Trainee nurses in York speak out against £52,000 tuition fee decision

THE voices of student nurses in York feature heavily in statements presented to the government.

"My dream of becoming a staff nurse is absolutely shattered. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who shed a tear [at the decision] not only for myself, my colleagues but for the NHS," Nicola, a would-be nursing student, said.

Emma, a single mother from York, said: "If I wasn’t in receipt of an NHS bursary I wouldn’t be able to study and better my life for myself and my son and show him that no matter your financial background you are capable of great things and can better the life for yourself."

Alice, another York student, adds: "The bursary makes the 13 hour shifts on our feet, where we might have to wipe someone’s bottom, make countless beds and actually save lives a little better. It’s a little compensation for the free labour that we, especially people in their second or third years, are used for... I am fed up of being looked at as a burden by the NHS and The Government. All they think of is the money they are giving out now, not the long term investment that it will create."

These passionate statements are among many compiled by the Royal College of Nursing after the Government decided to push ahead with plans to scrap NHS bursaries, in favour of students borrowing to pay for their university courses.

Currently nurses and midwives, do not have to pay tuition fees but after 2017, nursing, midwifery, and allied health students - such as occupational therapists and physiotherapists - will face about £50,000 of student loan debt when they graduate compared with just under £7,000 with the current bursaries.

The Government has said that replacing bursaries with loans will free up around £800 million a year, create extra nursing posts by 2020 and help students from all backgrounds take up the role.

But opponents to the plans have said the changes will deter people from taking the degrees, exacerbating existing staffing problems in the NHS. The decision is "short-sighted" and likely to have a "detrimental effect on the NHS workforce", leading health unions, patient organisations and royal colleges have said in an open letter to the Prime Minister.

So what will the decision mean for people living in the York area?

The city’s hospital has expressed concern that people will be put off going into the career. York Hospital, like others nationally, is already struggling to recruit nurses. The shortage led to an overseas search for staff and a recruitment drive for nurses in Spain. It was also blamed for many millions of pounds being spent on agency nurses – £6.4 million between April and October of last year alone.

“There are many qualified nurses working for our Trust who have benefited from the bursary scheme as a way of supporting their training,” Beverley Geary, chief nurse at York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (pictured above), said, “We don’t know the final details around the withdrawal of the scheme and what impact it will have, however at a time when it is difficult to recruit to some posts we would not want to see changes that might deter people from choosing nursing as a career.”

Her concerns are echoed by York Central MP Rachael Maskell (pictured above), who previously worked as a physiotherapist. Nursing and allied health training is intense, with students spending a third to half their time working on the wards, in addition to studying. There is no time to work a paid job, as many other students are able to do, she said.

“I'm really concerned about the cuts to student bursaries,” Ms Maskell said, “We have a shortage in nursing staff in York, and this could make things even worse. The NHS spend on agency staff is also taking its toll on NHS budgets, with 80 per cent of trusts in debt at the end of the financial year.

“When we have a challenge in attracting enough students to cover the need for nursing, the government should listen to the very real concerns of students, as I have on a number of occasions, and make it easier for people to enter the profession, rather than chasing round the world to recruit nurses, at huge expense.”

But the government disagrees that people will be put off nursing, arguing that it will actually allow for more people to go into the occupation. A Department of Health spokesman said: "We need more home-grown nurses in the NHS because they do an amazing job caring for patients, but currently two-thirds of people who apply to become a nurse aren't accepted for training.

"Our plans mean up to 10,000 more training places by the end of this parliament".

And the move brings nursing, midwifery and allied health students in line with students across England and Wales. When £9,000 tuition fees were introduced for most students in 2012, applications to university dropped and similar concerns were raised that prospective students would be deterred, but then applications rallied again, with university applications reaching record levels last year.

However, with student nurses expected to complete 2,300 clinical hours of work for the NHS, Mary Allitt, 22, a student nurse at the University of York, said it is wrong to effectively pay to work.

"As much as we get called students it's not comparable to many other courses," Mary said, "We get six weeks holiday a year, we have to work a range of shift patterns, including evenings and nights and over Bank Holidays. There's an emotional strain, you're dealing with people and real life things. You're bordering between actually working and being a student at the same time."

She believes it will significantly limit the pool of people who can afford to become nurses, ruling out many people currently working as health care assistants or older people with families.

Having chosen to become a nurse as she loves to work with people and considered it to be a career for life, Mary said she would have looked at more lucrative career options had she been required to get into £50,000 of debt, "I'm not a charity, or a martyr".

Isobel, a nursing student in York said: "I am from a background that includes a disabled widowed mother, these proposals mean that people like me, who are not born into money will suffer, leaving them in a poor situation. Additionally, 2,300 hours of work which the NMC requires students to do will now be paid for by the student. I am sorry but I think paying to work is simply wrong. I am so angry for prospective students."