Newly quakified nurse already looking for another job

[EachandEveryone]

Im so sorry for my niece. Shes a great worker. Loves paediatric nursing has been qualified a year and works in picu level three. I also do the same job somewhere else. Im gutted that she wants to leave. Out of the six newly qualifieds four have already gone. She seems to be getting no support at all and is expected to do the work on a band 6. This is what shes saying but she wont be the first one to tell me this. They want her to do the course which will be a masters and I think this is brilliant except she will have to sign a contract to say she will give two years back or else have to pay for it. That kind of thing wouldnt worry me but at 21 it would. Part if me wants to tell her to crack on do the course and then look for a less intensive area. The other part of me wants to tell her to look elsewhere or leave the nhs. She wishes shed have done OT now. Is it to late.

weirdly Im in London and there are thousands of paediatric nursing jobs but where she is up North at a childrens hospital there doesnt seem to be any!

its nothing new to see newly qualified nurses not being mentored properly and it breaks my heart abit. We see thrm going off with stress all the time☹️

I dint remember ever feeling like this during my time. Ive loved nursing. Where did it go wrong?

I don't know where to start with this.
It's just such a mess and I could rant all day.
It really bothers me that governments don't take responsibility for the messes that they cause in the NHS / Civil Service. George Osborne is my biggest bugbear with his austerity policy. So many NHS/civil service contracts have been outsourced to contracts that benefit Tories. They've commoditised everything. What hope is there for our health and our healthcare workers and profit overrides everything?

Honestly it’s heartbreaking to see them so excited to be actually nursing after being in uni for three years (don’t get me started on that one) and the staff just not having any time for them after,

I'll try not to get you started! I might not stop....
I really worry about the future. Who is going to look after the population? The 'soft' skills - empathy, kindness, compassion, commitment can't be commoditised but are so significant in any healthcare setting.

Our newly qualified staff are already burnt out.

I have no idea about any of this except to say I was in hospital recently and it was horrific. I did get the impression the nurses were somehow being forced at gunpoint to do their jobs and couldn't work out how or why. They were rude, hostile, sadistic, and made so many dangerous errors on me alone - it wasn't personal to me - they could have killed me.

Then I spoke to a couple of women I know who are older nurses, found out the truth - most of the people I would have encountered are not qualified (it showed) and are on 'placement' or 'training', many are depending on holding the training placement down for their right to reside in the UK, having been actively recruited overseas, and half barely speak acceptable english (it showed). Then I found out qualified ones are locked into staying for x amount of time and are resentful (it showed). Also the 12 hours days, completely unacceptable.

It's not acceptable. We need to be up in arms about this. The NHS is one of the biggest employers in the UK. Staff are behaving dangerously and many are completely untrained and incompetent. Staff morale is rock bottom. Qualified people are leaving in droves. Patients are suffering, people are dying in barbaric circumstances.

We need to make this the next key election issue in the UK.

Actually I would say the nurses being recruited over seas are getting a lot more support than our newly qualified. Tbf to them they have a lot of experience in the Middle East etc and are very good nurses. I do wonder what carrot is dangled for them to come to our nhs especially London where the cost of living is horrific.

Brexit. That's one of the elephants in the room regarding the NHS.

Staying with an employer for 2 years in lieu of a paid qualification is very common, the fact she's being put forwards for it is impressive. You sound jaded by your career and perhaps clouding her judgment with your experiences. Be enthusiastic for her.

Also, the NHS has been quietly and surreptitiously privatised. It's like boiling a frog, the general public have been blind about it. When I think of the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony and the pride that was in the NHS and look at the state of it now......

Calling rubbish on this. Students on placement are supposed to be identifiable by a different uniform.

my experience too, sadly 😢

Oh, right, you're calling my life and death injurious barbaric experience 'rubbish' ... well I'm calling you a cunt.

And before I went in hospital do you imagine that someone explained me different nursing uniform codes?

DO you suppose inside the hospital there's charts on the wall indicating which colour nursing uniform shows who is qualified and who only got sent on a degree training placement three weeks after starting their course?

NO, there isn't. But believe me you, everyone urgently needs to know.

@EachandEveryone I don't know if you can edit your title but I actually read this post because I thought your friend had become a Quaker (seriously, not joking).

She could do lab tech and work up as she already has a degree in a related profession. She won't get the same pay and pensions though. But you gotta be happy in your job, you are there a long time.

Absolutely I’m over the moon for her! Masters level as well. It’s her that’s got the cold feet. Telling me she doesn’t feel supported in ITU the more senior ones sit on their phones and expect the juniors to crack on. She feels if she does the course she will never be out of the itu area. Of course I think she should just do it but it’s easy for me to say when I’m 25 years in it.

Lab tech wouldn’t be hands on enough for her. I’m trying to think as well.