NMC Emergency Standards

Maybe not made the news yet, but the government has once again officially requested the NMC to employ 3rd year nursing students on hospital wards and social care settings for the duration of their final year. The NMC has accepted the request.

Not really surprising given the pressures on nurses and hospital wards.

 

is that across thwe whole of the UK or just England?

 

They've been requested by the Government for England, but are available for Wales, Scotland N Ireland if requested.

Students are not obliged to take it up even if they dont have a health reason which means they can opt out. The first time round I think all but a handful of our 100+ students took up the offer.

 

I don’t think they had much choice the first time as they were told they would have to defer the year if they didn’t volunteer. Hopefully this time they will treat them properly and not try to wriggle out of contracts like they did last time.

 

They get paid at NHS band 4 rate. Normally placements are unpaid

 

Yes, they get paid the entry band which IIRC is 4 and they complete the programme whilst on the job. Although this means having to change programme requirements and get it re-validated by the NMC. We had to scrap modules and create 2 new ones just so it fitted with them working through Covid.

I suspect it will cause more issues this time due to the amount of time left on the programme. Staff are pretty frazzled and last week the uni gave all students at the uni an extra week to submit work for anything due in from January to February. It's a bit of a teaching and administrative nightmare tbh, but it is what it is....

 

Yes you're quite correct. This time it's based on trust requirements so it might be different from city to city.