RCN students meet Labour Leader

Published: 29 January 2013

Royal College of Nursing members led a group of nursing students who met with Labour Leader Ed Miliband and Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham recently.

Mr Miliband had offered to meet the students when he attended last year’s RCN Congress. After visiting the Macmillan Cancer Centre at University College London Hospitals Trust last week, the two MPs took questions from a group that included members of the RCN Students Committee.

The discussion covered several topics, including mentorship and preceptorship, morale in the nursing profession and the effects on nursing staff of raising the retirement age.

Mr Miliband agreed that nurses should receive practical and academic support from more experienced colleagues, while Mr Burnham argued that staff nurses should be given protected time to undertake mentoring roles.

He also acknowledged the difficulties of undertaking some nursing roles beyond the age of 65, but made no promises that a future Labour administration would reverse the current Government’s plans to raise the retirement age.

Mr Burnham expressed a willingness to look into nurse education and an interest in setting up a group to consider the key issues.