December 6, 2021

Students

Student nursing placements

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The University of Sydney Nursing School is committed to producing excellent graduates who have met all the learning outcomes of their degree as per Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council (ANMAC) requirements under the National Law.

Throughout the pandemic, we have been working hard to ensure our students can continue to study with as little disruption as possible, while maintaining the integrity and high academic standards of our programs.

Our accredited Master of Nursing program specifies 860 hours of placement to ensure our graduates are equipped with the clinical and academic skills and experiences they need to become exceptional nurses.

Like all higher education providers of nursing programs, we are currently considering the concessions now available for students who need them and these will be applied on a case-by-case basis according to each student’s specific circumstances.

We have been communicating regularly with our students about their placement options, and the supports and adjustments available to them during this time.

We are very pleased that the vast majority of our nursing students have continued to move through their placements and will graduate on time, ready to support the health care workforce in a professional capacity as registered nurses.

Professor Donna Waters, Acting Head of School and Dean Susan Wakil School of Nursing and Midwifery, The University of Sydney

Pandemic sows chaos in nursing education

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Thousands of final year nursing students may not graduate this year as placements are cancelled and rosters disrupted.

A public health system that was already under-resourced and under stress before the pandemic, and which is now at breaking point with the outbreaks in NSW and Victoria, will face additional pressures in the future as many nursing students may be ineligible to graduate this year.

The Australian College of Nursing estimates that almost 20,000 nurses across Australia are due to graduate at the end of their final semester. Surveys conducted by the NSWNMA indicate that at least 40 per cent of students are at risk of being ineligible to complete the placements required of their three-year degrees, as COVID-19 disrupts the healthcare system.

In a report released earlier this year, the International Council of Nurses (ICN) warned that such disruptions “risk delaying or restricting the workforce supply, which on top of the predicted shortages resulting from the effect of COVID-19 could further exacerbate existing workforce shortages”.

“The strength of the future nursing workforce depends on a continuous flow of new registered nurses from the nursing education pipeline. Delays in the education sector will lead to failures into the future,” it said.

“Investment in nursing education and jobs is needed to improve retention of the current nursing workforce and address the global nurse shortage.”

The ICN report found that, one year on from the World Health Organization declaring COVID-19 a pandemic, nearly one in five of the national nursing associations surveyed reported an increase in the number of nurses leaving the profession. Ninety per cent of those leaving cited heavy workloads, insufficient resources, burnout and stress as factors that were driving them out of the profession.

In Australia, the 2020 Aged Care Workforce Census reported that 29 per cent of employees had left their jobs in the 12 months up to November 2020 and there were almost 10,000 vacant roles in aged care alone.

That was before the current COVID-19 outbreaks in Victoria and New South Wales.

Nursing students face anxiety, financial stress and an uncertain future

NSWNMA Assistant Secretary Shaye Candish says the COVID-19 pandemic is causing havoc for NSW nursing students.

“Final year students are trying to complete their practical placements; they are suffering financial stress from funding travel and accommodation to unpaid placements, and their eligibility to graduate is uncertain,” she said.

“Every nursing student has to complete a minimum 800 hours of placements to register. You can’t register and become an RN without those hours.

“If students can’t graduate, it is also going to have an impact on the workforce next year, which is already suffering from staff shortages.”

Shaye says students have told the Association they are often being placed in hospitals far from where they live, potentially breaching COVID-safe policies.

“Students who live in the inner city are being sent into the eastern suburbs, and people in the eastern suburbs are being sent into the inner city,” she said.

There is also come confusion about whether placements in vaccination centres will count towards a student’s 800-hours requirement.

“While up to 40 hours of work in a COVID-19 vaccination clinic can be counted towards a degree as clinical placement, there have been many instances of people spending two-week or four-week placements in a COVID-19 vaccination hub, with uncertainty over whether those hours count,” says Shaye.

After her practical placements were disrupted by COVID-19, Emilie Heath, a second-year international Master of Nursing student at the University of Sydney, is concerned that she will not be able to complete her degree before she has to return home to Canada.

“My very first placement in 2020 was cancelled, and I have been behind ever since,” says Emilie, whose year group has been faced with constant cancellations and interruptions to their placement since they commenced their two-year degrees in 2020.

“I need a minimum of 860 hours to graduate, and I have 140 hours of placement left to complete. AHPRA has changed the hours to 800, but the University of Sydney adheres to their own rule of law, which is 860, which I think is completely unfair.”

Stressed out, dropping out: COVID has taken its toll on uni students

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It’s a tough time to be a university student. Amid a global pandemic, overstretched mental health services and sweeping university staff cuts, students have had to attend classes and hand in assignments while juggling work, family and finances. For international students, isolation, cultural differences and extra expenses added to their worries.

Unsurprisingly, university enrolments have plummeted. While COVID-19 has taken a toll on everyone’s mental health – Beyond Blue reported a 66% increase in demand for its services in April compared to 2019 – it’s a massive concern for many young people. Yet tertiary students have been largely overlooked.

To counter the looming mental health crisis and improve student retention, federal and state governments must respond to the needs of these students beyond spouting platitudes and advising them to exercise, drink water and think positively.

Under pressure before the pandemic

Here are the facts: about 60% of university students are aged between 15 and 24. Suicide is the leading cause of death in this age group. One in four young people experience depression or anxiety in any one year.

The average wait time for a first therapy session at a Headspace centre – a government-funded youth mental health program – is 25.5 days. Many don’t reach out at all because of the stigma surrounding mental health, privacy concerns, lack of time and financial constraints.

And 2020 made life harder

Then COVID-19 struck.

This pandemic has increased youth unemployment, added to academic stress and made it harder for students to follow self-care routines – the daily habits that are vital to good mental health and well-being. More students than ever are at risk and the mental health system might not be able to cope.

After COVID-19 restrictions took effect, the unemployment rate of students aged 15-24 who study full-time increased by up to 12% in June compared to 2019. Their participation rate – the proportion employed or actively looking for work – fell by 21% in May compared to 2019.

Financial pressures associated with job losses can increase the risk of mental health problems. Particularly at risk are international students who were excluded from JobSeeker and JobKeeper payments and isolated from their families and support networks. International students may also face challenges seeking assistance due to stigma, language and cultural barriers and financial issues.

Challenges increased at uni too

Students have also had to adapt to online learning. Many universities still haven’t gone back to in-person classes. Online videos replaced lecture halls, despite students being told pre-COVID that attending in-person lectures was vital, with lower attendance linked to poorer results.

Some universities did adopt measures to help minimise the impact of COVID on student grades. Even so, the sweeping staff cuts at several universities will have impacts on learning outcomes.

Academic success is harder to achieve than ever and the stakes are high, especially when you might be paying thousands of dollars per course. Bad grades reduce your future employability and repeating courses affects when you graduate.

Stay active, eat healthily and reach out when you need help is the traditional mental health advice doled out to first-year students. But in 2020, when the gyms closed and you couldn’t go out with your friends, it wasn’t that simple.

Most universities do offer some mental health support services. However, these vary between institutions and were already overstretched before the pandemic. While a new framework released by youth mental health research centre Orygen is a promising start, it is yet to be implemented.

The support available to students can be overly reliant on self-help methods or involve long wait times. During COVID, many of these services have gone online, which raises concerns about efficacy and privacy.

Domestic students are eligible for a government-subsidised mental health plan, but the public system faces many of the same issues as university services. International students must pay the full cost.

With the challenges 2020 has thrown at students, it’s no surprise tertiary enrolments fell. Enrolments for 20-to-24-year-olds were down by 66,100 students from 2019. The loss of fee revenue has already undermined the university sector.

The implications for gender equity are also serious, as those who dropped out were overwhelmingly women.

We can do more to help

So it is a tough time to be a university student, but does it have to be? Solutions have already been proposed. In June, a Productivity Commission inquiry report called for:

  • expanded online mental health services for tertiary students
  • increased data collection
  • greater support for international students
  • legislative amendments requiring all tertiary institutions to have a student mental health and well-being strategy.

In September, the Australian Human Rights Commission recommended:

  • more investment in youth-focused mental health services
  • more government support for educational institutions to deliver quality online learning
  • making youth employment a key focus of the economic recovery.

Other measures such as psychological support services on campus, university-run guidance programs, greater flexibility regarding workloads and reassurance that students won’t be discriminated against due to mental illness would also help.

If the government were to adopt any of these suggestions it would be a step in the right direction. However, despite the dire consequences of mishandling this issue, it remains to be seen whether the government will step up and support universities and the mental health of students.The Conversation

Susan Harris Rimmer, Professor and Director of the Policy Innovation Hub, Griffith Business School, Griffith University; Kate McGuire, Research Assistant, Griffith University, and Neeraj Gill, Associate Professor and Clinical Lead, Mental Health, Griffith University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

‘Going it alone’ adds to tertiary students’ high mental health risk

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One in four young people between the ages of 15 and 25 will develop a mental health disorder. Of these, many will be at university, a time when young people become increasingly vulnerable to adult pressures. The transition from school to university can be difficult enough without the added burden of a mental health disorder.

Despite young people being in such need, they are also the group least likely to seek help for mental health concerns. This means treatment is often significantly delayed even if there is recognition of symptoms. The mental health problems of depression, anxiety and substance abuse are the most common and, worryingly in an environment that promotes excessive drinking as a bonding tool, alcohol dependence is the number one substance abuse disorder.

Many think of university as a carefree time in life, a time when students are allowed to explore, make mistakes and learn what it means to be independent. Instead, once out of school, those entering university are often faced with little or no support network, an ever-increasing academic demand and all the financial and social pressures that come with being young and newly independent.

It can be difficult to balance the need for secure employment with the development of new relationships and experiences of greater freedom. At the same time, the markers for adulthood are changing: people are marrying and having children much later, job security and a career path are no longer so straightforward, and financial independence is less assured. This elongated time of uncertainty adds to the vulnerability of an already vulnerable population.

All of these factors exacerbate mental health disorders, often with both short and long-term negative consequences. Sufferers experience high emotional distress, a reduced capacity to work and have lower social functioning. This can lead to disrupted study, lower academic achievement, lowered career prospects, poorer social relationships and poorer long-term physical health.

Like any other sickness, mental health problems result in missed days, work left undone and wasted opportunities. Making up for missed lessons is very difficult and can force students to repeat a subject or leave university altogether. In fact, 86% of university students severely affected by mental illness will drop out, adding to their sense of worthlessness and failure.

Some of our brightest, most capable young people are being severely let down by the lack of services and proper support for mental health problems. A strategy is needed to tackle this problem.

While students do have access to counselling services, in a story that is echoed throughout the mental health care system, services are overloaded and cannot offer the long-term, ongoing support students need. Tutors are unlikely to know the best way to assist a struggling student beyond referring to university policy. While universities do offer mental health first aid training, it is not mandatory.

Mental illness is still a taboo and stigmatised issue. “Admitting” to mental illness can be confronting in the best of circumstances. Hence students may struggle with approaching a tutor to discuss mental health concerns. The issue could be exacerbated if the tutor is someone the student admires or fears, or both, and does not want to disappoint, or if the student is afraid of a negative or dismissive reaction.

What can be done?

Extensions and special consideration may give a student the breathing space needed to complete assignments and not fail a course. But this is a reactive rather than a proactive and preventative approach.

Despite the great efforts being made in schools to address mental health and social, emotional learning – for example KidsMatter and MindMatters, programs that work to integrate mental health skills in schools – there is no equivalent focus on the tertiary settings which cater to post-school youth.

With such high rates of mental illness, it is imperative that we support tertiary students in ways that promote not only their learning but their emotional and mental resilience. We need to recognise the unique pressures higher education students face and find ways of equipping them with the skills to deal with those pressures.

The health sector should begin investing in universities as key sites for mental health promotion. This could include mandatory training in mental health first aid for all staff, and additional training for tutors to promote a positive, engaging and inclusive classroom culture.

Social and emotional learning should be explicitly taught alongside academic skills, with a focus on self-care, coping and resilience. Investment in the counselling service, with additional trained staff and the added possibility of long-term treatment options, would go a long way in supporting mentally ill students who might not otherwise have access to treatment.The Conversation

Michelle Walter, PhD candidate, The University of Melbourne

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Renewed interest in nursing seen globally, but pay and conditions discourage students

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The International Council of Nurses (ICN) has reported a significant increase in applications to study nursing, but has also found that poor pay and working conditions are discouraging students from joining the profession.

The ICN’s report Nursing Education and the emerging nursing workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic has found that 30% of nursing associations globally have seen an increase in applications into nursing programmes, proving a new-found interest in the profession as a result of the pandemic.

However, the report also found that disputes around pay, conditions and personal protective equipment (PPE) were discouraging current and prospective students from entering nursing.

The report also noted that disruptions to nursing education were taking its toll on nursing students, with many reporting discontent over the handling of the pandemic by education providers.

ICN President Annette Kennedy has attributed the rise in applications to the increased visibility of nursing throughout COVID-19.

“Many people have realised the importance and true value of nursing, ad they want to experience what it is like to provide care in the unique way only nurses can,” Ms Kennedy said.

“[However], the public has also seen in detail the traumas they have faced and the effects these have had on nurses’ health and wellbeing”.

As a result of the report’s findings, the ICN has called on governments around the world to address the issues being raised by nurses, particularly around remuneration and education.

“Nurses need to be able to pay their bills and feed and support their families. I am calling on governments to invest in nurses’ pay and education for now and the future,” Ms Kennedy said.

“This is a commitment that must be written into the heart of the post-pandemic plan”.

Little love for nursing and midwifery students in Federal Budget

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Nursing and midwifery students have again been forgotten in the Federal Government’s budget.

The budget, claimed by the Morrison government to have “prioritised job creation”, has provided no additional support for students currently studying nursing or midwifery, or those looking to study these courses in the near future.

Instead, it has cut $1 billion from university funding nationally, leading to concerns about the quality of nursing and midwifery education in the future.

Students and the university sector have both lambasted the budget proposals.

Professor Margaret Gardner, Chair of Universities Australia, has described the Federal Government’s approach to university funding as “heading in the wrong direction.”

“The Government’s own figures show no increase in public funding. The Government‘s [budget] reflects a decision to make students pay more,” Professor Gardner said.

Professor Gardner’s sentiments are shared by National Union of Students’ President Zoe Ranganathan.

“Overall, the 2021 Federal Budget sets the higher education sector up to fail,” she says.

“More staff will be cut, and students will be left with bigger HECS debts. This is a government who have pretended that students don’t exist on budget night.”

The NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association will continue to advocate for nursing and midwifery students as members of our profession. Undergraduate student nurses and midwives can join the Association for free here.