A PROPOSAL TO pay student nurses and midwives €100 per week has been criticised by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO).

The organisation has sought an urgent meeting with the Minister for Health “to discuss the current reality faced by nursing and midwifery students and how it can best be dealt with”.

Student representatives met this evening to discuss the content of a review commissioned by the Department of Health and carried out by Professor Tom Collins.

The report proposes a €100 per week temporary grant for nursing and midwifery students on placement in hospitals.

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

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.”

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

“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,” she stated.

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Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on health, David Cullinan, said the “new reality of Covid in our hospitals needs to be taken into account” amid a recent surge in cases.

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

“The new reality must be taken into account and the minister should engage directly with health unions on this.”

A longer-term review of student nurses’ pay is due to get under way shortly.

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