Some 200 nursing students will be without a mentor during their placements in hospital as a result of directives issued by the nurses’ union instructing members not to guide students until they are paid for this responsibility.

Nurses who mentor students do the job without being given any extra allowances, prompting the union to complain this is unfair to those putting in the extra effort.

Students are placed in different wards throughout their course. Each student is assigned a mentor who monitors their progress and guides them in their work.

At the end of their course, students are appraised by their mentors, and this is reflected in their final result.

The Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses issued the directives in September, calling on all nurses not to accept carrying out any form of mentorship.

Meanwhile, the University Students Council (KSU), together with the Malta Health Students’ Association, addressed a press conference and insisted that the situation was not only creating a stressful environment on wards but was also increasing stress for the students, who were now fearing that they could fail their courses.

The marks obtained in the placements depend on the feedback from the mentors, the students’ organisation said.

The KSU added that if the mentors did not submit the marks, the students risked failing, and failure required them to go through the placement again on their own time in summer.

“This is not fair on the students that still go into placement daily and cover the hours as expected from them by the university. Students are not at fault for such actions and thus should not be subject to unjust penalties.

“All possible alternatives have been exhausted by the Faculty of Health Sciences, as well as by the University of Malta, to avoid these dire consequences, but none were deemed viable,” a KSU spokesman said.

The students are also concerned that apart from them having to do the placement again in summer, they were also not getting the training they deserved.

“Students should never be used as a pawn in industrial directives. If any union wants to get a message across, they should leave students out of it,” MHSA president Kaitlyn Byrne told a room packed with angry students.

When contacted, MUMN general secretary Colin Galea said the union had been discussing the issue for several months and an agreement was imminent.