Nursing journal editors call on PM to reverse bursary cut

The editors of three of the country’s leading nursing journals, including Nursing Times, have written to the prime minister calling on her to reverse the decision to scrap bursaries for student nurses.

They have made a last ditch plea to Theresa May to row back from the reforms that will see bursaries replaced by a system of loans for student nurses and midwives in England from next year.

Nursing Times editor Jenni Middleton, along with senior colleagues at theNursing in Practice and the Nursing Standard, warned of the “deep concerns” held by many in the profession about the plans.

“They have told us that it will result in hardship for new nurses embarking on their careers and that – despite what is intended – the plans will lead to fewer nurses and midwives available to care for patients,” they said.

“This is why we have taken the unprecedented step of writing to you collectively to ask that you instruct your ministers to look at the plans again,” they wrote in the letter, which has been jointly published today by the three publications.

Full story in The Nursing Times 11 August 2016