Beautiful Virgin Islands

Wednesday, Oct 08, 2025

'I'm very nervous': UK  student nurses on the frontline against Covid-19

'I'm very nervous': UK student nurses on the frontline against Covid-19

Student nurses on starting their working lives amid the coronavirus outbreak

Health secretary Matt Hancock has announced that up to 18,700 final year student nurses “will move to the frontline” to aid health service staff during the Covid-19 crisis. We spoke to some of them about starting their careers during a pandemic.

‘You have to be positive, or you’ll lose your head’
Michelle Magadada, 22, is a third year nursing student at the University of Huddersfield. 

My placement has been moved forward from to June to April because of coronavirus. I’m very nervous, but excited. It’ll be a learning experience for everyone, not just student nurses. None of us has dealt with a pandemic.

Do I feel prepared? No, in that I don’t really know what to expect. Yes, in that I’ve dealt with situations in hospitals where we’ve had to be on high alert for deteriorating patients. We’re putting our health at risk, but this is what we do every day as nurses; we come into contact with so many infections. I feel like we can tackle this by following the routines we’ve been taught.

I live with another student nurse who’s more ready than I am, to be honest. He’s excited for a longer placement, and this time we’re actually being paid. My year missed out on bursaries, so it’s been difficult financially. For two years I had a part-time job as a healthcare assistant with an agency, picking up shifts when I didn’t have so many uni assignments. It was nearly impossible to manage. If it weren’t for my parents, I would have struggled.

It’s nice to be part of something so huge. I understand that there are many students who are scared to take on this responsibility, but I feel like it’s a good thing that they’ve called on us. You have to be positive, or you’ll lose your head.


‘I don’t really have a choice but to go in’

Rebecca Lennox, 29, is a first year nursing student at John Moores University.

I’m starting my work placement at a post-surgery ward soon. I’m worried because I’ve got two young children and a husband with bad asthma. Although I won’t be working directly with patients who are positive with the virus, I’ll be travelling and working in that hospital. The patients are already at risk so I think, what if I touch something in a lift or on the bus on to work and pass it to one of the patients?

We have to do 2,300 theory hours and 2,300 clinical hours before we can register to become a nurse. The university says we have the choice not to go on placement now, but where am I going to make those hours up? I’m classed as a mature student, so it can feel like I’m on borrowed time. My dad has dementia and I worry about whether he’ll get to see me graduate.

I’m a course representative at my university, so I hear a lot of concerns from other students. We feel like we’re in limbo. The university is trying to give assurances as to what’s going on with our hours and so on, but they just don’t know everything.

I feel ready for the work. As student nurses, we go with the flow anyway because the health service is already so understaffed. Although we’re not meant to be counted in the numbers, we pretty much are all the time.


‘The government takes advantage of nurses’ good nature’

Joseph Brooks, 27, is a third year nursing student at the University of Northampton.

I’ll be going on placement in the next couple of weeks. The situation is obviously not great, but with the new rules allowing us to graduate early we’re clamouring to get out there and work.

I’m most worried about passing the virus on to the patients. Since we’re students, we need to be supervised – but I have no idea how it’s going to work if supervisors end up contracting the virus and have to self-isolate. I imagine we’ll hear something closer to the time; we’re getting updates every couple of days.

I’ve heard that we will be paid while on placement during coronavirus. There’s also going to be a new grant for student nurses, but that doesn’t arrive until September. But while the grant is coming in now is welcome, it’s lower than it was, and tuition fees are still over £9,000 a year. Luckily for me, my employer (St Andrew’s Healthcare) is giving me a stipend of about £16,000 to go to university.

It’s not as if the government wasn’t warned back in 2017 that they’d see a massive drop in nurses when they scrapped the bursary for student nurses – and that’s what happened. The thing with nurses is that they’re incredible people, but it seems to me that the government takes advantage of their good nature. In order to be come a nurse, you have to saddle yourself with debt. I don’t blame people who are put off by that – especially if they’re from low income backgrounds. More needs to be done.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×