Two in three student nurses have considered dropping out of their course due to financial concerns, as the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Scotland calls for a boost to the bursary.

A lack of opportunities for paid work and long delays in the reimbursement of expenses, exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis, means many student nurses face a financial black hole, says RCN Scotland.

The Director of RCN Scotland, Colin Poolman, says a lack of financial support risks “strangling nursing careers and aspirations before they’ve properly begun”.

In a survey of more than 1,000 nurses in training in Scotland, 99% said their finances cause them concern, with three quarters (74%) admitting this was having a high or very high impact on their mental health.

Two thirds of student nurses (66%) have considered dropping out of their course due to financial concerns.

The findings comes as the number of new student nurses starting courses in Scotland fell by 8% compared to last year and nursing vacancies across NHS Scotland total more than 5,500.

One of Scotland’s members on the RCN Student Committee, Lou Hyett-Collins who studies at the University of the Highlands and Islands, said the voices of nursing students must be heard:

“So many of us are struggling given the financial difficulties we all face. Behind every statistic are hundreds of individual nursing students trying to persevere with so many odds stacked against them. It is heart-rending, to be honest.

“The level of hardship being experienced, if it continues without significant action from the Scottish government, is a threat to the current and future nursing workforce.”

Eligible students on a three-year nursing degree in Scotland can receive a non-means tested and non-repayable nursing student bursary of £10,000 a year.

However, 98% of student nurses responding to RCN Scotland’s survey said the bursary – which is administered by the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS) – did not cover all their living expenses.

To make ends meet, nine in ten student nurses reported working 11 or more hours a week.

Nurses in training often have less flexibility than students on other degrees, with long academic years and a required number of hours of clinical experience to obtain registration.

Chloe Jackson, a nursing student at Aberdeen’s Robert Gordon’s University and member of the RCN’s Student Committee, said this can lead to nurses working very long hours resulting in burnout:

“Nursing is not like other degrees. There are many nursing students who must work to supplement their income. Working long hours on top of completing clinical placements and studying can lead to burnout before students even start their nursing career. Many nursing students are older and have existing financial commitments, children or other dependants, and many are responsible for providing more than half or all of their household’s financial income while studying. We need more financial support to prevent so many falling into hardship and burnout.”

RCN Scotland is calling for the Scottish government to implement a cost-of-living increase to the nursing student bursary and for SAAS to update the process, and uplift the value, of clinical placement expenses.

The nursing union is also calling for the Scottish government to establish a regular review of the level of support to ensure it rises in line with the cost-of-living.

Colin Poolman, RCN Scotland Director, said the establishment of the Ministerial Nursing and Midwifery Taskforce is a timely opportunity to ensure nursing students get the money they need to finish their studies without falling into hardship:

“The evidence from this survey strongly suggests that there is a danger of strangling nursing careers and aspirations before they’ve properly begun. 

“We’re calling on the Scottish government to improve financial support to show that nursing is truly a valued profession. With persistently high levels of registered nurse vacancies, we can’t allow more nursing students to drop out.

“We’ve also seen applications to nursing courses drop alarmingly so that not all places on university courses are being filled. The Scottish government has capping nursing student numbers for the next three years, but what we really need to see are efforts to make nursing an attractive profession to pursue once again.”

Read more: Ministers told listen to nursing voices of experience; Auditor General: Difficult choices for Scotland’s NHS; RCN calls for urgent investment in nursing; RCN: Staff need to see light at the end of the tunnel;

 

 

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