Reform of nursing education: Students will receive remuneration in the future

25.10.2023 18:18

On Thursday, October 19th, the Bundestag passed a draft law to strengthen university nursing education, to make it easier to recognize foreign qualifications in nursing and to change other regulations (Nursing Studies Strengthening Act - PflStudStG) in 2nd/3rd. Reading decided. According to this, nursing students will receive appropriate remuneration for the entire duration of their studies. In addition, recognition procedures for foreign nursing specialists will be standardized and simplified.

Federal Health Minister Prof. Karl Lauterbach said: “In an aging society, we not only have to reorganize nursing care insurance, we also need more young people to work in nursing. In order to get them excited about the nursing profession, we need attractive conditions during university nursing training. We are now giving students the financial freedom to concentrate fully on their studies.”

The law provides for the following regulations in detail

• Nursing students receive appropriate remuneration for the entire duration of their studies. At the same time, transitional regulations are intended to ensure that those who have started university nursing training based on the previous regulations also receive training allowance for the remaining period of study without having to reorganize their studies.

• The financing of the practical part of university nursing training should be integrated into the existing financing system for vocational nursing training. The university nursing training will be designed as a dual course of study and a training contract will also be provided in the future.

• Digitalization, gender medicine aspects and the possibility of stays abroad should be given greater consideration in nursing training.

• Recognition procedures for foreign nursing specialists will be standardized and simplified; in particular, the scope and required form of the documents to be submitted will be regulated by federal law. In addition, the possibility should be created to forego a comprehensive equivalence test in favor of a knowledge test or an adaptation course.

• Increase in children's sick days: The bill will increase children's sick days (per child and parent) from the regular 10 to 15 for 2024/2025.

• Simplified exchange rules for pharmacists: Pharmacies should be able to exchange medicines on the shortage list without consulting the health insurance companies. There should be no performance audit for this.

• In addition, the draft law further improves the legal framework for professional nursing training and adapts it to current developments, for example in the area of digitalization.

• In addition to the current job titles “nursing specialist” or “nursing specialist”, a gender-neutral job title “nursing specialist” can be chosen in the future. This also applies to people who already have permission to use the professional title.