By Richard Denton

As I approach my final placement of my second year (already?), I find myself reflecting on my journey so far. I consider myself fortunate. I have worked with district nurses, joined a respiratory ward, been part of a team on a care of older people ward, scrubbed into surgeries in theatre, enjoyed outpatient clinics, and supported adults with learning disabilities.

These placements have provided me with a broad, general overview of the many roles of a staff nurse. They have afforded me opportunities to practise most of the skills we need to get signed off and simulation training should cover the rest. However, I am keenly aware that not all students share my experience.

I have spoken with qualified nurses and fellow students at several universities about their placement experiences. For most, like myself, placements have been a positive experience – a chance to hone our skills and a powerful reminder of why we chose the nursing profession.

Yet, not everyone is as lucky. I spoke to one student who was reduced to tears. All of their second-year placements were in the same hospital specialising in older people's care and rehabilitation. While this is undoubtedly crucial in nursing, it doesn't provide the broad training necessary at the start of a career.

This student felt de-skilled, unable to apply skills lab techniques, and perceived their peers as more advanced. When they approached the university for a reallocation, they were told there were insufficient placement opportunities to redeploy them.

Other students spoke of traveling over an hour to their placements, resulting in 15-hour days. This gruelling schedule leaves no room for a healthy work-life balance, something the Agenda for Change has highlighted as critical. By the end of their third consecutive working day, they felt exhausted, unsure about continuing, and guilty for neglecting their families.

One student shared a harrowing experience of daily assaults during their placement, returning home each night with scratches and bruises. Due to capacity issues, they couldn't be moved to another area, their only options being to continue on the placement or take time out and make up the hours. This led to their withdrawal from university altogether.

I have met students who recounted dreadful placements where nurses bluntly stated they had no time to be a supervisor but they had no choice. The university lacked the capacity to redeploy them, and meetings to address the issues only made things worse.

Ideally, every student should experience a diverse range of placements. This not only allows them to develop core nursing skills but also helps them determine their career paths. We need a system to support students whose placements are unsuitable due to travel time, unsupportive staff, repeated assaults by patients, or any other reason.

It's important to note that these negative experiences are in the minority. Most of my peers thoroughly enjoy placements and feel they learn more during these periods than at any other time in their training. But if these issues do occur and our universities are powerless to address them because they lack capacity to move students, we must ask: is the system truly fit for purpose?