Unions lobby government to pay nursing students

Sixteen student unions have thrown their support behind a campaign calling for trainee nurses to be paid for their work on placement.

Nursing students have to complete at least 2,300 hours of placement during their degree courses.

Chloe Jeffrey, from the University of Essex (UoE) union, which started the recent campaign, said students were feeling "burnt out" after 12-hour shifts.

In response, a government spokesperson said there were £5,000 grants for eligible students, as well as financial support for costs including childcare, travel and parking.

"They are just so stressed, overwhelmed, burnt out," said Jeffrey, 24, from Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk.

"They're doing 12-hour shifts in the hospital alongside paid nurses, and then a lot of them are taking up paid bank work."

Jeffrey, who is vice-president for education at the Essex union, said student nurses were being used as "cheap labour" for hospitals.

She pointed out that her contemporaries had to pay for travel, uniforms, and the washing of their uniforms, on top of paying about £10,000 in tuition fees each year.

"They're also studying, they're completing assessments, they're submitting essays. We know that a lot of our students are mature students, they have children so they're having to arrange childcare, they're not really spending any time with their families."

Second-year UoE student Phoebe Duggan said her peers would by happy with as little as £5 per hour, but that minimum wage would be "amazing".

The 22-year-old, from Benfleet in Essex, juggles her studies with part-time work in healthcare and lorry driving.

"Your week can very quickly get up to 60-70 hours... it's very mentally challenging," she said.

"I can't imagine what it must be like for some of my colleagues who are single parents."

Duggan said she often had to choose between the quality of her work and earning money.

"You often come off of a placement block thinking, 'right, I'm really out of pocket, I need to pick up a few shifts' [of paid work].

"But then you're trying to juggle that against, 'but I've got an essay to finish for next week, but I really need the money'.

"So then your academic work might not be as good as it could be."

Duggan is based at the university's Southend-on-Sea campus, which is due to close by September.

The Essex union is coordinating a week of campaign action starting on 11 May.

Patricia Marquis, executive director for England at the Royal College of Nursing, said students faced "appalling hardship" and were being used to "prop up under pressure and understaffed services".

"The plight of students is symptomatic of a broken student finance system which punishes students," she added.

"Rather than being used to prop up under pressure and understaffed services, nursing students need better financial support throughout their education."

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said the government wanted to help nursing students overcome financial obstacles as part of a 10-year plan.

"We fully acknowledge the contribution that students make to clinical teams while on placement," they said.

"We want to remove the barriers to training in clinical roles like nursing, which is why in addition to student loans, we provide student support in the form of [£5,000] non-repayable grants direct to students."

Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.