As nursing students, we understand the struggles due to staffing shortages in long term care facilities throughout Nova Scotia. Semester 4 and 5 nursing students at DAL received an email at 7:30pm on January 26th entailing that effective February 7th all classes would be cancelled, including our acute care clinical placement scheduled for March. We understand we are needed and are willing to provide support, that being said our voices in this decision are being overlooked. As students we have many factors living that are being overlooked and undermined. The government has generously presented us a $1000 incentive, however many of us need to pay rent, tuition and multiple bills that would not be covered with this amount especially with such short notice of this happening. As we did the math we realized that this incentive will equal $6.25/hr. Many of us live pay check to pay check and not being paid even close to minimum wage is not manageable, as we know previous clinical placements have been unpaid as the hours worked counted towards our nursing degree. As of now they have stated these hours will not go towards our nursing degree and we are still required to pay this semesters tuition. Our education is also being effected by this happening, as we know LTC has many things to offer although we have already learned and practiced these skills. We are concerned our education is being overlooked and they have not provided any compensation strategies to receive the education our acute care clinical would have provided. This semester 5 clinical was going to be many students first time in an actual hospital, as last semester many of us were placed in daycares. The skills acute care provides is a major factor not only in essential nursing skills, but as well as the education we need to be competent nurses and be prepared for the NCLEX that is soon arriving. Every aspect of our semester has been changed and we are expected to complete midterms and finish our classes that are solely suited towards acute care settings without the education from clinical practice, which is how many of us learn. We as students are concerned about the education we will lack and how that is going to effect our future career as nurses. OUR VOICES NEED TO BE HEARD! - DAL nursing student