Sixty first-year student nurses staged a sit-in followed by a demonstration at the gate of St James's Hospital against a €100 charge for immunisation ahead of their six-week unpaid placement with the hospital.
The students are due to begin their placement with St James's on January 2nd but insisted yesterday that they would refuse to pay the €100 charge for immunisation against hepatitis B and tuberculosis. St James's agreed yesterday to invoice the students - rather than receive payment up-front - after the sit-in protest began in the hospital's administration building when students arrived to enrol for immunisation.
The students decided on this course of action when they learned that their classmates due to attend Tallaght hospital on work placement were not being charged for immunisation.
"Other people in our year who are attending Tallaght hospital are not being charged for it, this is completely unfair," said student nurse Deborah Byrne yesterday.
"Had we known about this charge when we were deciding what hospital to apply for, it would have made a difference, but they only told us two weeks ago."
The students said they were also informed by the hospital two weeks ago that they must have had a full medical examination before beginning work with the hospital in January, which can cost as much as €100 and is not covered by the medical card, according to student nurse Blanche Moore.
The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) has begun communication with St James's Hospital on behalf of the students.
Phil Ní Sheaghdha, INO industrial relations officer, said: "These student nurses are the future of nursing in Ireland. The total cost of providing this immunisation to the entire student body is €9,000 . . . If the hospital needs to have a row with the department, please don't use the students."
The Department of Health provides free immunisation to all working full-time in hospitals, "but to call these students non-employees is only technical", Ms Ní Sheaghdha added. "At a later stage, they will be employees."
The student nurses due to begin in St James's will spend 30 weeks altogether on unpaid work placement over the next 2½ years. In their final college year, they will receive payment for working at the hospital.