Posted on Wed 18 Mar 2020 at 10:59 by
Ruth Rawson Hi fellow nursing students,
We have entered unprecedented times and will continue to, I'm sure, experience many firsts, as we progress through the coming weeks and months.
My role as School Rep is to make sure that your questions and concerns are being addressed by school leaders, particularly in light of the recent move to online lectures. The last thing I want is for nurse students to feel isolated, alone and unsure of what is going on.
I will be submitting the following questions / comments to our school leadership, based on student concerns I have heard so far:
1. If I choose to withdraw, or am unable to continue on placement, due to my own or family health issues, or childcare issues when the schools close - what will happen to the hours I have missed.
2. I am being used as a Healthcare Assistant as my placement area is busy. The number of learning opportunities have dropped significantly. I am now an unpaid HCA rather than a student nurse.
3. We are not being offered fitting for PPE as we do not have an NHS email address to book ourselves in. There is also over a week's wait to be fitted.
4. What happens if we are pulled out of placement - what happens to the hours we will have lost?
5. What is happening with the proposal to register 3rd year students early?
6. Students seem to be getting 'this is what you signed up for' if they raise concerns about the quality of learning that is taking place in placement / will likely take place throughout the course of the pandemic, 'I feel like I'm losing the love for nursing even before I get me PIN. I DID NOT sign up for a global pandemic'.
I will be submitting your feedback to school leaders, on a continuous basis - please DON'T KEEP YOUR CONCERNS TO YOURSELVES submit your feedback so that we can get answers.
I'm signing off for now, but don't hesitate to get in touch via email.
Ruth