Does the difficulty with getting nursing jobs mean there is no point in young people doing nursing degrees?

[SqueakyC13an]

Just that really

But there are over 6000 nursing roles currently being advertised on NHS Jobs, so there is funding, maybe not at your trust, but no post will be advertised on NHS Jobs unless there's is funding for it.

It depends on the branch of nursing. In mental health nursing there’s desperate shortages. Every single student mental health nurse I know has got the first job they applied for-and it’s only March, they won’t be working till September. This is in the South East.

@Startingoverandover how many of them are band 5 full time jobs?

Op I'd say this is a perennial problem with NHS jobs - there are funding squeezes and recruitment freezes at times. I'm an AHP and had to work as a TA for two terms before getting a band 5 job. But it was still 100% worth doing my degree - ive worked in that role now for 13 years. I find it odd tbh that anyone doing any course assumes that everyone will walk straight into the right job as soon as they graduate.

Well if you search 'band 5 nurse', actually 9,511 results come up, I'm not going to search through each post to see how many are full time though

I’m an AHP and we’re chronically understaffed, yet every year our budget is cut. Also if anyone leaves their position is closed. We’ve just merged with another trust and have been told we’ll all have to apply for our own jobs as part of the restructuring- this will involve reducing the number of senior positions so those with 20+ years service have a strong chance of only being offered a basic grade position! We all have rent/mortgages and children to pay for. It’s all such a slap in the face after years of dedicating our lives to trying to and help others 😭

Out of the 6000 jobs, have you looked how many are band 5 roles? Permanent full time contracts?

I know people don’t want to beleive it, but I can assure you we have 100’s of competent nurses (in the north west as least!) who cannot find paid permanent band 5 contracts within the NHS. It’s sadly a daily discussion with our lovely hard working students who are very disappointed.

Nurse here. We have vacancies all over the trust. I’m in Nottingham. She will be able to get a job. Encourage her, it’s the best job in the world.

9511 b5 jobs across the NHS??? You think that’s ALOT of jobs. There are approx 465 nurses qualifying from ONE local university alone in April. Another batch in September. So roughly 1000 nurses qualifying a year from ONE uni.

I think it’s wonderful that there are nurses out there who still think this! Like most people, I am so grateful for the amazing NHS nurses and the work they do, especially as I would absolutely hate it (I can’t stand being around sick people, or bright lights, or effluent, plus I’m an awkward autistic blighter!) Thank God there are people like you out there!

A lot of trusts have a recruitment freeze. There are soon to qualify student midwives who can't find band 5 preceptorship positions, whereas in previous years they have a job lined up for months in advance.
My trust has also drastically cut bank cover, meaning shifts are operating on bare minimum all of the time. It's not sustainable. People will go off on long term sick or leave altogether.

Where did I say 'a lot'? I just pointed out there are thousands of nursing posts currently out to advert, so some trusts are recruiting.

Retention of nursing staff has to be taken into account as well. Around 25k (or more) nurses leave the NMC register each year.

My dd and all of hee friends have just secured jobs when they qualify as children's nurses in summer. It's a large university hospital though, don't know if that makes a difference?

25k leaving a year and only 9k jobs… go figure!

I thought the NHS was crying out for qualified nurses?

They are, the whole of the nhs is chronically understaffed. But, there is not a dime to pay them so we can’t recruit into posts!

Er, the 9000 jobs are a snapshot of vacant nursing posts being advertised today, not the sum total for the whole year....

I mean, you say that but I have 100 band 5 nurses in my team and they all live in London.

Its just lack of experience. There is still lots NQN can't do. Busy departments such as a and e can't deal with such lack of experience. They don't like hiring experienced nurses from areas such as rehabilitation and care homes as the skill set is so different plus pace is. Difficult but just keep trying and eventually a career will take off.

So are you saying there are plenty of jobs and these nurses aren’t looking hard enough?

This is something I’m really passionate about. I love my job and spend hours teaching and moulding excellent dedicated nurses that have spent thousands of pounds to get their nursing degree. Alongside this, they’ve worked bloody hard for 37.5 hours a week, nights/weekends/bank holidays, often plugging the humongous staffing gap. They then have just as much course work as a normal degree to complete alongside full time work. They are invaluable. All that to be told there are no permanent jobs. I’m gutted for them.

I suppose if you don’t work in the nhs, specifically health care, you really will not understand nor appreciate the slog of the nursing degree. In addition, the implications of not practicing regularly (quickly de-skilling and losing confidence in a technical role) If you don’t manage to practice enough hours you lose your PIN anyway.

Im so glad that in other parts of the country jobs are available. But in this area there are not and these student nurses do not want to move. Keep in mind that many student nurses are mature with families.

It’s a travesty that is not reported on enough!

@Pippa12 Are you an adult nurse? I do think it’s easier in the more specialist branches… inpatient MH can’t recruit for love nor money tbh.

Adult nurse branch- but there are no jobs at all. My trust have 2 band 5 jobs advertised at present, one adult bank, the other paediatric bank- both not open to NQN. It was the same for the September 24 intake. It’s a dire situation. It’s frustrating as there are many units understaffed!

This is ABSOLUTELY not the case in most parts of the UK. My daughter is about to graduate as a nurse and the vacancies are very scarce, and hence hundreds apply for each one. Many who graduated last year are still working in coffee shops etc. It’s dire. Whatever your thoughts on it, it’s a stone cold fact that there has been very heavy recruitment of nurses from developing countries in recent years. That has greatly stymied newly qualified nurses who then have no opportunity to get required experience. It’s a catch 22 for them.

In addition to this many trusts have hiring freezes due to lack of funds. This means that existing nurses burn out much faster - and leave - as they are having to cope in very understaffed workplaces

A+E (in paeds at least) often recruit newly qualified now. Or at least advertise for them!

And of those a tiny percentage are open to newly-qualified nurses

You’re obviously not a current third year student trying to find a job. Things are massively different to even 2 years ago