One nursing student said he slept in his car between work shifts to try to avoid rising fuel costs.
Jake Benjamin Smart is a Student Mental Health Nurse at Ulster University’s Magee campus in Londonderry.
The third-year student is asking the Ministry of Health to increase the travel allowance for students.
Health Secretary Robin Swann last month announced an increase in payments for most health and social care workers.
In a statement, the Department of Health said it was reviewing the mileage payable to students for the next academic year starting in September.
Speaking to BBC Radio Foyle, the third year nursing student said he and many of his peers are struggling during the cost of living crisis.
“The cost of living has gone up, diesel and petrol prices have gone up and we’re living on £430 a month.
“Because this is a full-time course, we are advised not to bypass it.
“I know students, including myself at times, who have had to sleep in their car on the hospital campus because they literally can’t afford to drive home and travel back to the internship the next day.”
Mr Smart said that student nurses are currently “under a heavy financial strain” and that the situation is not sustainable.
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“I work seven days a week and do maybe 40 hours a week as a nursing student, working extra shifts to make sure my rent is paid and the kids have food.
“Yes, we have the luxury of having our studies funded, not everyone has that, but because it’s funded, we’re only eligible for a scholarship, we’re not eligible for a student loan or an alimony loan.”
Mr Smart said students were limited on how much they could claim for miles based on distance from the university.
“Suppose you lived 20 miles from the university and your internship is 60 miles away. You can only claim the 40 miles because you would be doing those 20 miles to university anyway.”
The principal of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in Northern Ireland, Rita Devlin, said she was “very concerned” that many nursing students could be pushed out of training because they could not afford to live during the cost of living crisis.
“The student bursary hasn’t moved or changed in the last 10 years – that’s £430 a month for students.
“This scholarship is designed to give them the opportunity to support themselves while they work.”
She added: “A student nurse works 50% of the time in student internships and we are really concerned because the cost of living crisis is hitting our students very hard.
“It’s 24.4p per mile that students are allowed to claim for odometer reading. So if you’re thinking that petrol and diesel prices are going up to £2 a litre, that’s not far at all.”
Ms Devlin said the mileage allowance was “the icing on the cake” and called for an overall increase in the bursary allowance.
“We cannot afford to lose a single student nurse because we rely heavily on them to help fill the huge vacancies in our health service,” said Ms. Devlin.
She said she would urgently raise the issue of student poverty with Health Secretary Robin Swann.
In a statement, the Department of Health said nursing and midwifery students in apprenticeships commissioned by the department may qualify for additional travel for internships through the Business Service Organization (BSO) scholarship office.
The department said the process “has been operating successfully for years.”
They added that an application received by the scholarship office will be paid to the student the following month.
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