Nursing leaders say staff need more help to afford property

A joint Nursing Times and health workers' union Unison survey of 2,000 students found 14% had accumulated such debts - up from 6% in 2003.

The poll also revealed more than half had considered giving up on their training because of finance problems.

Nurses' leaders said the profession was being damaged, but the government said students were given sufficient help.

However, ministers did announce a change to the bursary system by allowing students taking diplomas in England to continue receiving payments during pregnancy and childbirth, affecting about 500 women a year.

On top of their NHS bursaries all nursing and midwifery students also have their tuition fees paid in full by the NHS Department of Health spokeswoman

It follows an employment appeals tribunal case which upheld a challenge from three trainee midwives who had their bursaries taken away when they took time off to have children.

The survey revealed two thirds of students did extra paid work to supplement their income, with 54% working at least 11 hours a week - mostly as healthcare assistants - as a way of boosting their �6,000-a-year bursaries.

In total, 97% finished their courses with debts.

In addition to 14% being at least �10,000 in debt, one in five were in the red to the tune of between �5,000 and �10,000.

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said: "It is shocking to see how fast the level of debt is rising and extremely worrying for newly-qualified nurses who are facing an uncertain future burdened by long-term debt."

And he urged the government to do more to ease the plight of student nurses during their three-year courses.

"Giving student nurses a salary would be an enormous incentive and allow them to concentrate on their studies and placements, instead of being forced to work long hours to supplement their bursary," he added.

'Damaging'

Gill Roberts, student adviser at the Royal College of Nursing, said the results of the survey were not surprising and the situation was damaging for the profession.

"Either student nurses have to work long hours to make ends meet and that is potentially harmful to their training or they run up huge debts and that puts them under all sorts of pressure."

But the Department of Health said the current system of support was sufficient, pointing out �6,000 was more than was available to other students.

A spokeswoman said: "We believe that the current system of financial support is adequate to support health care students in training.

"On top of their NHS bursaries all nursing and midwifery students also have their tuition fees paid in full by the NHS.

"The government has made a commitment to review regularly the level of the NHS bursary by introducing a policy of annual increases, and as a result bursary rates have been increased each year since 1998."