Student nurses are being used to plug staffing gaps as NHS trusts axe thousands of qualified nurses in the face of government-induced deficits, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and UNISON warned yesterday.
The RCN and Unison said 2,000 nurses and midwives were axed last month and student nurses were covering gaps, causing them to miss out on their training.
Unison head of nursing Gail Adams warned the situation could get worse with further redundancies.
An RCN spokesman told News Line: ‘One of our great concerns is the impact of NHS deficits on nurses at band five level.
‘These are the basic first job staff nurses.
‘A lot of redundancies that have been announced have been on this level.’
Asked about the impact on student nurses, the RCN spokesman added: ‘What’s happening is these staff nurses are facing increased pressure.
‘There is a subsequent impact on their ability to monitor and advise student nurses.
‘We want to ensure student nurses get the best possible training and staff nurses’ supervision is vital for this.
‘Another concern is, if trusts are using student nurses to plug gaps.
‘We’re getting anecdotal evidence of this happening from our student nurse members.
‘This is a concern we are following up and looking at what can be done about it with a great deal of urgency.’