Written Answers. - Nursing Profession.
Enda Kenny
Ceist:
33
Mr. Kenny
asked the
Minister for Health and Children
the new arrangements he is making to fund degree courses to be taken by nurses; and if the funding to be provided includes the State discharging educational fees incurred by nursing students who take the one year full-time under-graduate degree course after obtaining their nursing diploma.
[14197/00]
As I said in the House yesterday, the commission on nursing has signalled that the future benchmark qualification for entry to the nursing profession will be a degree in nursing studies.
There are currently a large number of registered nurses and midwives pursuing part-time degree courses. However, there are variations between health agencies in the provision of fee support. The priority action plan agreed between my Department and the nursing unions for the implementation of core recommendations of the commission on nursing includes a commitment to the introduction of uniform criteria for the provision of financial support to nurses and midwives undertaking post-registration education courses. This has provided me with a unique opportunity to create a level playing field for the payment of nursing degree fees.
I have accordingly decided that from 1 January 2001, nurses working in the public health service who want to undertake nursing and certain other undergraduate degree courses on a part-time basis will have their fees paid in full by their employing agencies. Fees will be paid in return for a commitment on the part of the nurses to continue to work in our public health service for a period of up to two years after the completion of the degree course. This fees initiative will continue until at least the year 2005.
It is difficult to quantify the number of nurses who will benefit from this decision but it is estimated that up to 1,500 nurses a year will avail of the new initiative over the next five years or so, at an additional annual cost of £3 million.
This initiative is designed for the benefit of nurses who do not already have a degree, and includes fees for access courses and nursing degree courses undertaken through distance education. It will apply to nurses employed in the public health service in either a temporary or permanent capacity. Certain nursing management and health services management degree courses will come within the scope of the new fees initiative.
The commitment to continue working will be for one or two years, depending on the duration of the degree course. The new scheme will be sufficiently flexible to allow nurses to change employment within the public health service after they have completed the course.
An important objective of the initiative is to provide an assurance to graduates from the three-year diploma programmes that they will have an opportunity to undertake a part-time nursing degree course and have their fees paid. I hope that this will act as a real incentive to newly qualified nurses to enter the workforce following registration and to remain in the workforce.
I would like to emphasise that this initiative applies to part-time nursing degree courses only. The educational fees of the students currently undertaking the full-time degree course in NUI, Galway will not be covered under the scheme. As I have said in the House on many previous occasions, NUI Galway introduced the full-time nursing degree course against the wishes of my Department and the Higher Education Authority, both of which favoured the development of a part-time course in line with the approach adopted by other third level institutions.
