The RCN believes that changing student nursing funding could drastically reduce district nursing numbers.
In the College's response to the student nursing bursary consultation, there were concerns that the district nursing workforce in particular could be at huge risk of extinction due to the proposed cuts to post-registration education.
The response recognises the 'crucial role' that district nurses have in care in the community and reducing hospital admissions.
'Despite this critical role we know that the numbers of district nurses has fallen dramatically over the last 10 years and the loss of funding for post-registration tuition would only exacerbate the current difficulties, lead to a further drop in numbers and reduce further the provision of essential community- based nursing care,' the report stated.
The report also said that the change could threaten health visitor numbers which were boosted in the last four years due to the Health Visitor Implementation Plan.
While the RCN recognises that the government has successfully widened access to nursing and promoting a diverse workforce, it feels that the decision to scrap the bursary is 'a short-term' decision and should be reconsidered.
The RCN has called for the government to suspend the 'high-risk' plans to overhaul the NHS bursary system and to consult with stakeholders, explore other models of funding that recognise the unique aspects of nursing students and develop pilot schemes across England to test the impact of the changes.
'The idea that saddling future nursing students with debts of up to £60,000 is going to widen the entry gate to this vital profession, is completely at odds with reality. Nursing students are seldom 18 year old school leavers, many have young families and previous careers, and debts of this scale would be a very major barrier to them pursuing a career in nursing,' said Janet Davies, the chief executive and general secretary of the RCN.
An RCN survey revealed that more than two thirds of nurses would not have studied nursing if the bursary had not been available.