Health Education England is working with Universities to enable students to work in the NHS

Health Education England is working with universities around the country to identify eligible students who are available and willing to work in the NHS in this critical time of unprecedented demand on our health services due to the COVID – 19 epidemic.

Mark Radford, Chief Nurse, Health Education England, & Deputy Chief Nursing Officer of England, has written to all universities that provides undergraduate and postgraduate nursing courses to ask them to submit regular information to HEE on the status of their nursing students, so that all those who can and are willing can use their expertise in order to further increase the frontline workforce of the NHS.

To help universities, at what is a difficult time for all organisations, HEE has created a new tool to enable them to quickly and easily submit data which will allow us to identify those students who are eligible. HEE in partnership with NHS England/NHS Improvement will then match eligible students to employers, and provide both oversight of the potential student deployment and the logistics to enable this to happen smoothly across England.

Mark Radford, Chief Nurse at Health Education England & Deputy Chief Nurse of England, said:

“It is vital at this time of unprecedented demand on our NHS that we utilise the skills and expertise of our nursing students where we can do safely and effectively. At this moment third year undergraduates, and other students at the later stages of their training, are being prioritised. 

“National guidance for all students is being prepared which will reflect this process and give them the information they need.”

HEE is asking nursing students to wait until they are contacted by their university – most likely by email – and to then to provide the information needed to register their interest.

HEE is also supporting the “Your NHS Needs You” campaign asking former registrants to consider returning to support health and care services.

hee.nhs.uk/coronavirus-covid-19