Students slam ‘nightmarish’ plan to chop six months off nursing degree
Posted 02 June 2023 - 09:00
NHS workforce plan to plug staffing gap with fast-track training could backfire with burnout forcing overstretched students to quit before qualifying
Nursing students have shared their dismay at ‘nightmarish’ suggestions degrees could be reduced in length, warning it could lead to burnout.
Fast-track plans could drive overstretched students to quit
The delayed NHS workforce plan will reportedly set out ways to fast-track more people into the profession, including shortened degrees and an increase in nurse apprenticeships, as minister scramble to address chronic NHS staff shortages.
Under the plans, nursing students could qualify after two and a half years, reducing the degree time by six months.
But current students have warned the plans could achieve the opposite – driving nursing students to quit before they qualify.
Taking to social media they told Nursing Standard that the current 2,300 practice hours and additional theory needed to qualify was already difficult to fit into three years.
Concerns over competencies and patient safety
Alongside fears for nursing students’ well-being, Nursing Standard readers raised serious concerns about patient safety.
Many said reducing the length of a degree would result in essential skills and knowledge being eroded, suggesting that retention strategies would be a better focus for the government.
Plan does not consider clinical placement opportunities, warns lecturer
Details on the proposals are scarce and questions remain about how nursing degrees may be reduced in length. Newman University head of adult nursing Kevin Crimmons told Nursing Standard universities could only take on the number of students they could find clinical placements for, and a shortened degree would not address this.
He instead said the government should work with universities and directors of nursing at NHS trusts to develop a ‘robust strategy that will work’.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said the upcoming workforce plan will address the issue of the number of nurses needed in the coming years.
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