Student nurses were looking for work experience. Now, they're on the frontline fighting Covid-19

Stay Home. Protect the NHS. Save Lives. These words are plastered on every television screen during the daily coronavirus briefings. NHS workers are hailed as heroes who put themselves at risk daily. But what about the 20-year-olds barely out of school who are now on the front lines of the pandemic?

Britain’s student nurses were keen to complete their degrees and enter the medical world. But none could have expected their placement hours to involve tackling a global pandemic head on, with long hour days and responsibilities matching those of their long-time seniors.

With the NHS drastically underfunded, overstretched and undersupplied, the government has turned to retired staff and student nurses. Though there is a logic to that, 21-year-old Hazel Matiwa, a student nurse practicing at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, feels the government’s approach is “very disorganised.” “Every single ward in the United Kingdom should have the correct PPE [Personal Protective Equipment] and the amount of people dying would not be rising as it has been over the last three weeks.”

Afolake Akintola, 21, another student nurse at Ashford and St Peter's Hospital and the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children believes NHS underfunding has long been “severe.” “Small hospitals have had to close due to lack of funding. More people are leaving the NHS than joining." Staff also have to deal with aggressive and rude behaviour. "We, as HCPS [healthcare professionals] are told to just ‘deal with’ crass and inappropriate behaviour since it’s ‘what we’ve signed up for.’”

Another problem is financial insecurity. Bursary grants for student nurses were scrapped by the pro-austerity Conservative government in 2016, leaving aspiring nurses to pay tuition of up to £9,000 a year. Though Health Secretary Matt Hancock reintroduced grants last yer, it comes too little, too late. For Akintola, “it is ridiculous that student nurses fail to receive any financial support from the government. Stopping the nursing bursary caused even more problems.” This month, 81 MPs signed a letter calling for the government to wipe debts of nursing students, and the movement is gaining momentum.

Reliance on student nurses has been deemed by Matiwa and Akintola as “disgusting” and “hypocritical.” Akintola says “this country has taken the NHS and student nurses for granted and are now relying on us to help out in this epidemic.”

Matiwa observes that while her work is primarily “not about the pay, it’s about my patient,” nurses should overall “get paid more considering the work we do.”

A third problem facing most student nurses is the pressure to join the Emergency Register (ER), a recruitment procedure that brings ex-nurses back to fight the coronavirus outbreak. The ER is also able to bring in nursing students in the final six months of their programme. It has left students worried about what that might mean for their demanding schedules.

20-year-old Emily Sellers, based at Barts Health NHS Trust, states: “I felt immense pressure to join the temporary register. It thought if I failed to join, I would face judgment for not wanting to help." But, she adds, "I am happy to join the register because I want to help, and this will give me valuable experience.”

Matiwa states “the pressure is high,” adding “ideally I had hoped to rest and prepare for the world of nursing, but it is integral for us to help.”

Being on the frontline is demanding and tiresome, and often affects nurses’s physical and mental health negatively. Working long placement hours while completing coursework means the work does not stop.

Akintola says “part of me has given up. Now I’m being pushed to work or must repeat my course which is something I do not want to do. I would rather do anything than focus on my course right now.”

Likewise, Sellers states the weight of being a student nurse is “very draining and exhausting but worth the rewards as I cannot imagine myself doing anything else.” However, since the outbreak she says “I am being thrown onto the frontline despite the fact that I am technically not fully qualified.”

Many doctors and nurses have lost their lives. Matiwa reminds us that these "heroes" save lives and deliver babies, among completing other miracles on a daily basis and “should be appreciated all the time, not just when there is a crisis.”

Their hard work has not gone unrecognised. Every Thursday at 8pm, Britain has been clapping for the NHS to show appreciation for their hard work during these troubling and uncertain times. Healthcare professionals across the country have expressed their gratitude for the initiative. But the experiences of student nurses show that they need more than displays of appreciation—they need real, material support.