![\"Christopher](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/AD4P2LGV2NH55IFZCAEA54J5X4.jpg\")
Christopher O’Dwyer worked 37.5-hour weeks unpaid as a student nurse. <\/p>\nWhen student nurse Christopher O\u2019Dwyer was on work placement as part of his college degree, his financial situation became bleak. He was struggling to such an extent that he had to take up additional work at an emergency accommodation centre.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was doing 90-hour weeks,\u201c he said. \u201dI was doing maybe 37.5 hours in the hospital, unpaid as supernumerary.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then working the rest on very extended shifts, night shifts. Oftentimes, [I was] finishing student placement shifts and going to do a night shift.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Dwyer points to the first three years of nursing and midwifery placements being unpaid. This can lead to financial difficulties, he says. In the fourth year, individuals are entitled to 80 per cent of a graduated nurse\u2019s salary.<\/p>\n
During those first three years, students can access supports of up to \u20ac300 per week while on clinical placements for accommodation costs.<\/p>\n
But O\u2019Dwyer said he is aware of fellow students who lived in cars during placements because the funding allocated to them wasn\u2019t enough to cover accommodation.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cWhen we start our placements, we\u2019re not starting as wallflowers. On my first shift as a first-year student, I was told \u2018here\u2019s a basin, here\u2019s some washcloths \u2013 go to patient one, two and three\u2019.” He called for salaries to be made available to students at an earlier stage.<\/p>\n
Christopher O’Dwyer worked 37.5-hour weeks unpaid as a student nurse. <\/p>\n
Rebecca Brennan, a final-year nursing student at Dundalk IT<\/a>, said the cost of diesel is particularly challenging for her at the moment.<\/p>\n \u201cI come from Cavan<\/a>, I was travelling to Drogheda<\/a> on my internship,\u201d she said. \u201cI was spending maybe over \u20ac100 a week in diesel and that wasn\u2019t even bringing the car to three-quarters full.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the last month alone, I\u2019ve done 3,500km of driving. Obviously being student nurses, we make 80 per cent of what a new graduate makes, which is great, but it really just doesn\u2019t go far enough.\u201d<\/p>\n Student nurses aren\u2019t alone in feeling the pinch from the cost-of-living crisis. <\/p>\n Two emergency motions on the topic were passed at the annual Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation<\/a> (INMO) conference in Dundalk on Thursday.<\/p>\n