“We are in a crisis, and our students are at the frontline and need to be paid and supported. They deserve to be treated better.”

A new proposal has been brought to the table that would see student nurses get a temporary €100 per week hospital placement grant while working but student nurses have said they are disappointed with the amount being granted. Student nurses are currently working frontline on no pay during a year that has been most challenging for anyone in the medical industry. A report was carried out to look into student nurses' work during the pandemic by Professor Tom Collins after it was made clear people felt nurses were being exploited. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) released a statement saying “the report does not address any issues for final year interns and proposes a €100 per week temporary grant for those students on placement." INMO general secretary, Phil Ní Sheaghdha, said: “Student nurses and midwives have been doing incredible work on the frontline. They engaged in this process in good faith and are deeply disappointed in this report." “The Covid situation has deteriorated rapidly. This report is already obsolete and no longer reflects the risk or work that students will be taking on in the coming weeks. She called for the Minister to "do the right thing. He should pay students the healthcare assistant rate of pay — something which was done earlier in the pandemic. This would better reflect the work and risks students are undertaking in Covid-intensive hospitals.” Senator Hoey is not only asking them to look over the grants for the future but also “Last night student nurses and midwives learned about the results of a review of their pay from the news while many of them were working at the frontline of our fight against the pandemic." She went on to say “I would back the description of the report by the INMO as 'obsolete'. The huge risks being faced by students must be reflected in how we treat them. The addition of a €100 grant is simply not enough and the issue of 4th year student nurses and midwives hasn’t been properly addressed." Put simply, “we are in a crisis, and our students are at the frontline and need to be paid and supported. They deserve to be treated better.”