Student nurses are some of the hardest working individuals on campus. They are selfless enough to give their time, effort, and passion towards a profession that will help thousands of people. And medical courses are not easy to get into but thanks to things like GradReady’s gamsat prep, more and more hopeful students are able to get their dream placement after passing the GAMSAT test. However, even after all the effort, they put into training to become qualified, they still aren’t paid fairly most of the time.
But, following a press conference at the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) Headquarters this morning comes the news that as of March 1st this year, the wage paid to fourth-year nursing and midwifery student interns will be €9.48 an hour, 70 percent of the lowest rate of a staff nurse’s wage. This decision means that this year’s students will be paid €1998 more for their 36-week placement.
Furthermore, the controversy surrounding the 2010 abolishment of incremental credit has also been resolved, meaning that upon graduation, the 36 weeks of internship will be included when placing new nurses on the pay scale. Graduates will now only have to work 16 additional weeks to reach the second rate of pay. In short, following 16 weeks of graduate work, Irish-trained nurses will earn an additional €2,014.
In addition to these measures, permanent contracts will now be offered to newly-qualified nurses and midwives upon graduation. Considering a huge shortage of nurses in the public sector at present, this decision is unsurprising.
The announcement comes following an ultimatum from the INMO last Thursday when, after meeting with class reps, the union warned Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Brendan Howlin, that if a positive response to their demands had not been granted by today, “a protest outside the Dáil” would take place tomorrow, Tuesday. Given this being the final week of General Election campaigning, this would have been damaging for the government.
Despite today’s positive announcement for student nurses and midwives, there is also some disappointing news for interns as the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform have refused to back date this new agreement to January, when this year’s cohort of students began their internship. Therefore, for all work carried out during the first two months of this year, interns will continue to be paid the rate of €6.49 an hour.
The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) has welcomed the agreement but pointed to the fact that those qualified between 2011 and 2015 will not see the benefit of it. “While we are happy at the progress made, we are disappointed that the same incremental credit could not be applied to those who have qualified since 2011”.
Meanwhile, Phil Ni Sheaghdha, the Director of Industrial Relations at the INMO also focused on this issue saying that, “There is a lot more work to be done for student nurses and midwives.” She went on to highlight that the union will continue to campaign for those who have graduated in previous years and suffered due to the abolition of incremental credit.
Fourth-year Trinity class rep, Aoife Campbell, posted the news to her colleagues via Facebook and expressed her overall contentment with the outcome by concluding, “These are major positives…and while yes it is disappointing we won’t be backdated, it is still a huge step from where we were this time last week.
