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So thoughts re new NMC emergency standards. Of course everything is still unsure for many and it will vary according to universities and trusts, but this is my thinking right now
1) NHS services are under a lot of pressure right now, due to covid and trying to run services
1) NHS services are under a lot of pressure right now, due to covid and trying to run services
2) This has meant that already learning on placement has been sub-optimal for many, due to low staffing and generally higher workloads. Medical staff are also tired, overworked, emotionally exhausted, burnt out.
Which makes it difficult to think about additional activities such as teaching students, and to have a positive attitude to doing so. However sub-optimal is still better than bad, students can still learn, and some placements are still able to give good experiences
3) One way this pressure can be relieved is by using the skills of nursing students, however by taking away a student's supernumerary status that means that not learning but function will come first. Yet paid placements still need to be learning opportunities.
Where students are used to fill gaps in the workforce then even the ability to give them learning opportunities is stripped down because you need them to be working. Whilst I still admit that learning can happen whilst working I worry that often it won't
4) Using students this way when systems are under pressure also devalues them. It says that they are only valuable in desperate situations. However the value of student nurses is shown every day, in the ways they interact with patients, in the ways they clinically assist
in the knowledge, and ideas they bring to placements. In their enthusiasm to learn and care, to help and improve the NHS. In the way they teach others; patients, other students, and even other HCPs.
Yet student nurses have to pay fees, they have to take out and repay student loans, they have to take part-time jobs, on top of a heavy academic workload and working full-time when on placement (often with 12 hour shifts)
That makes the offer of paid placement attractive, even if it's not the best choice in terms of education.
What we really need is not paid placements but better funding which means student nurses can devote their energies to being the best nurses they can be #FundOurFuture
What we really need is not paid placements but better funding which means student nurses can devote their energies to being the best nurses they can be #FundOurFuture
5) It also puts those who opt-out (often because of health reasons) at further disadvantage in terms of learning, and in terms of money. They don't get the placements, and they don't get paid. For many this might mean deferral (not always bad) or extended courses
6) When it comes to having 1 member of staff signing off students on placement I think this is a good thing generally. It makes it easier for busy staff, however I worry that if a student had problems this could be more negatively reflected, and that it gives more power to 1 HCP
7) I also think that potentially withdrawing 1st years is probably a good thing. If placements are struggling to support students this could end up worse for 1st years who are less likely to be able to learn independently.
However it does mean these students might need more support when they do start placements again, and it may be demoralising
8) I worry that 2nd years will be forgotten. That they won't have the support on placement that they need, and whilst they may learn independently they will need to be taught to be able to be competent in tasks they haven't before carried out
Whilst they can more easily say that they need to have their education prioritised than those who opt-in this could come off negatively as being unhelpful or not 'part of the team', and they may end up being treated as unpaid HCAs (some of this is fine, just not the whole time)
9) The government have really dropped the NMC in it, who have then dropped the unis in it. I get that they need to get moving but couldn't you at least tell the unis before you told the whole world?
That was long, well done if you got to the end!
Subject to change and own views
That was long, well done if you got to the end!
Subject to change and own views
TLDR; concerned about education, concerned about poor placement experiences, students are poor and undervalued ( #FundOurFuture), 1 sign-off is probably good, pulling 1st years probably good. Uni's have been dropped in it.
