This week I had the real pleasure of launching the RCN Student Bus. The bus will travel across the UK from university to university promoting nursing as a career and giving advice to those already focused on our profession.
The UK’s nursing students deserve all the support and assistance we can give, not least because 200,000 nurses are due to retire in the next decade.
No one denies the difficult balance between the huge cost of studying and the amount of work required. It’s no surprise that a quarter of student nurses drop out of their studies because of financial worries.
Despite all the challenges, nursing is one of the most rewarding careers on the planet; a job in which a person has to use their heart as well as their head.
No other career offers the sheer possibility and potential, the huge range of specialisms and the very special feeling that you have made a real difference.
It’s clear from the work the RCN has been undertaking and conversations that I’ve had with students that we need to properly support those seeking to become nurses.
In England, the bursary system is wholly inadequate and often means students have to get second jobs, which directly impacts how much time they can spend studying. The RCN has consistently called for a liveable, non means tested bursary of £12,000 for every nursing student so that they can get the support they deserve.
As our population gets older and healthcare demands increase, we will need more and more nurses. Any government wishing to improve the healthcare provisions of the future must look at the problems faced today.
At the launch of the bus I met a number of dynamic, hopeful and energetic people hoping to become the UK’s next generation of nurses. We need to be as keen to help them as they are to help patients.
You can follow the RCN Student Bus on Twitter @RCNStudentBus. If you see it on the road, tell us – there are prizes to be won…
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very very true.
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