'Students feel used': Vancouver Island nursing students call for paid work placements amid shortage

Nursing students on Vancouver Island are lobbying for help to make their program more accessible amid a dire need for more of them in B.C.’s health-care system.

A group of post-secondary students say their training requires them to pay instead of getting paid for real-world work experience.

“If you were to pay students for their practicum time, that would substantially help them pursue their nursing degrees,” says fourth-year nursing student Addy Gawne.

“A lot of students feel used,” says another, Faith Barton.

They’re pushing for change as enrolment is down in their joint program at Camosun College and the University of Victoria. The BC Nurses’ Union says it’s also struggling as the province scrambles to fill 5,000 nursing vacancies.

“Those are permanent positions,” says BCNU president Adriane Gear. “That doesn’t account for nurses that might be off on an 18-month maternity leave or maybe a sick leave.”

In the four-year program, nursing students say they’re paying thousands to go on work placements, unlike in other fields.

“Engineering students, trade students, med students, so many students in male-dominated professions get paid for their work terms and their co-op terms. But teaching students don’t, nursing students don’t,” says nursing student Trinity Desouza. “They’re female-dominated, as well. It just makes you wonder.”

The BC Nurses’ Union says there are costs to take on students, such as insurance. Some of them can be paid for work under an employed student nurse program, which allows students to gain clinical experience in health-care facilities under the direction of a nursing unit manager or designate.

But the hours don’t count toward a practicum.

“In terms of a government program or something, why not? There should be some kind of tuition relief,” says Gear. “In the context of a nursing shortage and there’s a commitment to recruit and retain nurses, well that would go a long way,” she says.