 Health unions say student nurses are missing out on training |
Trainee nurses could increasingly be used as cheap labour to plug NHS staffing gaps, health unions warn. The Royal College of Nursing and Unison say 2,000 nursing posts were lost last month and trainees were covering gaps and missing out on their training.
Unison's head of nursing Gail Adams told the BBC the situation could get worse with further redundancies.
However, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) said the problem was being addressed.
Ms Adams told the BBC: "I'm fearful of what the picture is going to be like over the next two to three months because certainly the amount of redundancies we have been notified of is likely to escalate, so I don't think we have seen the end of it."
'Pair of hands'
One student nurse, who did not want to be identified, said her training was suffering.
"We are supposed to be supervised for a minimum of 15 hours a week and on a six-week placement I actually only worked with my mentor on three or four shifts," she said.
"We are there as a pair of hands, most definitely, and it will get worse, I am sure it will."
However, the NMC, the body set up by the government to ensure high standards of nursing and midwifery, said the situation was being addressed.
Kathy George, director of standards and registration with the NMC, said: "We're actually reviewing the quality assurance framework that we use to monitor all programmes of student learning and that will allow us, across the United Kingdom, to actually concentrate on areas where there is higher risk."
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