Australia recruiting in the UK for nurses, etc

[idonotmind]

Not sure it's been discussed on here yet:

metro.co.uk/2023/02/16/london-australia-to-tempt-nurses-and-teachers-to-move-down-under-18293594/

Anyone tempted? I would be if I was a UK nurse, teacher etc

North of the river - it is beautiful .
we are not nurses but partner has a trade and we had what would be considered an easy ride to visas.

I have never regretted are decision for a minute and generally v happy day to day.
I get the odd wave of home sickness but it passes and I actually surprised myself how well I coped as for some it is a struggle (which I understand)

It's 3-5 years after specialisation. So 5-6 years of medical school, internship, minimum 6 years postgraduate training for non GPs. Most people will do additional years - postgraduate degrees, repeat exams, change training programs, mat leave.

This means that people take on an obligation at 17 that comes into effect in their late 20s /early 30s. At that stage, they might have young children or be partnered with someone with a city- based job. Things that really weren't on the radar at 17.

I don’t know why you aren’t forced to work in the NHS for a decade or something after you leave uni.

You want to make a career as a nurse even less desirable than it already is?

While training, nurses are already effectively working free of charge. That nursing degree is paid for by the time the ink is dry. And the training could be anywhere in the county and it could be night shifts. Tell someone they'll be locked in for a decade (6 years longer than the Army requires?), and the government will end up putting Universal Credit claimants on the wards to make up the shortfall.

This. God knows why it’s making headlines now. My aunt went to Australia as a MH nurse 20 years ago. It’s nothing new..

Student nurses are paying tens of thousands of £s to train so no, its not right to force them to work in the NHS for a set period.

I believe tuition fees are now covered by bursary, but maybe not in all cases.

They pay exactly the same as anyone else i.e £9250 plus mtce loan of approx 6 to 8k... the Govt then gives 5k per year, which does not increase at all.

It was actually quite clever of the govt, paying 5k and calling it a bursary.. when its nothing of the sort.

Remember also loan thresholds are frozen and interest rates are 5% and repayable over 35 years, 1st year nurses start paying back immediately.

Have people forgotten how they behaved during Covid.

OK we couldn't travel in WA and that was hard but we barely had any lockdown? At all??
so not all bad.......

I'm a student nurse. Fees are over 9k a year for my course, to say nothing of the fortune it actually costs me to attend placement and work like a dog for free. No way on earth would I do it if I was going to be tied into the NHS for years, where I work is my choice!

It's not a particularly bizarre law. Lots of countries don't allow dual citizenship (or only allow it in specific circumstances). Why on earth would you apply for citizenship of another nation without checking that your original country is OK with that?

Doctors pay in England has declined so much that we are unable to attract or recruit doctors, or even retain our own doctors.

why don’t we actually just pay them a proper wage?

Forcing them to work 5 years in the nhs is just going to make students study abroad elsewhere. We’re already fleecing future doctors with over £100,000 of student debt.

Australia are offering them triple the salary of course they’re going to leave

So you want people to get into huge amounts of debt and then be tied to the NHS for years?

Yeah I can see that will work well as a recruitment strategy when they are already short staffed & need to be encouraging people to sign up and take on the debt.

Don’t you find this totally ridiculous given their skill set…..

Who behaved during covid? The UK medical staff working stupid amounts of unpaid overtime? Or the Australian medical staff that had a relatively cruisy time due to decent border control?

This isn’t new. My db is a dr and is constantly getting recruitment letters from agencies offering him jobs in Australia, far east and Canada. He also spends a lot of time himself trying to recruit doctors from India to staff his services here. Goes both ways.

Er yes they do.
All doctors work for the NHS after training, you cant so private work until you’re a consultant or GP so likely 10 years. If people want to quit medicine and do something else how the fuck are you going to make someone do a job they want or not leave the country? Surely the answer is better pay and working conditions here?

Nope, as my friend cried and was exhausted at all the death he saw. Then we went to his funeral for covid related medical issues. Fucking horrific. No I dont think anyone forgot the hours and torment they were put through to keep people alive and how many have quit from burn out since. HTH.

There is no amount of money that could tempt me to live in Australia. No offence to any Aussies but it’s just too far away from anywhere else. That’s the main reason for me.

I also think the climate in some areas wouldn’t suit me, I’m not a fan of extreme and/or prolonged heat and sunshine, more of a winter person. It’s not somewhere I’ve ever been be interested to visit, let alone live.

What is it that made you want to go into nursing? Genuine question.

@Meandfour I wanted a career when I could be in an interesting, challenging environment with good opportunities. I like working with people and the old cliche of I enjoy helping them and I care very much about making a difference. I wanted to be challenged and pushed a bit.
It's a very undulating road as a student - it depends very much on the placement as how good an experience it can be. There is so much to enjoy about it but it is undeniable tricky to manage sometimes.

Have you had better placements than others? It definitely sounds tough and good on you for going ahead with a choice that is far from appealing for many right now. We need more like you! Good luck with the rest of your course.

@Meandfour my first ever placement was horrific, I used to drive home in bits every night. The staff didn't want students on the ward. For experience at first you are with a HCA to learn the routines and the personal care which is good, but they replace a regular hca with you. The HCAs normally split up and work separately, but student nurses can't in year one, we aren't allowed too which obviously slowed them down dramatically and they hated us. It gets better as you go along and get more useful. I have questioned it many times tbh and I still do! But you get the odd experience which is just incredible. Mine was at an urgent treatment centre, staffed entirely by advanced practitioners and they were completely invested in giving me the best learning experience I could have. They were wonderful and i will never forget them.
Hopefully I'll find my niche! 😂

This is exactly what happens to some international recruits. And it’s just one of the reasons why so many Filipino nurses died during COVID, despite being medically vulnerable themselves, too scared to not go in and do the shifts because of the consequences to them, and not just of COVID.
www.theguardian.com/society/2022/mar/27/overseas-nurses-in-the-uk-forced-to-pay-out-thousands-if-they-want-to-quit-jobs

I think the best solution for doctors, nurses and teachers would be to write off a proportion (or certain amount) of their student loans every year that they stay in the NHS or a state-funded school. Then after 5 or 10 years they would have repaid the whole loan. That would encourage doctors, nurses and teachers to stay, rather than forcing them to.

How does that provide any incentive ? If they leave they don’t have to pay their student loan back anyways