It’s 5:15pm and I’ve just finished an extra shift on placement to meet my required 2300 hours. I haven’t had time to change out of my nursing uniform.
I had to support a deteriorating patient, a patient who was dying, and a patient that needed a new catheter as an emergency – otherwise they could have died too. And then I remembered I was running late to a board of governors’ meeting.
I run in and apologise: scrubs on, hair ragged, eyes puffy, pouring the first glass of water I have managed to drink since 8am that morning.
I explain I need to leave a bit early for patient bedtime calls. People were surprised, and suddenly the focus was away from the agenda and the questions flooded. I began to explain what it is really like to be a student nurse.
I explained about the unpaid placement hours, dealing with real life patients and people who rely on us in some of their most vulnerable moments. The full time studying, having to work alongside it all and the toll on our mental and physical health. I was just scratching the surface.
According to the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), more than 32,000 student nurses could drop out of their courses by the next parliament and seven in ten are considering quitting due to financial pressures. Statistics like these don’t surprise me, instead they reflect me and my colleagues’ experiences.
Ultimately, institutions and governments can’t support student nurses, increase numbers and reduce retention issues if they first don’t understand their experience.
It’s a full-time job on top of a full-time job
We are told studying a full-time degree is a full-time job. Many students are now working more hours part- or full-time to fill the gap left by an inadequate student maintenance system, but what about student nurses?
Student nurses juggle between 37.5 and 48 hours a week of unpaid work placements – and also work part-time jobs because the cost of living is so tough. We see student nurses rely on the free tea and toast in the staff rooms as their only source of nutrition for the day.
In August I was on a five-day week placement. I had hours I had to make up as I was unable to attend a period of placement earlier that year due to my mum being treated for cancer. For student nurses, every time we encounter a barrier, the first thing we think about is the hours we’ll need to make up.
We’re not entitled to sick pay, special leave or bereavement when it comes to placement. At the time of writing, I am currently on my ninth straight working day, between placement and my job as a sabbatical officer. My rent is due, my bills need paying – this is survival.
Is it even worth it?
It’s understandable that nursing students often feel like they exist in a limbo between the university they’re studying at and their placements. Where the student journey is so different, there needs to be different or specialised support to ensure nursing students can succeed.
Nursing students don’t have the ability to commit to all the things that enrich the student experience – clubs, societies or volunteering – because they don’t have the time for it.
It makes many question if they can ever actually just be students.
In a context of an incredibly challenged health care system, student nurses are being asked to do more and more before they are qualified. As future healthcare professionals who signed up for these degrees because we want to take care of others, we are in positions where we can’t care for ourselves.
The labour of being a student nurse feels heavy but that’s not to say that there isn’t room to make positive change.
To universities, talk to your healthcare students, celebrate their differences from other students but acknowledge the challenge it can bring. By understanding them and lobbying on their behalf they’ll feel validated and supported by their institution.
Looking to the government, with future reform of the NHS on the government’s agenda, how will you look at the whole student nurse journey before focusing on only recruitment? Working with trade unions including the RCN to improve the immediate conditions of student nurses is an important first step to ensure retention.
This could include student discounts on food in hospital trusts, travel bursaries, and flexible working regulations. In order to increase recruitment in the long term, the government should consider livable bursaries and the introduction of a loan forgiveness scheme.
It’s important that both the health sector and the higher education sector look after our future NHS and healthcare workforce. Because no matter who you are or where you come from, in yours’ or your loved one’s time of need, we want to always be there to help you.
We’ll only see progress once there is a joined up approach from universities and government to improve the experience, and that starts with better understanding the labour of being a student nurse.
