The Price Of Placement Poverty | Bex Howells | TEDxWellington
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- Опубліковано 21 вер 2024
- With global shortages in healthcare, mental health, and teaching, countries the world over must invest in training a homegrown workforce. But New Zealand is struggling to train and retain people in its essential services. Professionals are retiring or migrating and students are dropping out of training at alarming rates. Meanwhile, the public are left waiting days, weeks, or months for treatment, care, and support services.
To qualify as a nurse, midwife, teacher, social worker or mental health professional, students complete hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of compulsory unpaid placements. The associated financial hardship is known as 'placement poverty'. Paid training could improve equity in access to applied learning programs. It could help diversify the workforce and ensure trainees can live with dignity. This is a global call to action to enable sustainable workforce growth, accessible services, and thriving communities. Bex is a community activist and advocate for paid training in healthcare, education, and social work. Originally from the UK, she moved to Aotearoa 10 years ago to study and stayed. Bex has worked in the public sector and her local community, Te Awakairangi (Hutt Valley). A failed attempt to train as a social worker became the catalyst to advocate for labour rights and equity in education and training.
Bex is now writing her Master’s thesis on unpaid clinical placements in healthcare professions. She founded Paid Placements Aotearoa alongside this to unite students to campaign for paid training in essential services. Her passion is sustainable workforce development for student wellbeing, diversity of staff, and accessible services for thriving communities. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx
As someone who works in healthcare, I can relate to the challenges mentioned. It's frustrating when we're short-staffed and overworked. Paid training could attract more talent and improve retention which would be amazing for both the patients and staff
My sister's in nursing school and it's brutal. this talk nailed it - she's always broke and stressed and it makes me worry about her future. I know things will get better for her once she has money coming in but I can't help but feel the nature of the industry is always understaffed and overworked
This is one of those speeches you can't unhear.
To think 45% of people drop out in training, in professions we desperately need, is staggering.
She makes a really compelling case for paid training! It's clear that unpaid placements are making it even more difficult for students and when you consider the effect that's having on people actually completing the training it just doesn't seem right
you can tell she is passionate af about this... respect for speaking up and trying to change things. we need more people like her.
Thank you for your kind words 🙂 this is an issue I care deeply about and see huge benefits for society as a whole by re-introducing paid training for all professions
boosting student allowances seems like a great place to start in terms of fixing this. Small changes can make such a big difference.
I already had huge respect for healthcare workers but even more so after listening to this. They really go through it just to help out other people and we need to support them better!
Healthcare students deserve better. They're working towards helping people and being treated like cr*p
Yep! And some don’t even get jobs once they pass the final exams and graduate which means the move overseas to find work. NZ is training the global healthcare workforce by not taking care of its own 🤦♀️
It is definitely a strange and broken system. You’d think that our government would want to do as much as it could to support and encourage students in these high turnover sectors
placement poverty sounds like a nightmare... how the heII are students supposed to survive? no wonder we've got shortages in healthcare.
Powerful and needed, great talk.
Yeah my brother is doing placement atm and he is so stressed it's like, heartbreaking to be around him. He came over for dinner (my mom is currently in treatment for cancer so he's making an effort to spend time with her too) and he was practically in tears at the table like the whole time. It was really tough and to think that this is the experience a lot of other students are having... it just seems so needlessly difficult.
Needlessly difficult. Well said. Best wishes to you and your family ❤️🩹
I don't understand why it isn't already part of the govt given allowance for students. The way they routinely under-evaluate the cost of living is beyond a joke but they could at least increase it for the time that they're in placement
damn, never realized how messed up the system is. time for a change. we all benefit if healthcare workers are treated better.
I'm all for paid training for healthcare and teaching. Honestly it seems like a no-brainer like just investing in the future of our public sectors.
I had no idea that's what it was like for people during their placements, it's kind of sad to think about and I think more people need to be aware that this is happening!
Yes! Please help spread the word as the knock on effect for the rest of society is significant
@@paid.placements.aotearoa I will
This is seriously messed up... no wonder we're struggling to get people into these jobs. The way things are atm no one can afford to work for free?
Good talk, and time its followed
Burning out before they even start seems like such a waste of talent. No wonder certain areas are so short-staffed.
So obviously the current system is not working! I wonder how else we could shake things up to provide actual support for these people? It seems like starting them off this way just sets them up to perceive the job as stressful and that problem doesn't help with burnout either!
Yes please! I have placement at the end of the year and I'm not looking forward to it purely because I'll have to cut down on hours at work and even though they're understanding it's also the busiest time of year for them and it just makes me feel like I'm letting them down!
I really appreciate her shedding light on the struggles of trainees, it definitely sounds so tough and paying them would be ideal but realistically where is that money going to come from?
Fair question. It would depend on the country, government, political ideology & tax settings but a left wing gov might increase corporate, income, or wealth taxes. A right wing gov will still theoretically support education & healthcare as core public services. Ultimately we need people to work in frontline services and if we want to address chronic shortages in these sectors the world over, governments must prioritise funding - like they do to train Police, prison officers, and the military. It all comes down to choices and valuation of services
man this just seems so unfair! like… you’re already stressing because you’re a student and have a huge workload, then to do placement where I imagine going from theory to practice would cause added stress and also you’d be doing more hours so even if you DID have some kind of part time job you’d have to sacrifice some of the hours spent there… man just thinking about it is stressing me out.
The comparison to police training is interesting, but can we realistically apply the same model to healthcare and education? Each field has unique challenges and demands.
Police were used as a comparator for the nurses pay equity claim in NZ. The beauty of increasing student allowances rather than making students employees is that it can accommodate different professions needs
more diversity in healthcare? heck yeah, we need that. paid training could definitely help make it happen. everyone wins.
🎉🎉🎉
no surprise so many drop out. I'd peace out too if I had to work for free AND pay fees. system's broken af.
You are absolutely right that the system is broken. Paying to do free labour is warped! If we want people to train and work in these essential services, we need to incentivise and support them to do so, rather than punish them with financial hardship. It can be done!
I think this is just residual issues from an outdated system tbh like maybe back in the day when places weren't so understaffed placement worked a lot better and would have been helpful but I couldn't imagine being overworked and having to keep track of a bunch of students on top of that
It’s definitely tough on everyone. Existing staff shortages make it hard to take on students on top of heavy workloads and we need to train new people to alleviate the workforce shortages. It’s a catch 22
I just assumed most students were already on some kind of govt allowance? And if that's the case surely it can just be increased over the period when they're doing placement?
To be fair I understand why they don't get paid, it's not like they're fully trained professionals that are doing the job as well as those already employed.
They may not be fully trained but they are still working, unpaid, often full time for weeks at a time. They don’t get concessions for food or rent or fuel during this period so if we value the training enough to make it mandatory, it’s also valuable enough to be paid
@@paid.placements.aotearoa I see your point but given how underfunded those industries are I just don't see it happening
Respectfully, I disagree with the focus on paid training as the solution. We should be addressing systemic issues like funding for healthcare and education overall, not just focusing on training methods. Like all of those industries are notoriously underfunded as is, so if there's going to be money injected into them it should go to where it is already crucially needed.
Thank you for sharing your perspective. Funding in healthcare & education should absolutely be increased overall. As you say, they are chronically underfunded sectors. They are also chronically understaffed and as part of the solution, we need to make training accessible, affordable, and incentivised. It’s about recognising the value of training and working in these essential sectors