Overseas NHS recruitment in Midlands 'not sustainable', MP warns
It led to reduction of about 5,700 trainees in England by 2020, Dame Ruth said, which "would have made a difference" in the pandemic.
The RCN has called on the government to provide better financial backing for student nurses.
Hamilton, who worked as a district nurse in Birmingham and in Parliament is a member of the Health and Social Care Committee, said: "The way things have been done over the past few years, we've had this austerity crisis where people have not been growing their own – training our own nurses.
"We've been to other parts of the world looking for people to do the job for us," she said, "but that is not sustainable."
"I went into my nursing life without being in debt, we have to offer that to the new generation of nurses."
She said the government had been looking at the situation with Health Secretary Wes Streeting stating he wanted to train 5,000 more health visitors and 8,500 mental health nurses.
"He wants to get general nurses into training," Hamilton added.
"It's not that we haven't got a willingness, but for that to become a reality we have to look at the way that training is offered in this country."
