Packet joins campaign to scrap tuition fees for student nurses

IN the coronavirus pandemic, our thoughts turn to the healthcare heroes who have gone above and beyond their duty as they always have and always will.

Every day NHS staff walk fearlessly into our hospitals, facing a virus which threatens their own lives and relatives as much as their patients’. And they do it because there’s something in their DNA that calls on them to care.

Among those fighting to save lives on the frontline stands a new generation of nurses, paramedics and midwives, experiencing their career firsts in the middle of an unprecedented international public health emergency. They are fighting a highly infectious invisible killer with no cure and no treatments.

Every day they are facing situations even the most experienced hospital staff have never seen in their lifetimes.

They are the final year students who signed up out of good will. And yet they are the same nurses paying £9,250 a year tuition fees for a degree course cut short by the Covid-19 crisis. They are the same members of staff asked to work an unpaid placement or waiting to be enrolled in a paid band 4 nursing role.

Until 2016-17, students studying a nursing degree received a bursary worth up to £16,454 a year. The bursary also met student tuition fees.

But in 2015 the Government unexpectedly scrapped the bursary. Doing so would increase the number of people training to be a nurse, according to the then-Chancellor George Osborne.

He couldn't have been more wrong.

Since the Government scrapped NHS bursaries and replaced them with tuition fees and loans there has been a 23 per cent reduction in applications for nursing courses in England.

According to the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), it is a key reason why hospitals started this pandemic critically short of nurses - and why thousands of students have now been rushed to the frontline before their courses are finished.

The fear of running up huge debts has deterred many good candidates from becoming a nurse. Those that have gone ahead now face starting a new career with a huge financial burden.

Ironically, from the next academic year, starting in September 2020, all nursing students in England will get a £5,000-a-year maintenance grant. In addition, those who plan to work in areas with the greatest need, or in disciplines where there is a shortage, will receive another £3,000.

But that's cold comfort for the thousands of student nurses currently in our hospitals coping with Covid-19.

Today the Packet calls on the Government to scrap university tuition fees for academic year 2019/20 for student nurses who have shown their dedication to the NHS by serving in the coronavirus pandemic.

MPs across the political divide have already thrown their weight behind the campaign which asks: Is it fair to expect students to put their lives in danger and pay for the privilege?

Last night the RCN backed the campaign, branding tuition fees for healthcare students a “mistake” and “a barrier to safely staffing hospital and other care settings”.

The nursing institution says all students should have “fair pay and conditions” as new members of the NHS workforce.

Glenn Turp, a regional director for the RCN, explained: "Tuition fees for nursing courses were a mistake. The number of people applying for nursing dropped off a cliff when they were introduced.

They are a barrier to safely staffing hospital and other care settings and should be removed without delay."

And he said brave students joining the frontline deserve to be recognised: “They have chosen to leave their courses early to join the workforce to help tackle the pandemic - they should be given fair pay and conditions.

“Students who have chosen to enter the workforce early are welcomed by hospitals and other health and care settings as helping in a time of crisis, but they must be protected."

Newsquest, the Packet's publishers, approached the Treasury and the Department for Health, but they declined to comment.

A spokesperson for the Department of Education said: “We are grateful to all students who choose to support our NHS during this extremely difficult time and will be ensuring all students who do opt in are rewarded fairly for their hard work."

* If you agree it is unfair to ask student nurses to pay tuition fees while they care for sick and dying coronavirus victims in our hospitals please sign our petition by visiting the Parliament petitions website on https://petition.parliament.uk/

Why are student nurses paying tuition fees?

Until 2016-17 students studying a nursing degree received a bursary worth up to £16,454 a year. The bursary also met student tuition fees.

But the bursary was scrapped and students had to apply for loans to cover their costs.

Aren't tuition fees being scrapped?

From the next academic year, starting in September 2020, all nursing students in England will get a £5,000-a-year maintenance grant. In addition, those who plan to work in areas with the greatest need or in disciplines where there is a shortage will receive another £3,000.

But this does not apply to the final year student nurses currently working in our hospitals.

Why are some students working in hospitals unpaid and others are employed?

When the coronavirus pandemic first started to affect the way our hospitals operate, many students - nurses in particular - found themselves at the epicentre as they completed the placement necessary to pass their degree.

It is something most student nurses, paramedics and midwives undertake as part of their training and consists of unpaid 12 hour shifts where they gain experience.

They are 'supernumerary' members of staff, meaning that the student will not, as part of their programme of preparation, be contracted by any person or body to provide nursing care.

So what happened?

As it became clearer that more support would be needed on the frontline, the government moved to employing students on a short contract.

One trust in Yorkshire said all clinical placements have been paused for student nurses and midwives unless they are part-way through an assessed placement as of March 2020. The trust said only a small number of these have remained on placement but there will be many nurses who faced the worst scenarios the pandemic has brought before the changes were announced, and many still on placement.

Back in early April, Ruth May, the chief nursing officer for England, held talks with universities to make nurses available as soon as possible.

She said third-year students would be moved "urgently" on to emergency clinical placement. They were to provide services as part of a final placement on their nursing course with an opportunity to upskill and work alongside supervisors. The nursing chief said all practice hours will contribute to their degree.

These third-year nursing students in final placement would be offered a temporary formal contract to move into an NHS healthcare position, earning a band 4 wage.

The chief could not give an official start date for students, meaning those already on placement would continue working for free until the contract was processed by their universities and hospitals alike.

The chief said: "COVID-19 is an established significant pandemic across the UK and globally. The services across health and care sectors are under extreme pressure and I am aware that this pressure will be exacerbated by staff shortages due to sickness, isolation and/or caring responsibilities.

"Nurses, midwives and nursing associates make up the largest group of registered healthcare professionals and although all professionals are equally important and valued, there are specific challenges to ensure the ongoing provision of a nursing and midwifery workforce within this emergency environment.

"I must stress that decisions have not been taken lightly and there has also been consideration of risks of potential unintended consequences and mitigation of them."