Student nurses to qualify 6 months early. Would you?

[DontBiteTheBoobThatFeedsYou]

There's big talks of letting 3rd year student nurses qualify 6 months early to cope with the current situation. I think the initial idea of asking retired nurses to return was bloody abominable and unrealistic.

Our uni has emailed us putting word out that they may be asking us soon.

Anyone in the same boat? Or have feelings on this?

Most are already HCA's.

Most of us already work with patients.
All you would be doing is asking us to stop the degree.
That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

I'm sure someone's already said this but wouldn't it be great if retired nurses/GPs could man the 111 lines (these can be done from home!) For a salary and, of course, only if they wanted to and without the need to re-register.

I saw a job advert for a clinical 111 advisor which was work from home earlier, although weirdly I can't find it now! But it sounds like it's an idea being floated, not sure about registration though and what the requirements were.

I think this thread clearly expresses how people don't see nursing as a skilled profession - it is!

We can't have people employed as nurses who are not registered (even where they have been nurses in the past). How would you know they were skilled or competent? How would you know they were trustworthy?

We all agree that nursing takes at least 3 years to learn (imo it takes longer, and new nurses are still learning at a fast rate). That doesn't change because the NHS has been underfunded over years. A crisis situation is not going to be improved by pretending that part trained nurses are fully trained nurses.

Students and newly qualified nurses deserve to be protected from this terrible idea. People who aren't nurses don't understand the level that is expected from them. For example, a nurse can face disciplinary action and potentially loose their registration for failing to spot a doctor's prescribing error. You have to be in the ball, all the time. I am afraid students who take this offer up will be unfairly held responsible in the future for the holes in their knowledge. Neither NHS trusts nor the NMC are particularly kind to nurses who make mistakes.

I honestly think some posters believe that nursing is something anyone can just turn up and do, it isn't!

I’m Afonso year student midwife. I’ll be qualified in 5 months. I’ve done all my theory and have got final exams in a few weeks. I definitely don’t feel ready! Those last 16 weeks of placement are going to be vital in learning to be autonomous. Being fast tracked sounds great in theory, god knows I’d like to be paid. But I don’t think it’s a good idea.

Jesus Christ. I feel quite shit about being an HCA reading this thread.

Recipe for disaster, I would have thought, as an ordinary member of the public. A load of people on the wards who are neither fish (student nurses) nor fowl (fully qualified nurses).

I'd worry that they won't get the professional support they're entitled to, and will be given responsibilities beyond their competencies. And then, who will stand up for them when they get professionally disciplined for mistakes in duties they should never have been given?

And what about their mental health?
RUOKHUN

Don't blame you. Far too much assuming on this thread that a partially-trained student nurse is the same thing as a fully trained, experienced HCA.

Nah. Life doesn't work like that. A partially-trained student nurse is a partially-trained student nurse.
A student nurse is not simply some kind of 'HCA Plus'.

Would anyone assume an apprentice electrician could sort out their plumbing problem?

I don't feel the UK has a choice but to utilise students who aren't fully trained yet. I would hope the care they'd be doing would be within a specified remit allowing for their lack of skills/experience.

If this virus infects current trained NHS staff (which it will) and continues to spread and accelerate, really, what choice do we have???!!!

If we are at a point of getting people who aren't qualified nurses to fill nursing positions, then let's not just draw from populations of vulnerable students who are being sold the "we're all in it together" line, when they are really being taken advantage of.

Perhaps all the people on this thread suggesting we "have no choice" but to treat student nurses so carelessly would like to volunteer?

My preferred solution is that anyone involved on the drastic underfunding of services over the last decade gets to work 6 weeks of 12 hour shifts.

My preferred solution is that anyone involved on the drastic underfunding of services over the last decade gets to work 6 weeks of 12 hour shifts.

Cough David Cameron cough. Sorry, got something in my throat.

I am afraid students who take this offer up will be unfairly held responsible in the future for the holes in their knowledge. Neither NHS trusts nor the NMC are particularly kind to nurses who make mistakes.

^ This. There is very little support within the nursing profession. If they make a mistake they’ll be thrown to the wolves.

Perhaps all the people on this thread suggesting we "have no choice" but to treat student nurses so carelessly would like to volunteer?

Don't assume they aren't already just because they don't agree with you.

There’s no ‘support’ in any profession any more. If this opens people’s eyes to the state of the public sector and it’s so-called training then that will be a silver lining. Training is a thing of the past, no one seems to have the faintest idea how to do it any more and I include the excuse of an education system in that. Otherwise nurses just 6 months less off a 3 year degree qualification for a job that used to be done by people without a-levels even should be perfectly capable.

Pps seem to be suggesting that they’re being asked to do this for no pay, is that real?

Arrogance of this country beggars belief if so, after the debt they’re giving people to train at all.

If this is such a great idea why aren't doctors being encouraged to qualify early or student radiographers or physios? All crucial in caring for a patient until ICU with sever pulmonary illness? Even if the idea was to free up experienced staff for ICU work it still leave patients at risk from a lack of experienced staff being able to pick up deteriorating patients rapidly and getting early intervention for them. I'd have taken the opportunity to qualify 6 months early if it had been offered but that is because I was young, idealistic and didn't know what I didn't know.
Maybe not hounding EU healthcare staff out of the country over the last few years would have helped now? Oh the irony if the UK government starts encouraging international healthcare staff from less affected countries over here to work....

Pps seem to be suggesting that they’re being asked to do this for no pay, is that real?

No, it would be a band 5 wage.

@RUOKHUN no please don't. HCAs are just as valuable as everyone else, wards wouldn't function with them. It's just that as a nurse your level of responsibility is greater, and having people who aren't really qualified put into roles with that same expectation of responsibility and knowledge isn't really fair.

Otherwise nurses just 6 months less off a 3 year degree qualification for a job that used to be done by people without a-levels even should be perfectly capable.

You are unbelievably ignorant and arrogant. I really hope that when you are sick and vulnerable one day your nurse only has a couple of GCSE qualifications.
The last 1/6 of the degree is a long placement with preceptorship that is designed to consolidate learning. Back when nursing staff only needed rudimentary levels of education healthcare was much less complex and patient acuity lower. The more acute patients mostly died.

Training is a thing of the past, no one seems to have the faintest idea how to do it any more and I include the excuse of an education system in that. Otherwise nurses just 6 months less off a 3 year degree qualification for a job that used to be done by people without a-levels even should be perfectly capable.
Surgery used to be done by barbers without A-Levels, too. Want to go back to that?

Due to something called 'ethics' and 'professional responsibility', nurses aren't let loose on patients until they know what they're doing, and there actually is a difference between 2.5 years and 3 years, because the degree is structured that way.

People talk about how nurses didn't use to need a degree, but at that time they didn't need to do a lot of what they do now, because medicine hadn't progressed that far!

A modern nurse is expected to operate all kinds of equipment that wasn't invented back then, administer medication that wasn't developed back then. The stats are clear. The patients of a degree qualified nurse have a better survival rate, because nurses do more than take your temperature and make the bed.

They are apparently @iamclaireandfleabag I have seen a post just this morning from a " Facebook friend " who qualify ,s as a Radiographer in a few months apparently they are also been asked to qualify early ?

They are looking at fast-tracking final year med students too.

Update: I’ve just had an email from our CPF who confirmed that the NMC is considering asking students to become part of the workforce. It didn’t say final year students, it just said students.

Is it optional @Iloveplacentas?

I mean if you say no, how will affect you finishing the course and registering?

I think that using almost-qualified student nurses in a limited way could be useful. For example, allowing them to work full-time as paid HCAs (especially if already doing that part time) and complete their course next year - with an incentive like a tuition fee refund for this year and no fees next year?

Or some kind of in-between HCA and nursing role, for example blood pressure checks, blood tests, inserting IVs (I don't know how many of these things can be done by HCAs), which would then free up qualified nurses to deal with more complicated cases.

I think that just qualifying nurses who haven't been signed off is dangerous long term. They may miss learning clinical skills which they need later in their careers.

@Lifeisabeach09 I have no idea.