Hospitals are giving less qualified staff nurses uniforms, conference hears

Hospitals are deploying staff with less training than nurses – wearing the same uniforms – a conference has heard.

Nurses said trusts trying to make “cost savings” were using cheaper nursing associates, and treating student nurses as free labour, to try to plug gaps that should be filled by more qualified staff.

They are trained in 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.

Nurses at the RCN annual congress in Brighton said the associate workers are frequently being given equally complex tasks, as pressures mounted.

In some cases, they were even being given the same uniforms, meaning patients cannot distinguish between nurses and less-qualified staff, nurses said.

Meanwhile, student nurses, who should be shadowing trained staff to learn new skills, were increasingly being asked to fill in for healthcare assistants, the conference heard.

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Source: The Telegraph, 16 May 2023