COVID-19
Thousands of students across the UK are in isolation after contracting the virus.
Student nurses are extremely worried about spreading Coronavirus to fellow students, according to a new survey.
A survey of over two-hundred student nurses and midwives undertaken by NursingNotes reveals their primary worry about returning to clinical practice is unintentionally spreading Coronavirus to other students (80%), friends (26%), or family (77%).
Over 90% of those surveyed said they lived with 4 or more other students in shared university or private accommodation. A huge 60% also of this number said they had no access to showering facilities before or after placement.
The survey also revealed that a quarter of student nurses are behind with either their placement hours or academic work due to the pandemic.
One third-year student nurse told NursingNotes; “I live with six other students all studying different degrees – education, medicine, and pharmacy.” She added; “I constantly worry about bringing Coronavirus home and the wider harm that might cause.”
They are frontline workers.
Earlier this year thousands of second and third-year student nurses were draft onto the frontline to help assist with the UK’s pandemic response.
Nurses United UK has responded by criticising the support many students have received during the pandemic. Anthony Johnson, Lead Organiser for the grassroots group, said; “I feel so sorry about the things we put our students through.
“They’re still paying to work and many were forced into working through the pandemic. Lots of them also had their hours messed up so they couldn’t progress.
“Now we insist on treating them differently when we could invest in providing accommodation for them.
“Nobody wants to go back to the bad old days of hospital-based training but at the moment they are frontline workers and should be treated as such.”
