Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to address the House on student nurses and midwives. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all nurses and midwives, and indeed all healthcare workers, for their dedication and commitment as we continue to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.

I begin by noting that nursing and midwifery have been graduate professions in Ireland since 2004. It is important to focus on the benefits of our undergraduate nursing and midwifery programme, which is second to none. This degree-level programme is run over four academic years and offers the full student experience. Unlike the UK and other international graduate degree programmes, it includes an internship period with a salary for the final 36 weeks. The programme supports the optimal learning environment where students actively take part in patient care while building competence throughout each stage of training.

Student placements in our hospitals are a vital part of nursing and midwifery education. They enable students to develop the practical knowledge, clinical skills and professional behaviours required to attain competence to qualify and be eligible to join the professional register. As students rather than employees, clinical student placements ensure learning takes place on the front line in a supervised and protected environment.

Student nurses and midwives gain practice experience under the supervision of a registered nurse or midwife. The move to the graduate programme has created exciting and attractive career opportunities for nurses and midwives. Graduate training has enabled extended practices and provides the necessary sustained change to operate in advanced and specialist practice roles. The evidence shows that those opportunities have been seized in the intervening years and this is very much a tribute to all of those involved.

I am sure that every Member of this House will agree that Irish nurses and midwives are internationally sought-after graduates. This is a testament to the very high standards of the graduate education programme. I have engaged directly with group directors of nursing and midwifery in the HSE. I was heartened to see how important student education is to the group directors and how connected they are to the placement sites. Every site has a joint working group between the higher education institution involved and the placement sites. There is student representation on these groups. This allows for feedback so that local issues can be resolved speedily and efficiently. It also allows for feedback up to the level of group directors, if necessary.

Students also have access to their mentors, to clinical placement co-ordinators and to higher education institution, HEI, personal tutor support throughout the placements. Since the beginning of the pandemic, a national clinical placement oversight group has been formed to monitor the safe continuation of clinical placements during the Covid-19 pandemic. The remit of this group involves developing solutions to minimise the impact of any deferrals, delays or suspensions on students' academic progress.

There is no doubt that training for healthcare students during a pandemic is challenging. Recognising these challenges, I secured additional supports and protections for student nurses and midwives. This includes specific access to pandemic unemployment payments and additional occupational health supports equal to employees while on clinical placement. Student nurses and midwives also have access to appropriate training and occupational health support on the sites in which they are learning.

I was happy to see our student nurses and midwives being vaccinated this week. They are, of course, included in the priority group.

To assist student nurses and midwives while on clinical placement, I appointed Professor Tom Collins to carry out an independent review of clinical placement allowances. I received his report on 31 December. Its key recommendation is to implement a pandemic placement grant of €100 per week for each supernumerary placement week during the pandemic. I have accepted the recommendations and I am keen to progress this additional support. I would also like to see it backdated to the beginning of the academic year, which was last September.

My Department and I are closely monitoring the Covid-19 situation nationally, including the context of its impact on student nurses and midwives. The oversight group, with representatives from my Department, the higher education institutes, the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland, NMBI, and the HSE, is meeting weekly. Student representation is included as an important source of feedback on the experience of clinical placements in the current situation. The primary focus is to ensure that the education of students is safe and protected to support progression.

Following a request from the HSE on 15 January to release senior qualified staff to provide direct patient care in the current Covid-19 surge, supernumerary clinical placements were suspended for first, second and third year student nurses and midwives for at least two weeks from Monday, 18 January. The request was directly related to the increasing demand on care and critical care and the requirement at this time to maximise the number of qualified staff available to assist.

My Department is working with the HSE, the higher education institutes, the NMBI and clinical partners to ensure that students will not be disadvantaged in completing their educational programmes. I want to protect their status as students and protect their graduate programme, which has delivered many benefits. This week, we have shown, through the necessary decision to suspend placements, that to protect the educational aspect of placements, we will not allow them to continue when support structures are not in place.

I do not underestimate the difficulty that student nurses and midwives have experienced in the past ten months. Without question it has been a difficult time. In conjunction with the HSE, the higher education institutes, the NMBI and clinical partners, my Department and I will continue to focus on keeping our students safe and ensuring that their academic progress is not unduly impeded.

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