We asked Cardiff’s nurses what they thought of Osborne’s budget

‘The only way you get rich as a nurse is to marry a surgeon’


George Osborne has managed to release an NHS sized shit-storm with his newly proposed budget cuts.

91 per cent of student nurses say they would not have applied to study nursing without access to a bursary- so we asked some of Cardiff’s nurses what they thought of Gideon’s changes.

Charlie, 21, third year, Nursing

It’s bullshit. There is no incentive for new nurses to do it now.

It’s the kind of thing where you know what wage you are going to end up on, it’s a bit shit, there has been no pay rise in 10 years, 1 per cent maximum, and now you are going to come out with £50,000 debt – where is the appeal in that?

The only way you get rich as a nurse is to marry a surgeon.

Essentially it’s another way of chipping away at the NHS, they don’t want the NHS, if there are no nurses then the system will fall to bits – so it’s another way to privatise and it will affect everyone.

Keira, 20, third year, Physiotherapist

Thing is you want happy NHS staff with good morale, we’re already doing a shit tonne of hours for a shit wage (technically over the EU directive) and now you’re going to take the bursary away.

“We can’t even have a pay rise in-line with inflation but we will have to start paying our debts back straight away because we come out on £21,000 before tax.

Sophie, 20, third year, Physiotherapist

It’s a nightmare. Future students will really struggle.

They think that by scrapping bursaries they can fund more places, but there are no placements, where are you going to put them? How are you going to train them when they all need 1000-2500 placement hours to graduate?

It’s a rewarding career, but you don’t go into nursing to be loaded, the bursary acts as an incentive to work for the NHS when you graduate without that more people will go private to pay off their debts, because why would they work for a pittance for nothing?

Isabella, 20, third year, Child Nursing

At the end of the day, we’re not normal students, we do full time work, nights, weekends constantly, and we don’t get paid to do it. You just don’t physically have the time to do a part-time job.

We’re not just an extra pair of hands, they need us on the wards because it is so busy, and I can see there being a lot less nurses applying if the bursary is cut, which will mean less nurses on the wards.

I feel like this just shows that within the NHS, nurses are not respected or appreciated for what we do. As much as we chose to do nursing, you don’t really know what it involves beforehand, it’s a difficult job you spend half your time just wanting to cry.

One day, you are going to be affected, you or a family member will get ill and because of this patient care will be affected and there won’t be enough nurses.

Nia, 20, third year, Child Nursing

I struggle now,with the bursary. I just wouldn’t have been able to cope without my bursary.

If we don’t have the bursary then we are working for free.

Amy, 20, third year, Nursing

I am very lucky that I could get that bursary.

Most of the people on my course are mature students and a lot of them would not be here if they couldn’t get the the bursary. Mature students have the most life experience and they make the best nurses, without the bursary the right people won’t be able to apply.

I don’t think people have a concept of what it is student nurses do. It is real life, we take on patients, some unfortunately die, and we can be taken to court if something goes wrong. We don’t have the same experience as other students.