Students ‘fill gaps in hospital rotas caused by shortage of nurses’
LESS-qualified staff and students are being drafted in to care for patients at hospitals facing nursing shortages, the RCN conference heard.
NHS trusts are using trainees as unpaid healthcare assistants and employing cheaper “associate” workers – who have inferior experience to registered nurses – to plug gaps in rotas, it was claimed.
There are around 45,000 nursing vacancies in England and the NHS is struggling to retain staff.
Around 80 workers leave the profession every week, often citing concerns over pay and working conditions, according to the RCN.
Savings
Nursing associates were created in 2017 to bridge the gap in care, with the first trained staff starting work in 2019.
They are taught similar basic skills to nurses, but have two years of training and a foundation degree qualification, compared to three years studying and a university degree for registered nurses.
But the RCN’s annual congress in Brighton heard they were regularly being requested to perform the same duties.
In some cases, they were also being given the same uniforms, meaning patients could not distinguish between nurses and less-qualified staff. Dionne Daniel, associate director for clinical nursing in Surrey, warned patients could be put at risk by such “cost savings”.
She said: “At an organisational level, there are no boundaries. Say it’s an NHS trust in financial difficulties – if you replace a registered nurse with a nursing associate there’s a cost saving.We know from research the importance of registered nurses and the difference that makes to [patient] mortality.”
Siobhann Leviton, from Norfolk, said there needed to be greater “clarity” on what tasks nursing associates should do.
She said: “In my region, there is little difference between a nursing associate and registered nurse. They even wear the same uniform. They manage the same number of patients. The only difference at the moment is that I can do IV [manage intravenous lines].”
Newly-qualified Lucy Hayes said it was unfair associates were expected to do the same work but paid less. They are Band 4 staff with a starting salary outside London of £25,147. Nurses start at Band 5, on a salary of £28.407 outside London.