NHS bursary cuts

[LoveCurryPies]

My daughter is training to be a nurse. She's one of the lucky ones that got a bursary but now the government plan to replace them with loans. The bursary only covered the Uni fees and she had to have loans to cover accommodation and living costs.

Student Nurses in return of a bursary worked for the NHS for free for half of each year. It was a win win scenario.

You probably think student nurses don't do much while training....

Her first morning she was given the body of an old lady and told to prepare and put in a body bag. Cleaning and body washing patients was just a day to day activity. Not something I would like to do.

She was part of the triage team that tried to save a middle age lady who suffered a major heart attack and later the same day used oxygen on a new born baby while the doctor did heart manipulation. Sadly both died.

But there were many success stories.

She's worked in A&E, and the heart units and is on the cancer wards. This week she had to tell a lady her partner who had cancer was about to die. "We wanted to get married before he died" explained the lady. My daughter immediately arranged a wedding and an hour after getting married the man died.

I'm really angry! The removal of bursaries will put nurses into greater. Most nurses (unlike some doctors) aren't going to earn huge amounts. The NHS has a shortage of nurses so where is the logic?

[Sidney1st]

NHS and logic don't tend to go together.

[DCWat]

Assuming the offer of work experience remains (still win win) it makes sense from a cost saving perspective. Whether it does from many other respects is another matter.

[Loyalclaret]

I lived with a lot of training nurses at uni and all they did was work compared to most students. Even in the holidays they were on placement. Lots of respect for them and the job they do

[jurek]

Over a number of years we've failed to invest in the NHS and in particular in nursing provision.
In fact if I'm not mistaken we've actually reduced the number of training nurse places in the UK.
As a result the NHS has had to recruit heavily from overseas including EU countries over the last few years in particular.

Why would you do that knowing that demand is increasing?
It just doesn't make much sense unless you, or whoever is in power, wishes
to change the NHS in more ways than one.

This government needs to invest significantly more in nurse training and provide
trainees with much better bursary deals and repayment deals/terms.
And better future salaries too.

Those that look after out ill and elderly deserve it.

[bfcmik]

They have also, for the most part, stopped doing the 'return to nursing' courses which allowed Registered Nurses who hadn't practised for over 5 years to, in effect, re-qualify in a few months rather than go through the full 4 year degree course again.

I am a Registered Learning Disability Nurse who stopped working in the field in 1997. This is one of the fields that has a huge shortage of qualified nurses an,d about 12 years ago, I looked into getting back into the job through a return to nursing course but eventually decided that still I wasn't sufficiently interested enough to make it a worthwhile use of 4-6 months unpaid time for me nor the NHS. 3 years later I looked into it and only paediatric nurses, midwives and psychiatric nurses were being offered free courses and, in addition to the 4-6 months unpaid time, I would have to pay almost £2k for the course. Needless to say I am still not working in the field!

Nurses are relatively low paid for the responsibilities they undertake on a daily basis but the training bursary was a big help in enabling trainees to make it through school or university after the training was uprated in the early 90s. I suspect the next 'save the NHS' scheme from the government will be to allow private training programmes to offer a route to RN status with bursaries subsidised by central government

[Clarets4me]

They have also, for the most part, stopped doing the 'return to nursing' courses which allowed Registered Nurses who hadn't practised for over 5 years to, in effect, re-qualify in a few months rather than go through the full 4 year degree course again.

I am a Registered Learning Disability Nurse who stopped working in the field in 1997. This is one of the fields that has a huge shortage of qualified nurses an,d about 12 years ago, I looked into getting back into the job through a return to nursing course but eventually decided that still I wasn't sufficiently interested enough to make it a worthwhile use of 4-6 months unpaid time for me nor the NHS. 3 years later I looked into it and only paediatric nurses, midwives and psychiatric nurses were being offered free courses and, in addition to the 4-6 months unpaid time, I would have to pay almost £2k for the course. Needless to say I am still not working in the field!

Nurses are relatively low paid for the responsibilities they undertake on a daily basis but the training bursary was a big help in enabling trainees to make it through school or university after the training was uprated in the early 90s. I suspect the next 'save the NHS' scheme from the government will be to allow private training programmes to offer a route to RN status with bursaries subsidised by central government

I've always thought that there must have been a large number of men and women who'd been nurses, and had career breaks to have children, look after relatives etc but then found obstacles in their way when it came to returning to the profession. I've been told by a few older nurses, that the problems arose when their " Union/Association ", insisted on Nursing becoming a " Degree ". My Mum was an SRN, after her A levels in Nottingham, she trained at Westminster Hospital and became an SRN, as did one of my early Girlfriends ( St Barts ). They lived in Nurses accomodation, trained on the wards, together with lectures etc. My Mother-in-Law, trained at Burnley having only started in her late 30's, qualified as an SEN, and went on to work as a theatre nurse, on a general ward, and finished as an ENT nurse. She had very little by the way of academic qualifications, but proved to be excellent at what she did. All of them were paid whilst training, and their wages increased markedly once they qualified...

The Government should consider massively increasing " Return to Nursing " provision. The fact that a rich Country such as the United Kingdom, is pillaging well trained Nursing Staff from the poorer EU Countries, as well as places like the Phillipines and India is a disgrace !!

[LoveCurryPies]

I lived with a lot of training nurses at uni and all they did was work compared to most students. Even in the holidays they were on placement. Lots of respect for them and the job they do

This is correct. While many students have nearly 3 months holiday in the Summer, student nurses are working in the NHS and earning their bursary!

[Lancasterclaret]

At least we haven't suddenly gone all precious about who comes into our country so we can get the nurses we need from abroad........oh