Despite a high student dropout rate, aspiring nurses and midwives are being punished by unpaid clinical placements.
EDUCATION MINISTER JASON CLARE
in regional and rural areas, who are often given placements a long way from home; international students; and students from “marginalised communities”.
“Mature-aged students and those with family or caring responsibilities are disproportionately affected, as they often have to go without work during the period of their placements.”
he NSWNMA is campaigning for nursing and midwifery students to be paid when they do compulsory
clinical placements.
A NSWNMA petition asking the federal government to commit to paid placements had gained almost 8000 signatures by late April (https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/ its-time-to-end-placement-poverty).
The petition notes that nursing and midwifery students must complete more than 800 hours of unpaid placement in hospitals, aged care facilities and community health facilities.
During placement, “students are not only working unpaid, but are also required to fund their own travel and accommodation, as well as loss of wages from their regular job,” the petition said.
“These unpaid placements make it really challenging to juggle jobs, cover their everyday expenses like rent, food, or transport, and keep up to date with their studies, all whilst fitting in large blocks of unpaid placement (sometimes up to 8 weeks long). This is known as ‘placement poverty’.”
It adds that unpaid placements are especially tough for students
ANNUAL CONFERENCE CALLS FOR PAID PLACEMENTS
The union’s 2023 Annual Conference called for financial support to students undertaking clinical placements.
“Remuneration must include compensation commensurate to paid employment and provide additional funding for accommodation and parking,” said a position statement adopted by Conference.
NSWNMA General Secretary, Shaye Candish, said ending placement poverty is essential to encourage more students to enter nursing and midwifery.
She said a report by the Australian Universities Accord recommended the federal government work with higher education providers and employers to introduce payment for unpaid placements, including government financial support for placements in nursing, care and teaching.
Shaye said federal education minister, Jason Clare, had spoken
Work ban adds to placement stress
Like most nursing students, Issy Baccarini must also work to pay the bills.
Issy is a babysitter, dog minder and casual AiN at Newcastle’s John Hunter Hospital, where she is doing her third-year clinical placements.
As a full-time student, she finds it hard to earn enough to make ends meet – to cover rent, utilities, groceries, petrol and other basics. “Once the bills are paid there’s not much left over. The financial strain is quite stressful,” she said.
The weeks leading up to unpaid placements are particularly worrying because Issy must find extra work to earn income that she is not permitted to earn during placement time.
“I’m not allowed to work in my AiN role during placements due to worries about work fatigue. Therefore, I have to rely on savings and Centrelink to get by,” she said. Issy will do this year’s placements
in two blocks of four weeks and six weeks.
“Third year is the longest placement load and also the heaviest because I’m following the shift patterns of another nurse, which includes night shifts.
“I am currently in an acute surgical ward, where they are very understanding and flexible. They originally had me down for four night-shifts in a row this week, but
they recognised that was too much considering I wasn’t being paid. So, they switched me to just one night shift this week and I have to make up an extra four hours.
“Following a full-time roster and trying to recover from night shift plus full-time study is stressful enough, without worrying about not being able to cover the bills. “Getting paid would go a long way towards reducing the high dropout rate among nursing students and help some part-time students to switch to full-time study.”
“One of my best friends, who is also doing placements, is in her forties. She has to work to support herself and her two young kids, whom she looks after most of the time.
“I am a ‘standard pathway student’; a single 24-year-old with no kids and I don’t have family or carer responsibilities.
“I’m very lucky to be eligible for Centrelink as many others find it difficult to jump through the hoops to get that.
“When I’m talking with other students in the same position as me, we often say, at least we don’t have children on top of all this study load and workload.”
Read more
NSWNMA Position Statement on Financial and Time Burden Faced by Nursing and Midwifery Students
https://www.nswnma. asn.au/publications/ policies-and-procedures/