Nursing degree disaster

I know a NQ MW in the same situation. It's ridiculous. Not like anywhere is overstaffed!

I qualified 20 years ago as a midwife and there was a recruitment freeze then. Took me 6 months to find a job but I did find one.

Maybe the 3% nhs increase Reeves has just announced will help Trusts be able to recruit more?

I do agree that recruiting international nurses while allowing students to be unemployed at the end of their degree is wrong. Problem is this is starting to hit social media big time and people are pulling out of degree courses for Sept. Give it a few years and there will too many vacancies, nobody available to fill them with and no students coming through.

The NMC say you can work as a hcsw btw with a PIN. But yes I know some trusts don't like it but maybe that's where as a MH nurse you could potentially say well it's not a conflict as you're not an adult nurse????

I worked in a call centre for months while job hunting.

And in support of the other poster, CGL are a great organisation to work for. So much to learn in that sector

https://www.changegrowlive.org/careers-volunteering/careers

I qualified just as a recruitment freeze was put in place for the NHS back in the 80s. It was short lived - about 6-8 months IIRC, but it really messed up a lot of people's plans.

Can you move areas ? I agree with others apply anyway and sign up for Bank and agency shifts as that get you known and don't just think NHS - you've paid for your degree (Or more correctly - will be paying for your degree) - you owe the NHS nothing.

Good luck

It's a totally different skill set i used to be an RMN
I only have a very basic knowledge of adult nursing ,and that's from a couple of placement, s during my nurse training 30+ years ago
I imagine it's the same for adult nurses
Back in the day some nurses used to be doubly registered ,and held both qualifications but that's not a thing any more. ( or wasn't when I was still a nurse)

Look for roles within substance misuse with Change Grow Live we have services across the country. We always welcome newly qualified nurses from any discipline.

Some trusts (ours included) are only just/haven't quite yet gone out to advert for preceptorship posts for NQN's. I'd be proactive. Call every preceptorship/education team in every trust that you could realistically work in and make enquiries directly with them. There are certainly less jobs, but they are still out there and candidates are going to have to be assertive and manage the experience themselves, rather than wait for employers to knock at the door like in previous times. Good luck OP, you will get something I'm sure. As others have said, think widely. Private sector can be an excellent staring point. Do you have any prisons in your area? They often need RMN's and a brilliant place to really develop skills. Alternatively, lots of public health roles out there that you might have the skill set for

You have up to 5 years after qualifying to apply for your pin so you can delay it to work as HCA until more nursing jobs start coming up in your area. As others have said though, I’d look at jobs outside the NHS. I agree that NHS hiring procedure is ridiculous. They’re so understaffed yet not hiring and whilst they are wasting money on agency staff all the unemployed qualified nurses are retraining as something else.

It'll make them aware of the issue a little more than they might be now.

The nonsense going on with recruitment of UK trained staff is really outrageous.

@x2boys @Paganpentacle
I asked about the general, adult nursing, because I have colleagues who work in a sector/ward which isn't their specific degree.

1 is a paediatric nurse that works in a mixed adult/paed A&E. The paeds area is just 1 bay, but she also works in the adult bays, triage etc. The other is an adult trained nurse who works on a paeds ward. I was told that as long as there are X amount of paeds trained nurses on shift, then its fine. This may be different for MH nursing though, hence I asked.

You’d be surprised how many social care organisations are desperate for RMNs - agree with the poster who said try Cygnet, Exemplar, etc. Community Care jobs board might also be a good place to look.

Trusts near me seem to be recruiting a lot of Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners at the moment. I don’t know much about what those roles entail but may be worth a look?

Wishing you all the best for your search!

The NHS is in need of staff but it’s not spending money on them. Meanwhile the managers are still trotting over to India to recruit international nurses! It’s absolutely awful! These things come in cycles. Can you widen your search geographically? Can you attend recruitment events? This will shift in time but this year it’s crap.

No.
Totally different degree and focus.

Have you thought of applying to nursing homes: excellent experience to be gained in nurse led settings.
You won’t look back.

Whats he/she gonna do?
Create a vacancy?

The Op will be a trained mental health nurse it's a separate qualification to an adult nurse.

I'd assume the following would ask for experience too, but worth looking at other options too:

-Custody nurse within a police station
-Prison work
-Youth offenders services
-Clinical research
-Private hospitals with MN wards/services
-Homeless/asylum seeker services

I'm afraid I don't know enough about it, but could you apply for regular band 5 adult nursing roles, or does your degree just cover MH?

I would agree with a previous poster and say try the private sector. There will be hospitals near you