With 40,000 nursing vacancies available across the country, and a plunging interest in a nursing career among young people, the Fund Our Future campaign, seems now more relevant that ever. Emilia Roman investigates how the campaign can bring change in the East Midlands.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) announced their Spotlight on Nursing, Virtual Lobby Week (7-11 December), encouraging students from across the country to talk with their local MPs about the financial struggles they have been facing during their studies.
While the Learning Support Grant of £5,000 scrapped back in 2015 has been reintroduced this year, the Fund Our Future Campaign is pushing for better financial support for current students.
It is also aiming to raise awareness on the high level of debt which previous generations found themselves in.
MP for Nottingham South Lilian Greenwood raised the issue of debt among newly trained nurses on behalf of her constituents in late November in Parliament.
She brought the debate to Nottingham and the East Midlands.
David Kirwan, who is the Operations Manager for the RCN East Midlands region said: “We’ve got a deficit of nurses in the country.
“The Fund Our Future campaign is essentially trying to reverse that.
“It’s all about funding our future of nursing.”
Nurses are highly sought on the job market with 40,000 vacancies available currently in England, according to the RCN.
The RCN describes the plunge in young people taking up nursing as a career and the high need for more nurses as a “nursing workforce crisis”.
This crisis manifests in the East Midlands as a struggle in filling vacancies across the whole region, even in more remote places.
Mr Kirwan said: “It’s easy to get recruitment in Nottingham, and in Northampton and certain parts of Derby, but it’s less easy in parts such as Lincolnshire where is more remote, and this campaign would help us address this issue.”
“I know it seems like it is just something we keep banging on about – oh, the RCN going on about training again- but it really is the key, because if we don’t train our nurses, we won’t have them, and we’ve got an ageing workforce and we’ve got a deficit already.
“And Brexit coming up as well.” he added.
Trevor Ride, who is the Chairman of Nottingham Nurses League and has had 42 years of experience in healthcare management, has touched upon a never-ending cycle of shortages in the nursing workforce: “What saddens me is that every generation of nurses and other healthcare professionals crunch on shortages of staff.
“What we need is a closer integration of nursing education and the service.
“Medical education, medical schools are much more integrated with the hospitals where doctors are training,” he added.
Mr Ride said that when he first began his training as a nurse, he was being paid for the work.
As a trainee nurses, in the ‘70s, young people were viewed as part of the workforce.
Mr Ride said: “By putting nurses into universities and making it university grant-led, we’ve actually lost that element of contribution.
“We pretend they are not working.”
The now retired nurse explains that, historically, the nursing workforce has become more highly skilled, but also more expensive.
Mr Ride said: “Lots of work has been done on workforce planning but we never seem to get it right.
“It is a numbers game, and it is about how much we can really afford.”
“And we have got all these nightingale hospitals, tell me: where are the staff going to come from?” he added.
Charlie Shaw, 19, from Wilford, is currently in her first year of the Nursing (Adult) course at the University of Nottingham and has been eager to share her story in aid of the campaign.
The student decided to become an ambassador for Fund Our Future, after noticing how low pay and inaccessible education, have affected close family members.
Charlie said: “I thought I couldn’t keep quiet about it – we don’t deserve that treatment.”
Charlie had the opportunity to speak with multiple students about their situation and, apart from her own experience, she has gained a lot of insight on how personal circumstances have affected each person’s career prospects in nursing.
She said: “There are a lot of mature students that have gone from being a band four healthcare professional to being a nurse, which is a step up, but to do that, they are taking a pay cut because of the funding.”
Charlie has also said, that usually, placements are offered to students eight weeks at a time and finding a job, that will allow time off for work experience, is impossible.
During placements, students are required to work 12-hour shifts, including nightshifts, stated the student.
“There’s a lot of things in the news, about MPs saying that we don’t provide a service,” said Charlie discontented.
Romey Neve Speight, 19, from Lenton, who is also in her first year of the Nursing (Adult) course at University of Nottingham, said that the reason she has applied for the course was because nurses will always be needed and, in time, she can progress in her career.
However, the student has expressed her views on the £5,000 Learning Support Grant.
She said: “If I were being paid for my work as a student nurse, I would not be bothered about this bursary.
“I’d think, give it to those who rather need it than I.”
“Obviously, I do get that we learn on the job so it is very beneficial for us, as it for us helping the nurses on that ward, but my opinion of it is that we should get paid for our time, when it’s so much hard work and so exhausting”, added Romey.
Currently, nursing and midwifery students must complete 2,300 hours of clinical placement, set by the Nursing and Midwifery Council, to become a registered nurse, and qualify for the vacancies that are now available across the country.
By Emilia Roman
Featured image: Royal College of Nursing.