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?

Oh god that sounds torturous.

If I'm in that position I hope the let me sit and do my dissertation or send me home so I can do my dissertation!

We need the backup on my ward. A lot of our permanent staff are shielding, we've been redeployed a few staff from elsewhere but they are completely new to ward work so cannot work independently yet, and our patient caseload has become much heavier in acuity and dependency (though we do usually have a few empty beds).

Fwiw before I decided to send a paid student home, I would be offering our staff to the night management in case another area needed support--they always do.

I'm on the adult side, not a clue what's been happening in our paeds wards.

@JacobReesMogadishu just to reassure you all the medical students who qualified early all took their final exams, and passed them. Lots of Unis sit them in Jan/Feb and then the students do their electives after. Didn't want anyone thinking a bunch of doctors were working without knowing their stuff.

Ah, I didn't realise they sat exams before the end of the academic year. Thanks.

If you’re quiet on the shifts then take work with you as I’m sure you can get more work done at work than at home with kids. I’m missing the ability to escape kids whether on shift or at uni as I’m first year (nurse) and no one wants us. But I think that having nursing students in place is a good idea to allow for the return to doing non emergency procedures and clinics and if it’s quiet now enjoy the peace as you well know it won’t last. And keep doing the uni work in the quieter times.

We need pairs of hands, we started 4 third years as Band 4s this week.
We’ve closed our elective children’s ward and reassigned the Children’s RNs on the adult wards as HCAs.

Yes, activity is lower than we’d feared but those in hospital are very dependent and our sickness absence rate amongst staff is very high.

We have 4 'Aspiring Nurses' (students) starting on Monday. The ward is relatively quiet at the moment so I have rearranged my shifts this week and next so that I can support them - thus taking me out of the numbers.
I think they would have been better continuing with their supernumerary status as students. We're not desperate for staff, due to redeployment from other areas and the amount of support they will need and the anxiety they may have probably isn't worth the extra pairs of hands.
We already have plenty of Band 4 staff.

It must be really tough having to do dissertation, work and childcare in these times. I’ve done a dissertation while working and one with a newborn and both were tough in different ways.

So we have two extended placement students, even though there is nothing for them to do. We've been told by the university that they are not allowed to be fit tested for FFP3 masks. Has any other universities said this. We are a non covid ward, but have a lot of AGP's, which we are having to wear the full kit for even though they are negative. This gives them even less to do!