Nurse graduates: anger over NMC practice hours debacle
Posted 29 October 2024 - 15:30
Hundreds of nurses feel let down after being told by the NMC that they had not completed the 2,300 placement hours required more than two years after graduating
Hundreds of nurses have been told by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) that they did not complete the 2,300 placement hours required more than two years after graduating with nursing degrees.
Recent graduates from the University of Brighton have received emails from the NMC informing them that they could be up to 160 hours short of the necessary supervised practice hours, despite already working as nurses.
Hundreds of nurses who graduated from 2019 onwards affected by practice hours shortfall
The debacle, which is affecting around 350 nurses who graduated from 2019 onwards, follows an NMC review of nursing courses at the University of Brighton earlier this year. The nursing regulator identified that its standards for student supervision and assessment were not applied correctly to reflection hours.
The University of Brighton confirmed that the current 2024 cohort has also been affected, with students forced to extend their clinical placements by six weeks before they can complete their courses. The NMC confirmed that some students at the University of Gloucestershire have also been affected.
Impacted nurses say they feel let down by the university and nursing regulator as they wait for the outcome of the review, and criticised both for the unacceptable delays in identifying the issue. Some are now demanding compensation from the University of Brighton for their ‘lousy’ treatment.
Nurses express their anger and say they should be compensated in some way
‘It’s been extremely stressful and I’m very angry,’ said nurse Lisa Panton who graduated in 2022. ‘I personally think that we are owed some form of compensation.
‘We had a lousy time during COVID and then find out two years later that they didn’t deliver on the basics, it feels like a breach of contract.
‘I remember asking several times during our course whether the reflection hours definitely counted towards our hours and I was always told: “Yes, it’s fine, this is what we’ve always done’’.
‘I’ve got friends who are going for job interviews for band 6 roles the week we found out and they don’t know what to do. You’ve got to come clean in the job interview about what is happening, but it looks awful.’
Nursing regulator ‘embarrassing themselves’, says one nurse
Another nurse affected by the incident said: ‘If this isn’t proof of the placement hours being a stupid arbitrary figure I don’t know what is. If you’ve been signed off as competent what else do they really need?’
Another said: ‘The NMC are embarrassing themselves here. How was the course signed off, clinical placements approved for our PINs, and now two years later they are contacting nurses about it? It shows how incompetent they are.’
Although the NMC reassures individuals this does not change their status as a registered nurse, it asks people to fill out a questionnaire to assess whether there is a still a shortfall in hours.
A follow-up email from the university apologises for the incident and says that they are confident that ‘in the vast majority of cases,’ it will be resolved.
University assures graduates that their ‘status as a registered nurse is not impacted’
A University of Brighton spokesperson said: ‘We acknowledge that our former students may be concerned having received the recent letter from the NMC, which is why we followed up with our own communication to provide reassurance.
‘However, it is important to underline – as we have said to our graduates – that their status as a registered nurse is not impacted, their ability to work and standing with employers is not affected, and their competency is not being questioned.’
NMC assistant director of professional practice Sam Donohue said: ‘The university has an action plan for current students, which we’ve approved. For graduates, we're assessing whether the shortfall has already been mitigated by supervised practice since completing the programme.
‘We know this might be worrying for graduates, but we want to reassure them that they have done nothing wrong.’
Nurses can get in touch with the NMC via a dedicated email inbox at supervisedpractice@nmc-uk.org if they have any queries, concerns or need any guidance.
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