Student nurses have strongly criticised a new report recommending they get a €100 per week hospital placement grant.
The report, by Professor Tom Collins, was commissioned following allegations that student nurses were being exploited during the pandemic.
In a statement, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), said the findings do not reflect the high Covid risk Irish hospitals now pose, nor the work student nurses will be asked to do in the weeks ahead.
“The report does not address any issues for final year interns and proposes a €100 per week temporary grant for those students on placement,” the INMO added.
The union says it has requested an urgent meeting with Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly to discuss the situation.
Obsolete
INMO general secretary, Phil Ní Sheaghdha, said: “Student nurses and midwives have been doing incredible work on the frontline. They engaged in this process in good faith and are deeply disappointed in this report.
“The Covid situation has deteriorated rapidly. This report is already obsolete and no longer reflects the risk or work that students will be taking on in the coming weeks.
“It’s time for the Minister to do the right thing. He should pay students the healthcare assistant rate of pay — something which was done earlier in the pandemic.
“This would better reflect the work and risks students are undertaking in Covid-intensive hospitals.”
Labour Senator Annie Hoey has called for the Minister for Health to ensure student nurses and midwives are paid again at the rate of healthcare assistants and that payments are backdated.
Senator Hoey published a bill before Christmas that would ensure student nurses and midwives are paid at a minimum at the same rate as healthcare assistants when working in our health service as part of their training.
Senator Hoey said: “Last night student nurses and midwives learned about the results of a review of their pay from the news while many of them were working at the frontline of our fight against the pandemic.
Crisis
“I would back the description of the report by the INMO as 'obsolete'. The huge risks being faced by students must be reflected in how we treat them.
“The addition of a €100 grant is simply not enough and the issue of 4th year student nurses and midwives hasn’t been properly addressed.
“We are in a crisis, and our students are at the frontline and need to be paid and supported. They deserve to be treated better.”
