A student nurse has raised concerns about how he and others who opted out of paid clinical placements during the coronavirus pandemic will make up the hours of practice needed to qualify.
Brian Webster (pictured above), a second-year adult nursing student at the University of Dundee, told Nursing Times he was “anxious” about what the ongoing crisis would mean for student nurses and their ability to finish their courses on time.
“There’s a lot of unknown about when students are going to be able to pick up those hours"
Brian Webster
The Nursing and Midwifery Council requires students to complete 2,300 hours of clinical placement during their training in order to join the register and practise as a registered nurse.
The requirement around placement hours is defined within the EU Directive and therefore it is outside the ability of the NMC to offer any leniency without legislative change.
Mr Webster was among the students who opted out of paid clinical placements and instead continue his academic studies through an online timetable.
“I’m comfortable with the decision I made but I of course am a bit anxious about when and if I’m going to make up the time, as I’m sure everybody else is,” he told Nursing Times.
“There’s a lot of unknown about when [students] are going to be able to pick up those Nursing and Midwifery Council-required hours.”
He questioned whether student nurses who did not feel safe to return to practice from September would be “penalised” or whether they may feel “forced” to go on placement anyway.
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Mr Webster runs a support network called ThinkTheory19 for students who chose the theory route over clinical placements, providing a space to collaborate and share experiences.
He created the platform as part of the Council of Deans of Health’s student leadership programme amid concerns that students who opted out were being "drowned out".
It features videos from leaders across the profession and collates different wellbeing and education resources for students to use.
As part of this, Mr Webster recently ran a survey to find out more about what drove students’ decision to opt out of placements and how they felt about it, gaining around 200 responses.
He explained how findings from the survey revealed that some “students just felt they were just forgotten about because they had chosen theory and that they were almost forced into choosing because of a lack of information”.
In a comments section of the survey, one student echoed Mr Webster’s concerns about catching up on missed placement hours.
The anonymous student said: “I feel we still don't get very much information, especially in regards to our missing hours.
“Placements are now cancelled until at least September but what happens then? Do we go straight into our third-year placement as planned?
“How do we make up the two placements we will have missed when we are already on placement for more than 20 weeks of third year? Will the NMC support us and make adjustments for those who had to choose theory for whatever reasons?”
Respondents were also asked to pick three words to describe their feelings about their decision and results showed that 122 out of 198 felt “guilty”, 112 “anxious” and 72 felt “unsupported”.
“I feel we still don't get very much information, especially in regards to our missing hours"
Anonymous student
Mr Webster wanted to stress that students should not feel guilty “because it was very unchartered and unknown territory to throw yourself into”.
He added that he had been “really hit” by the fact that around 20% of students who took part in his survey reported feeling “ashamed” by their choice to opt out.
“I thought that is a very horrible and very powerful thing to feel just for not being able to join this so-called frontline and fight this so-called battle,” Mr Webster told Nursing Times.
The NMC has made clear that it expects education institutions to work closely with their students to identify how any gap in theory or placement hours as a result of the pandemic will be met before the end of their programme to allow them to qualify on time as planned.
However, the professional regulator has recognised that students who have opted out of placements under the Covid-19 response may have to defer or extend their programmes to meet the required hours.
As the new academic year draws closer, and with Covid-19 still prevalent, the NMC was unable to give Nursing Times an update on its plans for returning to normal learning, but expected to be able to provide more information soon.
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