INMO says the proposal to pay nursing students € 100 per week ‘does not reflect the Covid risks they face’

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organization (INMO) has criticized a PROPOSAL to pay nursing students and midwives € 100 per week.

The organization has sought an urgent meeting with the Minister of Health “to discuss the current reality faced by nursing and midwifery students and what is the best way to face it.”

Student representatives met tonight to discuss the content of a review commissioned by the Department of Health and conducted by Professor Tom Collins.

The report proposes a temporary grant of € 100 per week for nursing and midwifery students in hospital training.

In a statement issued tonight, INMO said that the report “does not reflect the high risk of Covid that Irish hospitals now represent, nor the work [students] you will be asked to do it in the coming weeks and months. “

INMO Secretary General Phil Ní Sheaghdha said that student nurses and midwives “have been doing an incredible job on the front lines.”

“They participated in this process in good faith and are deeply disappointed with this report.

“The Covid situation has deteriorated rapidly. This report is now out of date and no longer reflects the risk or the work that students will be taking on in the coming weeks. “

Ní Sheaghdha called on Health Minister Stephen Donnelly to “do the right thing” and pay the nursing students.

“You should pay students the health care assistant fee, something that was done earlier in the pandemic. This would better reflect the work and risks that students are taking in Covid-intensive hospitals, ”he said.

Sinn Féin health spokesman David Cullinan said that “the new reality of Covid in our hospitals must be taken into account” amid a recent surge in cases.

“Nurses and midwives are working through what is now an even more difficult and terrible situation. We cannot ask more students to train and work in a situation like this with only € 100 per week.

“We must take into account the new reality and the minister must engage directly with the health unions in this.”

A longer-term review of pay for nursing students will begin shortly.

TheJournal.ie has contacted the Department of Health for comment.