Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 19 November 2020
325. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Health the reason the rate of remuneration for nurses on internships has been reduced from €14 in 2019 to €9.48 in 2020 particularly as nurses going on internships in 2020 will face the extra challenges health wise and work wise caused by Covid-19; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37620/20]
View answerEarlier this year, the Health Care Assistant initiative (whereby student nurses and midwives were offered temporary contracts as Health Care Assistants) began in April 2020 and ceased in August 2020.
This was in response to the Covid-19 outbreak and was only ever intended as a temporary measure to provide additional support of to the national effort, it also offered some protection to the ongoing education of student nurses and midwives as their clinical placements had ceased. Student nurses and midwives who took part in this initiative received payment of the first point of the Health Care Assistant salary scale, €28,493. The rate was also temporarily applied to those 4th year nurses and midwives on paid work placements.
The regular pay for 4th year student nurses on paid internship increased by 2% on 1st October this year. The annualised salary for this group is now €21,749 (or €10.72 per hour) for general nursing and midwifery and €22,229 (€10.96 per hour) for psychiatric nursing.
Noting the additional challenges posed by COVID-19, those 4th year student nurses on paid internship also benefit from the enhanced protections currently in place for all public health service employees covering the areas of occupational health, sick pay and healthcare supports.
