Don't stop bursaries for NHS students!
Sign UK based petition at:
https://www.change.org/p/don-t-stop-bursaries-for-nhs-students-bursaryorbust?recruiter=467155&utm_campaign=signature_receipt_fb_dialog&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition
Getting a place to study to be a nurse was the proudest day of my life. I finally had a purpose in life - to care for others when they needed it the most. Two things made this possible: my own hard work and an NHS bursary.
My bursary covers living costs so I can concentrate on my studies and work on hospital wards as a student nurse. But the Government has announced plans to axe the bursary for NHS students in 2017. Instead NHS student nurses, midwives, physios and others will have to take out loans to cover £9,000 tuition fees and maintenance costs every year. It will saddle NHS students with debt of £50,000-£60,000 for their training.
We work in hospitals during some of our training, so it means we'll basically be taking out a loan to pay our own salaries!
Taking out a loan of £50,000 would stop me and many others taking up a career in nursing or other NHS professions. I worry about the great people that will be put off. Ultimately, our NHS and patients will lose out.
As NHS students we work tirelessly. If we are on placement we work in hospitals doing 12.5 hour long shifts -- days, nights, weekends, and bank holidays. Whilst we are at university, we fit in an academic degree, with lectures every weekday followed by prep work. We have assignments, dissertations, clinical practice sessions and exams. Because of the intensity of the course and placement, we are unable to get regular paid work and rely on our bursary to aid us through the course.
Our job is emotionally, physically and psychologically tiring. But it is the best job in the world. Cutting the bursary is an insult to student nurses, and our dedication to our professions and patients.
My bursary is my lifeline, I would not be in the privileged position to be qualifying as a nurse without it.
Right now the Government is consulting about these changes. If we raise our voices we can send a clear message that this change is not welcome.
Please support this petition and us, call on the Government to stop this short sighted, unfair and cruel cut to nurses' bursaries before it is too late and our profession is at risk forever.
This petition will be delivered to:
Secretary of State for Health
Jeremy Hunt
If you can find a valid way for the Government to pay for it, I would be all for it. Otherwise, don't have people pay with their hard earned income, taxes to put you through school.
so when you end up in hospital and there are poorly trained nurses, don't complain when they screw up your medication or care... and your perfectly happy for your hard earned taxes to be spent on bailing out the banking industry, and paying for continued banker bonuses off the back of it... your mentality is devoid of any rational thought.
It has nothing to do with the training. It is who is going to pay for it. They should find a way to find funding for their own education. The tragedy is that the funds were given in the first place, and then taken away. And yes, we should NOT have to bail out the banking industry. The U.K. banking was bailed out as well.
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