Removing bursaries

spacemonkey15 · Dec 15, 2015

Very disappointed with how the DoH has reacted. Getting the bursary and not paying fees is one of the best things about studying nursing, I know I wouldn't have wanted to go into nursing without the bursary. AFAIK it's going to be discussed in parliament, but I feel like a concrete decision has already been made

I think it's reasonable to review how students in the UK are funded, however the government of the day will want more for less and want to move as much burden from the tax payer to the individual. From what the Council of Deans of Health have said, support from loans may mean students receive more whilst training than they did on a bursary. However, this will also have an impact of putting off people wanting to study nursing as a second degree, the bursary worked in some way as a "wage" for having to spend so much time on placement and we're looking at lumbering future generations of nurses with tens of thousands of pounds of debt before they've even started their careers.

Part of the rationale for them to remove NHS funding was that there will no longer be a "cap" on places, ok, we have a shortage of nurses, but we also struggle at the moment to allocate the students we have to mentors and appropriate placements. Flooding the hospital with more students will mean a diluted experience for those on placement meaning while we may have more nurses coming out of uni, their practical experience will have been spent fighting with other students to experience things.

Finally, expecting students to pay course fees instead of the NHS means students will see their time on the wards as an investment. Wards are often propped up on the goodwill of prereg students, I know I was often dragged away from important learning opportunities to help the support staff, if I tried to argue that as a third year, getting used to the drug round was important to me I'd get a disparaging look or be accused of being too posh to wash. If I'd been paying to undertake my course I'd have told people where to go rather than using me to plug gaps because they can't staff their wards appropriately.

Overall, I think this announcement in the chancellor's autumn statement has been ill thought out. We should have a think about how we find students, but we need to be sensible, think about the implications it could have on the future nursing workforce in the UK and discuss it between all parties involved in the process, students, unions, universities, hospitals and the government.

The debate is due to take place in parliament on the 6th January 2016.

vandiola · Dec 17, 2015

With the introduction of nurse associates and no cap on places, I feel the government thinks they'll be able to maintain or have a better standard of care, whether that is so we will see in a few years.

spacemonkey15 · Dec 20, 2015

With the introduction of nurse associates and no cap on places, I feel the government thinks they'll be able to maintain or have a better standard of care, whether that is so we will see in a few years.

I think something that augments the registered nursing workforce could be a good thing. However, the realist in me, especially with our current government makes me suspect that this new role will be used to plug gaps in the registered nursing workforce.

I am yet to be convinced otherwise and will be watching and participating in the consultation with interest when I get the chance.