Money Troubles

**I hope this post doesn't read aggressively but if you find it does, it is only a reflection of my frustration at the situation and a tiny bit at peoples ignorance, it is not aimed at YOU nor anyone in particular, peace and love as always**

Money troubles is a phrase most student nurses are all too familiar with. Our bursary is a pittance compared to other student funding and yet a lot more time and effort is required from us than on many other courses.

In my last post, I commented on how I hadn't worked as hard as I possibly could on my first set of essays and I would just like to clarify that that was not due to lack of caring, it was not due to laziness or over confidence but due to the fact that I had so little free time to spend reading for and writing them, The reason for that is because I have to work A LOT often not getting a day off for a few weeks straight, and that means I find it hard to put time aside to really get into essay writing or research. For me researching, reading and writing for these essays on topics that, in all honesty, don't as yet interest me very much, is tough. I don't find it something that I can do a quick 10 minutes of or dip in and out of when I have a spare evening and there's washing and ironing and cooking and cleaning and emails to do.

For being a student nurse I am paid (the maximum amount that the NHS offer students) £450 a month. That's it. My half of the rent is £450 a month. That is with nothing included no gas & electric, water, internet etc. I realise if I didn't live in Brighton then rent would be lower and that money would go further, but Brighton needs nurses too and I don't think the money would go very far even if my rent was not so expensive. Now I wouldn't object to this if we were in a position where we could secure part time work and make up the rest of our monthly expenses with a paid wage. However, we spend 1 full day in university a week and up to 32 hours out in placement. The day in uni is fixed (for the most part) but the 32 hours placement could be spread across any times and any days that each placement chooses, we get maybe 2 weeks notice if we are lucky and the days change every week, for every different placement and we are expected to work whatever they tell us to with no objections. This makes it 100% impossible to have any job with contracted hours as we are rarely available to same hours or days each week and never have much notice. That is not even considering the 16 hours per week independent study that we are supposed to be doing outside of uni and placement to support our learning. We are therefore put in a position where, unless you have a wealthy family member or partner who agrees to support you financially through your training, you HAVE to do paid work every week on top of the already hefty course load, and yet you are also put in a position where securing permanent employment is impossible.

As you can expect due to this I often work evenings after doing a full day at placement or university and always on my day/days off from the course. This means I rarely have a full day off to allocate to going to the library and getting some proper work done and I do feel it is affecting my performance on the course. I want to work, I love working but right now my priority needs to be passing these 3 years and getting the most out of my course but all I can ever think about is how I'm going to cope next month.

So basically, I reckon, the NHS need to pay student nurses more OR structure the course in a way that means we are able to hold down part time work. I would say the latter option is preferable as, of course, funding is tight and while the course would still be tough it would not be so close to impossible!!

So next time someone asks about placement and I say I'm doing 24 hours this week or if I'm only doing paid work 1 day  PLEASE don't tell me I've got it easy because I really haven't and the thing you are asking about is only one component of the many things that take up my time and energy.

RANT OVER.

P.S - We don't get regularly 'university holidays' either, yes most uni's get a month for Christmas, a month for Easter and about 2 and half months at summer with a load of reading weeks thrown in. But we get 6 weeks total and.. you guessed it, I'll be spending mine doing paid work!