Royal College Of Nursing Report On Nursing Student Bursaries

EDM number 454 in 2008-09, proposed by Alan Meale on 14/01/2009.
Categorised under the topic of Health staff and professions.

That this House is aware of the recent report produced by the Royal College of Nursing which revealed that nearly three quarters of nurses surveyed had been engaged in paid employment throughout their nursing studies, a majority of whom also stated that they had worked more than 10 hours per week in addition to their studies and placements in order to make financial ends meet, despite the fact that they were aware that such activities had a negative impact on the time they were able to devote to their education and training; is alarmed that the report also highlighted the fact that approaching half of all respondents had considered abandoning their course because of this factor; understands England is currently the only country within the United Kingdom not to have a non-means-tested bursary to help trainee student nurses, a situation which is blatantly unfair; and calls upon the Government urgently to address this situation to ensure that the future recruitment and retention of nursing students is not thereby compromised.

This motion has been signed by a total of 45 MPs, 2 of these signatures have been withdrawn.