates 12 degrees, of which Medicine takes the cake in demand. And that, in the last 15 years, the faculties in which it can be studied have gone from 28 to 50, “94% more places,” remembers Pablo Lara, dean of the Faculty of Medicine of Malaga and president of the Conference. National of Deans and Deans of Medical Faculties. And that is without counting the dozen more projects from universities and health companies to open new titles. Lara asks not to continue increasing the supply since, in his opinion, the Gordian knot of the shortage of specialists—not doctors—in the public system lies not in the lack of graduates, but in the difficulties that the autonomous communities encounter. the time to hire. Current employability is good; the working conditions of the public system, not so much, which leads to a significant exodus of professionals to the private sector (and abroad, to a lesser extent).

Compelling needs

Family and Community Medicine is the specialty with the greatest deficit, according to the fifth report on the supply and need for specialist doctors in Spain commissioned by the Ministry of Health and published in January 2022. “It has the worst salary and working conditions, it is where the most is given burnout syndrome, and more positions that are difficult to fill exist; also where there is the greatest exodus to the private sector,” Lara lists. This is followed by Anesthesiology and Resuscitation, Geriatrics, Psychiatry and Radiodiagnosis. Those that have the most surplus (or need the least professionals) are Chemical Analysis and Biochemistry, Cardiovascular Surgery, Internal Medicine, Thoracic Surgery and Obstetrics and Gynecology. According to the report, the public system will have a shortage of specialties—of about 9,000 professionals—until 2027; From that date on, it will progressively balance until 2035.

Lara demands that the number of faculties be guided by academic and health criteria, based on studies not in the short term but in the medium and long term. If those that exist today are maintained, in six years there will be 40% more doctors under the age of 65 currently registered in Spain, she reveals. It is true that during that time there will be retirements, he concedes, but also approvals of non-EU doctors – in 2023, the Ministry of Universities approved 9,000 degrees, which does not mean that everyone wants to come -, and return of Spaniards practicing abroad – about 4,000 in a decade—and eager to return. The panorama of young people who enroll in the first year of this course may have changed when they finish in 10 years (six of career and four of MIR), she warns.

And that of the nurses? “During the pandemic there was practically full employment, but employability has decreased a little; It is still very good although we detect small unemployment rates,” responds Inmaculada García, dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Granada and president of the National Conference of Nursing Deans. The offer to study Nursing has been increasing in both public and private universities: in the 2022-2023 academic year there were 14,816 enrolled (10,622 in the public), who had to get a good grade (more than a 12 at the University of Granada ) To access; 11,166 graduates left its classrooms in 2021-2022. “There is a lack of nurses, but especially in social-health care,” says García, who advocates prevention and care. “Once the pandemic is over, we have returned to our model, focused on urgency and healing; It is a model that has served, it has been very powerful, it has saved lives; but now it’s time to reorient it towards care,” she demands.

“A nurse has to look her patients in the eyes,” highlights Inmaculada García. Show empathy, solidarity, closeness. “She demands a commitment to people,” she insists. Not everyone is worth it, no matter how brilliant a record they have, she adds. Lara comments something very similar regarding medical practice. Both agree that the new health degrees that have emerged in the heat of advances in neuroscience, the emergence of genetics or the incorporation of technology and massive data analysis do not compete with Medicine or Nursing, nor should they be conceived as a third option on their own. the first two fail. Bioinformatics, Biomedical Sciences, Bioengineering, Genetics, Biochemistry, Biotechnology or Neuroscience are more research-oriented and do not involve clinical practice; In short, they require different professional profiles.

New challenges

In the early 2010s, the Carlos III University of Madrid (UC3M) identified biomedical sciences as an important area of ​​knowledge for the future. The process has crystallized in the creation of a Faculty of Health Sciences, with a first degree in Neuroscience, starting in September 2024. “The world of health is becoming increasingly complex, with more needs, and more specific,” justifies Armando del Río, delegate of the rector for the development and implementation of the Faculty of Health Sciences of the Madrid university, and current dean. There will be a second degree, in Biomedical Sciences, by September 2025; and a third, yet to be determined, in 2026 or 2027. In English, with a lot of emphasis on internships in companies, and “for students with a research vocation, not a clinical or healthcare one,” he clarifies.

Those enrolled in Genetics deal with DNA; with information and code from the double degree in Bioinformatics and Big Data. Both training courses are taught at the CEU San Pablo University along with classic courses such as Medicine, Nursing, Physiotherapy, Dentistry and Psychology. The dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Tomás Chivato, predicts good employability for all. In the opinion of experts, the new races have a long way to go. They require high cut-off marks, such as 13.529 for the double degree in Biotechnology and Pharmacy at the University of Salamanca, or the 13.21 required for the double degree in Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Valencia. “It focuses on the functioning of molecular, genetic and cellular mechanisms,” explains Vice-Rector Vázquez.

“Numerous job opportunities are opening up in Spain, the rest of Europe and the United States; in public healthcare, private healthcare or the pharmaceutical industry,” declares Chivato. “The spectrum has expanded, stimulating demand,” adds Daniel Hormigo, dean of the Faculty of Biomedical and Health Sciences at the European University. “The health sector is in full expansion; New professions and functions emerge,” he explains. Faced with such a complex panorama, the dean proposes an introspection exercise to young applicants for a health degree: “I advise them to visualize what they like about the sector, to choose one degree or another; “Perhaps it is the treatment with the patient, or perhaps the technological part and the search for solutions to problems draw their attention more.”