The Nursing students have received an email from the PR team at the University of Chester, in summary, the email says the time spent participating in the university-wide digitals skills week will count towards their hours. They have also gone to say that it will allow students to travel home for Christmas in the recommended travel window.

While is all well and good in theory, in practice it will not suit all the nursing students who feel that this replacement is taking away invaluable hours and skills that would be gained on placement. The university as of yet has also failed to comment as to why they have taken this course of action when other universities deemed nursing students to be essential works and therefore can be kept on placement. After speaking to many Nursing students it is not understood why the university has not given them the option to either continue with placement hours or participate in the digital skills week. One of the worries of the nursing students is how their placement time will be made up so they can graduate on time and with the skillset needed as one week of digital skills doesn't make up for the hours missed on this placement. This is also without addressing the placement missed earlier in the year.

It is also illogical that the March cohort of 2020 is further ahead of September 2019 cohort in placement hours and this is still to be addressed by the University of Chester. This is no fault of either cohort and they have both been supportive of each other. 

The Nursing Students would like to thank you all for your continued support and hopefully, the University will address these concerns soon and we will keep you all updated with any progress. Thank you once again.