Support our future workforce of nurses and midwives by supporting our campaign for paid placements! Sign this petition, and let’s urge the Australian Government to do the right thing by nursing and midwifery students who are having to shoulder the burden of unpaid placements.

Why is this important?

Nursing and midwifery students are required to complete over 800 hours of unpaid placement in hospitals, aged care facilities and community health facilities. Many students are often allocated clinical placements that are a significant distance from their home, and some are allocated regional placements across the state.

In these circumstances, students are not only working unpaid, but are also required to fund their own travel and accommodation as well as loss of wages from their regular job whilst on placement.

These unpaid placements make it really challenging to juggle jobs, cover their everyday expenses like rent, food, or transport, and keep up to date with their studies, all whilst fitting in large blocks of unpaid placement (sometimes up to 8 weeks long). This is known as 'placement poverty'.

The impact of unpaid placements unfairly impacts those who are from a regional and rural background, international students and students from marginalised communities. Mature aged students and those with family or caring responsibilities are disproportionately affected, as they often have to go without work during the period of their placements.

Recently, the Australian Universities Accord report made detailed recommendations to the Australian Government to work with higher education providers and employers to introduce payment for unpaid placements, including government financial support for placements in the areas of nursing, care and teaching to tackle placement poverty.

Federal Education Minister, Jason Clare, has suggested this is “the sort of thing that could help with the cost of living.” Minister Clare sees the value in making this reform happen – it’s time for his government to act.

The NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association strongly encourages this reform to be actioned as soon as possible. Ending placement poverty is a critical step forward to encourage more students to enter the nursing and midwifery professions.

Join the NSWNMA to demand that the Australian Government commit to paid placements for nursing and midwifery students!