News Production: Student Nursing Research
Gavin was set out to carry out research on student nurses and he cam back with a lot of useful information and shared some some articles with the rest of the group. I looked into some of these articles myself to gain an insight into what I'm presenting. I wanted a solid background of the bursary cuts story and junior doctor and nurses contracts.
Student Nurses who were accepted onto nursing courses would be given a bursary between £1,000 and £4,000 which meant that they wouldn't ever have to pay it back. However, the BBC reported in 2016 that by next year (2017) these bursaries would be cancelled and replaced with a loan which they would have to pay back and run up a debt with. The BBC News quotes Janet Davies, the chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing: "Removing their bursaries will have a serious impact on them financially and put the future
supply of nurses at serious risk,"
Clearly from this the cut will have a great impact on the amount of student nurses and their lifestyles. They are working hard all hours of the day without financial gain or appreciation off the government.
(BBC, 9th January 2016,http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35263402)
Chairwoman of the RCN Student Council, Sylvia Duval, who took part in the London march, said: "Bursaries are an essential financial support and without them, many of us here today wouldn't have been able to fulfil our dream of becoming a nurse." (BBC, 9th January 2016, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35263402).
So people who are passionate about nursing as there career path are no longer as reassured to follow that ambition as a result of these cuts. However, like with everything else, there are two sides to every story:
The Department or Health comments on the situation in saying"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". This is a fair enough comment to make and I can equally understand their point of view.
However, the main concern from this change was the amount of debt the nurses would then get into and also the situation for the nurses during their University years. As a student nurse, you will not only attend University, you will also have to do placement on a ward, this is unpaid work. Meaning, they don't have as much free time as regular students. Likewise stye would have no time to consider
the option of getting a part-time job to help fund their course.
The Guardian in an article said:"The number of domestic applicants dropped by 5%, the biggest fall in recent years, and there was a 7% fall in applications from the EU."(The Guardian, Wednesday 25 January 2017 19.17 GMT)
Covering this story on our news channel will be both challenging and exiting. Getting interviews isn't so easy as people don't want to talk about it for risk of tarnishing their future career prospects. This is understandable; if we were to try and find ways around this we would perhaps consider blurring or darkening their faces and changing their voices so they are unidentifiable. However, this wouldn't usually be the done thing on news with this type of story so would be preferable if we could do so without such complications. It could also be helpful for Student nurses and students in secondary schools who are considering nursing as a course to help them chose their path and all keep them informed and up to date with whats going on in the education system and how it can eventually or even currently affect them. Although it may not be relevant to everyone, it is more original; especially if we made this story part of our live broadcast.
Junior Doctors & Nurses Contracts
An issue which we came across in our research is something that can have a serious effect on Student Nurses is the pay situation for Junior nurses and doctors getting worse. Many staff refusing to go to work and caused a large amount of issues for the NHS including a fall in staff A&E had a knock on effect on patients who require medical treatment.
Student Nurses are then affected by this because once they've graduated the next step forward is to become a junior doctor/nurse, which means they'll face further financial dept after a previous three years of debt. This is no quick step up though; it can take up to 4 years for a junior doctor to qualify as a GP and it takes 8 years to become qualified as a hospital consultant. This is a large amount of time with such unreliable contracts. I can already imagine this would effect a great number of students wanting to study nursing as it would mean a struggle while working for many years after education until they have a final secured job.
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| Protesters in London outside Downing Street |
supply of nurses at serious risk,"
Clearly from this the cut will have a great impact on the amount of student nurses and their lifestyles. They are working hard all hours of the day without financial gain or appreciation off the government.
(BBC, 9th January 2016,http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35263402)
Chairwoman of the RCN Student Council, Sylvia Duval, who took part in the London march, said: "Bursaries are an essential financial support and without them, many of us here today wouldn't have been able to fulfil our dream of becoming a nurse." (BBC, 9th January 2016, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35263402).
So people who are passionate about nursing as there career path are no longer as reassured to follow that ambition as a result of these cuts. However, like with everything else, there are two sides to every story:
The Department or Health comments on the situation in saying"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". This is a fair enough comment to make and I can equally understand their point of view.
However, the main concern from this change was the amount of debt the nurses would then get into and also the situation for the nurses during their University years. As a student nurse, you will not only attend University, you will also have to do placement on a ward, this is unpaid work. Meaning, they don't have as much free time as regular students. Likewise stye would have no time to consider
the option of getting a part-time job to help fund their course.
The Guardian in an article said:"The number of domestic applicants dropped by 5%, the biggest fall in recent years, and there was a 7% fall in applications from the EU."(The Guardian, Wednesday 25 January 2017 19.17 GMT)
Covering this story on our news channel will be both challenging and exiting. Getting interviews isn't so easy as people don't want to talk about it for risk of tarnishing their future career prospects. This is understandable; if we were to try and find ways around this we would perhaps consider blurring or darkening their faces and changing their voices so they are unidentifiable. However, this wouldn't usually be the done thing on news with this type of story so would be preferable if we could do so without such complications. It could also be helpful for Student nurses and students in secondary schools who are considering nursing as a course to help them chose their path and all keep them informed and up to date with whats going on in the education system and how it can eventually or even currently affect them. Although it may not be relevant to everyone, it is more original; especially if we made this story part of our live broadcast.
Junior Doctors & Nurses Contracts
An issue which we came across in our research is something that can have a serious effect on Student Nurses is the pay situation for Junior nurses and doctors getting worse. Many staff refusing to go to work and caused a large amount of issues for the NHS including a fall in staff A&E had a knock on effect on patients who require medical treatment.
Student Nurses are then affected by this because once they've graduated the next step forward is to become a junior doctor/nurse, which means they'll face further financial dept after a previous three years of debt. This is no quick step up though; it can take up to 4 years for a junior doctor to qualify as a GP and it takes 8 years to become qualified as a hospital consultant. This is a large amount of time with such unreliable contracts. I can already imagine this would effect a great number of students wanting to study nursing as it would mean a struggle while working for many years after education until they have a final secured job.
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