Student nurses and midwives should have been consulted on the government’s decision to suspend supernumerary placements, Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) has said.
Last Saturday evening, it was reported that first-, second- and third-year students would be pulled from placements for at least two weeks so that the more senior staff who oversee their training could return to hospital frontlines.
In a press statement signed by TCDSU’s sabbatical officers, the union said it was “incredibly disappointed” by the lack of clarity surrounding the decision.
“Since the beginning of the pandemic, student nurses and midwives have remained an afterthought by our Government and have been excluded from conversations that directly impact their education and their future”, it added. “Students need to be consulted and included in these vital discussions and cannot continue to be kept in the dark by decision-making bodies. This has to change.”
Last March, nursing students were offered contracts to work as healthcare assistants in hospitals during the pandemic, but there will be no such arrangement on a national level this time.
However, hospitals can decide at local level to take on students as healthcare assistants if they consider it necessary.
The union said: “An already overstretched healthcare system is facing the losses of over 2,000 nursing and midwifery students on placement at this crucial time. Anyone who believes these students on placement do not pull their weight as a vital member of the healthcare team, is terribly mistaken.”
“Clear contingency measures are vital to ensuring that students can meet their learning outcomes and progress and graduate as scheduled. The lack of transparency around this is actively stifling the education of thousands of students.”
“The chronically understaffed healthcare system is often propped up by those students on placement”, the statement added. “How can we expect our already under pressure healthcare system to adapt to this very sudden change while working at the coalface of the pandemic?”
The sabbatical officers said they will be writing to Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly about the issue of student nurses and midwives.
“These students are risking their lives on the front lines”, the statement concluded. “It is unacceptable for a Health Service to be relying on the good will and voluntary time of students while those very students continue to be neglected.”
