Many nursing students in Wales are experiencing ‘extreme stress’ due to financial difficulties that have forced some to use local food banks or to skip meals altogether, a survey has suggested.
Save Nursing – a grassroots campaign group of nursing students in Cardiff – has shared the results of its latest survey of 185 nursing students exclusively with Nursing in Practice.
The snapshot survey has shone a light on the financial challenges faced by nursing students in the area, including concerns that the NHS bursary for nursing students in Wales is ‘insufficient’.
Taking on additional work
The majority of respondents (62.3%) said they worked a minimum of 10 hours a week alongside their degree, while just 11% said they worked less than five.
And almost three-quarters (72.9%) said the pressure to work alongside their studies was having ‘quite a big’ or ‘huge’ impact on them academically and personally.
Of those taking on additional work alongside their studies, some 55.6% were working on the NHS bank and a further 12.5% reported working in the care sector.
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Food and living costs
Aside from their student loans, more than a quarter of respondents (25.8%) said they ‘regularly’ went into debt to cover their living expenses during their degree. A further 24.2% said they had done this ‘more than once’ and some 14.5% said they had considered it.
Outlining their financial situation, one survey respondent said they are ‘always struggling for money’ and having to live ‘cheque to cheque’.
‘The cheque isn’t enough to live [on]. I would have had to leave the course or been homeless if I didn’t get help from family,’ they added.
Some 40.4% of respondents also reported having to skip a lecture at least once because they could not afford to travel to university.
A further 17.7% said they had used a food bank or a similar student union food support scheme during their degree and almost half (46.2%) said they had skipped at least one meal because they could not afford the grocery costs.
‘Nowhere near enough’
Nico Campbell is a member of Save Nursing and a final year nursing student at Cardiff University.
They believe the current funding model is ‘not fit for purpose’ and must be adjusted to meet inflation and rising living costs.
‘Whilst we are grateful for what we do get, the simple fact is that what we get is nowhere near enough to live on and that’s causing significant harm for students,’ they said.
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In Wales, nursing students can apply for bursaries in exchange for a commitment to work in the Welsh NHS for two years post qualifying.
According to Save Nursing, the most nursing students can qualify for through the bursary is around £550 a month, but the majority of students surveyed received less than £400 a month, with over a third (33.2%) receiving less than £100 a month.
Campbell described the financial pressures on students as ‘absolutely outrageous’.
‘It is a challenging degree, and it should be, because there’s a huge amount to learn and we’re with people at the most vulnerable times in their lives,’ they said.
‘But, if there’s an expectation that nursing is a full-time degree, I think we have to be compensated in a way that respects that and allows us the time to study appropriately.’
Campbell warned that high living costs and limited financial support were pushing many students away from nursing and could have long-term impacts on workforce retention.
‘We believe if the funding issue was addressed and the initial education was more supported financially, we’re confident that we would see more nurses qualifying in the first place and more still in post after five years,’ they said.
A Welsh Government spokesperson said: ‘Despite pressures on our budget, we extended the NHS bursary for eligible healthcare students for the current academic year and removed the reduced rate of maintenance loan for new and existing eligible, full-time, Welsh-domiciled NHS Wales bursary students, enabling them to access the full amount of maintenance support in addition to any bursary funding they may receive, and should they wish to.’
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The government ‘continues to review’ the NHS bursary scheme to support students, the spokesperson added.
In October, RCN data found the number of people studying to become a nurse had fallen in every region in England.
