Written Answers. - Nursing Staff.
Brian Hayes
Ceist:
549
Mr. B. Hayes
asked the
Minister for Health and Children
the number of places he is making available in order that nurses' assistants can become fully qualified nurses; the level of experience within the nursing professions which is required before nurses' assistants can take up these places; his plans to continue the existence of the nurses' grant; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
[1750/02]
The Government has approved my proposal for the introduction this year of a new sponsorship scheme for experienced public health service employees wishing to train as nurses to coincide with the implementation of the four-year pre-registration nursing degree programme. Up to 40 sponsorships nationally will be available each year. The maximum number of sponsorships available in the functional area of each health board/ERHA, based on the number of nursing training places in each such area, is as follows:
|
Eastern Region
|
15
|
|
Midland Health Board
|
2
|
|
Mid-Western Health Board
|
3
|
|
North-Eastern Health Board
|
3
|
|
North-Western Health Board
|
3
|
|
South-Eastern Health Board
|
3
|
|
Southern Health Board
|
7
|
|
Western Health Board
|
4
|
|
40
|
The sponsorship scheme is open to employees working in the Irish public health service, such as health care assistants and ward attendants, who are directly involved in the delivery of care to patients/clients within a nursing context. Applicants must have at least five year's relevant service in the Irish public health service on 1 January of the year in which they apply for sponsorship, and must qualify as a mature code applicant for a place on the pre-registration nursing degree programme under the system operated by the Central Applications Office (CAO) on behalf of the higher education institutions.
Successful applicants who give a written commitment to work as nurses for a period of five years following successful completion of the nursing degree programme will be allowed to retain their existing substantive salary throughout the four years of the programme, and will continue to be entitled to normal incremental progression up to the maximum of that scale.
This new sponsorship scheme has been warmly welcomed by the health service unions representing care assistants as providing an exciting new career development path for their members. Nursing students undertaking the present three-year pre-registration nursing diploma programme receive a non-means-tested maintenance grant of 4,533 – £3,570 – per annum. The reason this grant is not means-tested, and why it is almost double the level of the maximum higher education grant, is in recognition of the 48 week commitment that nursing diploma students are required to give to the programme in each of the three years.
The education modules of the new four year nursing degree programme, however, will take place around academic semesters. This will allow nursing students to become more like other third-level students with similar holiday periods. On this basis, and in accordance with a specific recommendation of the Commission on Nursing, the student nurse grant will be the same as that available to other students and be means-tested. However, a uniform allowance and financial support for nursing degree students undertaking distant clinical placements will continue to be provided.
