Student nurses must pay to work


Matt Whale, student nurse

George Osborne’s Autumn Statement has scrapped bursaries for nursing students starting in 2017.

This is a huge attack aimed not just at the nursing profession, but the NHS and working class. The health service is already in crisis, with a shortage of over 20,000 nurses.

The logical solution would be to invest in student nurses, and increase funding to incorporate some of the 37,000 applicants turned away. Instead the Tories have priced thousands of future nurses out of a career.

To qualify as a nurse, our regulator, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, requires a minimum 2,300 hours worked on placement. The government is going to make student nurses pay to work for free. It’s a disgrace.

According to a survey by the largest health union, Unison, 90% of current nurses wouldn’t have been able to complete training without a bursary. A lot of my fellow trainees are parents with young children. They wouldn’t be able to afford it either.

The chancellor’s proposal would leave newly qualified nurses with upwards of £50,000 of student debt. Nurses start on around £22,000 a year.

Staff are overworked, underpaid and under huge stress. Morale is at an all-time low. But junior doctors have delayed contract changes just by threatening to strike.

Unison and other health unions striking together would be a big step forward in the fight to save the NHS.