No jobs for student nurses?

[EachandEveryone]

Have you experienced this? I can’t quote facts and figures I’m just hearing it from the horses mouth. I’m on the oncology ward being treated for the past two years. I am a nurse for twenty five years. I cannot believe the junior nurses or students qualifying that they can’t get the jobs they have trained for because the trusts have no vacancies as they’ve over employed from elsewhere spending millions. They got their numbers wrong, one fantastic student told me two thousand nurses qualify a year in London alone and there is nothing only bank. When I qualified we had the pick of jobs everyone wanted us. I feel so sad it’s such a waste.

like I said I know nothing outside of what I’m hearing on the wards I’m getting my excellent care from.

has anyone got any newly qualified nurses in their family? Is it better outside London?

There's the problem. ICBs and NHSE regional teams being told to sort this out.....after Wes Streeting has told ICBs to make cuts of 40% to it's workforce and NHSE is being abolished. It's complete chaos (even more so than usual) and the blame lies with the Government. I speak as a life long Labour supporter and a NHSE employee.

It’s 100% true. I’m a lecturer and it’s a total mess. Plenty of student nurses and midwives who have been without a job for over a year. Local trusts are on a recruitment freeze and when they do get permission to advertise a limited number of say 5 posts they get 400 applications and shut the advert down early.

im not sure how trusts can be forced to take on those they’ve trained. For a start not everyone wants to stay where they were a student. Secondly the trust will have specific students they will pass but don’t want to employ (ie they’re always late or going off sick).

How can a trust know how many vacancies they will have over 3 years down the line? We start recruitment a year before training starts, then at least 3 years training on top so 4 years really. A workforce can change a lot in that time with people leaving, etc.

And our local trusts are saying they are having a recruitment freeze because in real terms they have less funding this year than last year. So how can Wes Streeting reduce funding but tell trusts to take on more staff who they may not currently need?

And my paramedic lecturer colleagues say it’s beginning to be the same story there.

i agree it’s been an issue in the past….i qualified 20 years ago and it was a struggle then. These things seem to happen in cycles.

Number of applications for courses is plummeting and I do wonder if that’s partly due to a lot of chatter on social media about lack of jobs. So if that trend continues we will have the opposite problem in a few years. There won’t be enough newly qualified staff looking for jobs and the Trusts will be in a total mess.

It should be free to study to become a nurse or an HCP. Or an auxiliary etc. Then you have to do two years or whatever in the NHS or you pay back your fees.

The world needs nurses.

There are no midwifery posts anywhere for students qualifying. Our trust spent thousands on recruiting midwives from overseas and training them up to UK standards instead

The problem is though that in many trusts you can’t bank until you’ve had experience, with us it was 12 months qualified after completing your preceptorship.

its very sad, I’m 3 years qualified and burnt out from the ward I work on but there literally is no jobs anywhere else so I kind of feel lucky to have a job, despite the unsafe staffing levels everyday. I know of a nurse that qualified a year and a half ago and has only just been able to secure a job!

We have recruited nurses and midwives internationally to plug the gap so to speak. Taking into account the additional training to NMC level, staff sickness, maternity leave and now, international nurses/ midwives taking maternity leave it leaves gaps in staffing that cannot be offered to vacancy as they are actually filled despite being short staffed!!

Why are we saving positions for overseas applicants? Doesn't make any sense.

I'm in the midlands near to a large hospital, with friends in the current group of graduates, and none of the adult nurses got positions.

I have heard the same thing, I just don’t understand it. Some of the wards at my local hospital seem to be staffed by mainly overseas staff, some of whom seem to have a poor grasp of English. It makes no sense.

It's very sad indeed, for all health and medical jobs. I know many people who through the years have been made redundant from the private sector or returning to work and switched to health careers, often later in life, as it was seen as a "guaranteed and safe job". Especially in the days before degrees and tuition fees were a thing for many health careers and could be quite easy, compared to latter years, to get trained up in roles.

The government can say what it wants, but that doesn't necessarily happen. Take the introduction of Band 4 Nursing Associates, they are meant to be increasing the numbers over the years by tens of thousands, yet many Trusts don't have a defined job description or know what to do with this post, never mind have vacancies for them, and there seems to be no apprenticeships even for these, or similar roles as there once was.

It is all a mess. Hoping that it blows over, how long can it last??

It’s ludicrous that nurses (and doctors, come to that) who trained here are effectively being forced overseas, to Australia. Whilst at the same, the NHS recruits vast numbers of overseas staff. It’s a scandal and I don’t understand why more attention isn’t being paid to it.

Neither do I it’s a scandal really. Should be on the news. Those that are saying they are going to Australia that’s not true the Australians wouldn’t touch a newly qualified nurse.

It’s not strictly true that trusts have used their money on international recruitment! I’m a senior sister in the NHS at a major London teaching hospital which is heavily in deficit, so jobs are being frozen, staffing establishments are being reviewed and reduced through natural wastage. This is not unique to this trust it’s being replicated across the country as ,ost trusts are in a similar situation. My local hospital is reducing staffing across the board by 13%, nursing is no longer a job for life!

The reason the recruit doctor’s internationally is there is a lack of uk trained doctors who once they have done their foundation they go overseas for a better work life balance! I work with many international doctors and they are all generally fabulous!
any way if the vile Farage wins the next election, you won’t need to worry about international doctors and nurses, they’ll all leave, the nhs will collapse and give Farage his excuse to privatise the whole system!

Not sure about the other roles but our trust is crying out for ODPs. We constantly have more than enough nurses but not enough anaesthetic trained staff, which also means our ODPs are deskilling as the opportunity to scrub just isn’t there.

Oh I completely agree some IMGs are amazing and its nothing personal as lots of colleagues. However in Australia for example it is made very clear in recruitment and further training applications/jobs, we will only be considered if not enough Australian drs to take jobs (which is understandable), its a shame British doctors dont have that protection in our own country.

British doctors have always gone to Australia/NZ but its getting worse. I went for few years after F2 then returned to UK with plans to stay here but with lack of jobs its on my radar again as mnow my contract ends in few months & limited GP jobs here now. I personally know several drs who weren't planning to go abroad though but feel they cant live in UK without a job and applied for numerous with no luck so feel like being forced to leave nhs.

Its difficult solution for everyone and tbh government is to blame.... they are now putting both British drs and IMGs out of work (some imgs have done exams visas etc with costs to get here too then struggle to find work too so not fair on them either). They should prioritise British drs / imgs in the country already and hault/stop lying to future recruitment of international drs promoting jobs that don't exist. Government gets money from their recruitment /visas though so they dont care !!

When I qualified as a nurse 30 years ago it was like this. 100 of us qualified and only 20 had jobs. Slim pickings.

There isn't the skill mix that there used to be due to retention issues.

Starting a labour ward shift where every other member is NQ or otherwise inexperienced or agency! The only experienced members of midwifery staff are the coordinator and you and the coordinator has to take a woman in active labour. So you're looking after your very high risk woman and youre supporting junior members of staff with their also high risk women. Youre using senior students to bridge the gap.

If you do not employ those NQs, they aren't there to put them on the rota.

I think the news is ‘too full’ at the moment so lots of domestic things aren’t getting attention at the moment.

It’s a well enough known issue that it’s a rumbling background storyline in the Archers though. Ben Archer has just qualified and is currently working in a care home as he can’t get a job.

hardly any OT jobs let alone for those who have had a long career. I’m down south and there are no jobs in 3 trusts in close to. Barely any senior let alone band 5 and if they are there internal.

same for Salt most nhs trusts are on. Recruitment freeze

I think that 'retire and return' has something to do with this. People are retiring and then returning on the same banding they left on, often at quite reduced hours. Then, because of this, no one is able to progress into the higher bands and there are no entry level posts to fill. It feels like there is very little development for Band 5s at the moment, and I really sympathise with these NQ nurses who are raring to get into the workplace.

A lad I know graduated with a first class BSc in physio, from a good uni. He has applied for dozens of jobs on spec... All have told him there's a recruitment freeze....

Meanwhile locally we are desperately short of physios and unless someone is massively struggling physio doesnt seem to be offered routinely post surgery in community.

Such a massive waste of talent.

where I work there is a recruitment freeze. We did recruit over 150 nqn. But not everyone in the courses got a job.

been told by government to cut costs and workforce is an easy way to do this. They are looking at management roles and those people who do the back room stuff like education, support and training. What happens to staff development if they go? Sickness ids high, patients acuity high etc.

it’s all coming from saving money. Interesting to know if the money saved from the ICBs and NHSE will go to frontline staff. Apparently according to our chief nurse of England there are enough jobs. Where I would like to know b