It's been some time since I posted on my blog due to having some time out from university but I am preparing to return and finally finish my first year of mental health nursing. When I first started I never thought I'd be one of the people that did't stay within the cohort. I thought I would be there for the long run. In a way I am, I am going to qualify as a mental health nurse just a little later than I had planned and a little later than those in my original cohort. I can't explain how excited I am to get back into things, I've missed placement so much. I'll be going straight back into placement for four weeks. I'll also have two assignments to get to grips with and resubmit but I have every faith in myself and I am going to plod on.
In all the time I've been away from university I've been working full time but I have tried to keep myself up to date with what's going on in the world of nursing. And one issue that I have been following is that of student bursaries. Before I go on I'd just like to put it out there that had there not been a bursary available when I applied for my nursing course, I never would have done it. This is because I simply would not have been able to afford to support myself. Similarly, if the axing of the bursary affected me as a continuing student, I would probably have to leave the course. I feel very fortunate to know that the bursary will be there to support me throughout the rest of my training, but I can't help but feel sorry for all those who wish to enter the nursing profession but will be prevented from doing so by lack of funding. I really do believe that getting rid of the bursary will cause applicant numbers to fall dramatically. Yes, there is a proposal that the bursary will be replaced with a system of loans, but for some people the amount of debt that they will be left with might not be worth coming into nurse training.
There has been much talk of the need for a living wage, which although I know this would never be in place in time to apply to me if it did happen, I wholeheartedly support. Nurse training is a full time job in itself, not to mention the extra time we spend on completing assignments and on mandatory training from university among other things. We are not asking for student nurses to be paid the same amount as qualified nurses, but surely being paid proportionately to the amount of time we spend on placement working just as hard as those around us would be more appropriate. Not only that, it would show us that as student nurses we are appreciated and valued. A feeling which is very hard to come by at some points during your training. I'm sure all student nurses out there can relate to that.
In the grand scheme of things, whatever the Conservatives have planned for student nurses and the nursing profession as a whole, including the NHS is out of our control. We will just have to wait and see and accept whatever it is that they throw at us. And what will we do? We will push on, like we always do, we will strive to make it work. Because that's what we do, we nurse, we care, we push on and make the best of what we have.
