Part-time student nurses do not get paid for their practice placements carried out in different wards, unlike their peers on the full-time course, a situation they say is worsening the shortage situation.

Times of Malta reported last week that an average of three nurses are quitting their jobs at Mater Dei Hospital every week.

Now, a student has come forward saying the situation is being exacerbated by the “discriminatory” treatment of those following the part-time nursing course.

According to the student – Claire Galea – those who follow the course on a part-time basis are not paid for the time they spend on practice placements.

Students must complete 300 hours of practice on various hospital wards throughout their course.

Although those who follow the course on a part-time basis must complete the same number of hours as the ones who follow the course full-time, the part-time students are not paid for their work.

“This is blatant discrimination. We carry out the same exact work over the same number of hours. And, yet, we are not paid a cent,” Galea, who joined the course as a mature student, said.

She said that she has been trying to challenge the University over the issue and, although she has her faculty’s support, all efforts have been futile.

The decision not to pay part-time students meant fewer people were signing up for the course, she contended, something the country could not afford, given the shortage of nurses.

“Instead of making sure that every single person interested in becoming a nurse is treated fairly, thus helping ensure the number of dropouts is minimised, they do this,” she said.

“We are not talking about an hour or two but hundreds of hours.

“Is this how we want people to urge others to join the profession,” Galea remarked, adding that students like her also do not receive any of the stipends or grants given to those doing the full-time course.

According to the nurses’ union, only some 100 nurses graduated last year, with more than 20 moving on to further study, meaning they did not join the workforce.

The number of those graduating in the coming years is expected to be even lower.

As foreign nurses continue to resign and leave for the UK, where they and their families are being promised citizenship, free accommodation and better pay to plug its own staffing crisis, the focus has recently been shifted on attracting students to the courses.

In recent years, the government and the union have embarked on annual recruitment drives as part of an effort to get young people to study nursing.