Sir, - According to the Irish Nursing Organisation, there are 1,250 nursing vacancies and it will take a further 1,000 new nursing posts to operate the 650 beds to be provided in 2002.
The Government, however, has chosen 2002 as the year to withdraw the non-means-tested maintenance grants for student nurses! Student nurses received a £3,325 maintenance grant since the introduction of third-level courses in nurse education in 1994.
Can the Irish Nursing Organisation join the Adelaide Hospital Society in calling upon the Government to restore these essential grants now while many students are considering whether to apply for nursing?
Third-level student nurses, because they are undertaking a practice-based professional degree course, do not have the same opportunities to earn money during long vacations, nor should they or other students be expected to have to rely on the chance earnings of part-time or summer work.
We lose many potential nursing students because of this shameful and retrogressive action, especially those from low-income families. - Yours, etc.,
Dr Fergus O'Ferrall, Director, The Adelaide Hospital Society, Adelaide & Meath Hospital, Tallaght, Dublin 24.