Student nurses are set to undertake a week of action to urge politicians to rethink the decision to scrap student nurse bursaries.
Beginning from 8 February until the 14th, each day of the week will be dedicated to an activity to raise awareness of the student nurse bursary debate.
The activities are a mixture between social media activity, a walkout and posting photos of banners and historical photos. Healthcare professionals can get involved on Twitter using #HuntMustGo and #LoveNHS on different days. #LoveNHS will be used on Valentines Day for healthcare professionals to express all the things they love about the NHS.
On 10 February student nurses and nurses will stage a one hour walkout between 10am and 11am from their place of employment to coincide with the junior doctor strike on the same day. Before taking part in the walkout nurses are urged to speak to their supervisors to ensure that they take part in a safe and responsible way.
This week of action follows a protest on 9 January and a petition with over 156,000 signatures which led to a parliamentary debate on 11 January. A number of politicians have already spoken in favour of keeping the bursaries including Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Labour MP Wes Streeting and Conservative MP Maria Caulfield. There was also a summit held by Unison, to cement support for student nurses going forward.
George Osborne announced in the Spending Review in November 2015 that the NHS bursary were to be replaced by a system of loans. He said that removing the bursary would allow 10,000 more nurses to train. There is set to be a consultation over the issue in February.