Any nurses who work on the wards? Do you really need an influx of students?

[Contactlenses123]

I'm waiting to hear where I'm being placed.
I'm a final year children's nurse.

The September cohort have already gone in.
And we're next.

And then the second years are being placed. We are basically HCA's until we qualify (December for us).

I can't speak for adult wards but the children's wards are quieter than ever. I can't help but wonder what they are going to do with all these HCA's.

And since we have already peaked, it's unlikely (although not impossible) to spiral out of control.

Do they really need a shed load of students on the ward like they lead us to believe?

I’m a midwife not a nurse but we need HCAs more than we need students. Always grateful for an extra pair of hands especially with quite a bit of short staffing at the minute.

My hospital have declined to have any students at the present time.

So I guess for you/your uni there is a choice of either working as a HCA until dec and then qualifying or interrupting and you’ll qualify a year or possibly more after you should have done. Are you still going to get any support/contact from your uni? Any Assignments which you’ll need to finish?

@scarfaceclaw21 it depends what their/her version of 'frontline' is because people use that word differently.

I think I'm going to get A&E because that's where I was supposed to be if things were normal. Having been there with my child recently and seeing what a ghost town it is, I'll be disappointed if I get it.

Any Assignments which you’ll need to finish?

Our dissertation.

Full time work and a dissertation and kids.
The definition of impossible.

Surely quieter would be better at first? Get you properly trained and orientated ready for being at full capacity in a month or two?

To be honest where I work we’re tripping over ourselves as everyone has been redeployed back to the wards and we haven’t got many patients. However this will mean that you should get a proper induction and time for training as so often this doesn’t happen due to patient numbers and lack of staff. Can you spend some quality time in each area?

Surely quieter would be better at first? Get you properly trained and orientated ready for being at full capacity in a month or two?

Not really. I've been working on the wards for 2 years.

I need patients to train for the last few months.

Quiet might be good for for a first year but not for someone in their final year. It will be a drag.

@contactlenses123 she very much wants and expects to be on a cold ward.

My friend has been deployed to the nightgale and they have nowhere near the number of nurses they need and are turning away patients as a result. Obviously not children's ward nurses though.

*covid not cold!

I doubt she will be on a covid ward.

Can you imagine the uproar if a student nurse dies of coronavirus?

The university needs to protect their students.

Can you imagine the uproar if a student nurse dies of coronavirus?

I don't think there'd be much more uproar than any other medical staff dying of it to be honest.

I thought the same thing, but she has told everyone she is. I don't want to say too much as it could very outing. But yes, I am uncomfortable about some of the things she has said. She works as a HCA in a private setting and there is other stuff she has said which doesn't sit brilliantly with me but as someone who isn't in the profession I don't want to second guess her.

If you are placed in A&E, would that be until December ? If so, once lock down is lifted or partially lifted, I imagine you will see an upsurge in people attending again, from a slow trickle to a flood.

"Dissertation,full time work and kids ,the definition of impossible" Difficult maybe ,but my friend did this and although very stressful at times ,she made it and is now a qualified Optician !

I'm skeptical about that dottie I don't think any situation now is comparable with the way students were expected to do things in the past.
We are all expected to work and do our dissertations in normal circumstances.

This is not normal circumstances at all. Everything is switched on it's head.

All due respect to your friend but she wasn't doing it in the middle of a pandemic.

*scarfaceclaw PM me?

Frumpety we aren't sure. Ideally we would have two different wards. But we just know nothing ultimately.

We've got a third year student, who's opted to work as a band four. She's got absolutely nothing to do. We are very quiet.
Paeds in a large teaching hospital.

If numbers remain manageable, will they resume some of the services previously cancelled, non-urgent operations and so on? Presumably there's a bottle-neck of need that will need dealing with at some point.

She's got absolutely nothing to do. We are very quiet.

I knew it ☹️

Yes. The next few months are going to be hideous when we re start surgery. I have no idea how we are going to cope with the backlog. We'd usually have 20-30 kids a week. Plus emergency admissions.

It's highly unlikely your friend will go to a COVID ward. Our third years have been told they won't be placed in a nightingale or on a COVID ward unless they had already secured a job in say, ICU.

You are probably right ContactLenses! This whole situation is so stressful ,and unlike anything that has gone before ,so nothing to compare to really .I hope it goes well for you ,and you manage to qualify.Surely you would be given some leeway considering the circumstances?

When I was hospitalised with Covid 3 weeks ago, all the second year medical students had been deployed to the wards as HCAs. Their exams were cancelled.
I was looked after overnight on the step down respiratory ward by a young lad who looked about 15, but who was very competent and reassuring!
As a retired doc myself, I think it will be a useful practical introduction to ward procedures for them. My own medical school gets the students into clinical work right from the start, rather than doing two years of theory and dissection first, and I think it’s a good integrated approach to do both concurrently.

With expected high staff sickness rates in the NHS from Covid acquired on duty, backfilling with students is a sensible option.

dottiedodah I may be wrong, but I don’t think that student opticians work shifts whilst on clinical placement, their placement is based around clinics and surgery so will be more likely be a Monday - Friday job role, where they’ll get weekends and evenings to spend on uni work. Student nurses/midwives work 12 hour shifts 3 times a week including nights and weekends. Nights are a killer and it’s difficult managing those alone even without the pressure of having uni work to complete. You could be working nights have a day off then back on shift. It’s exhausting. Many students who have children are also struggling with childcare, so yes for some students it will be impossible to balance childcare, shift work and uni work.

No is the answer for very valid reasons.
We have strongly declined student nurses in our department and thankfully been listened to.
It has taken many phone calls and several emails to get that message across to the powers that be though.