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

[SqueakyC13an]

Just that really

Just so wrong especially when we’ve got a massive housing crisis.

we need our young people in jobs and with hope for the future

You can't, so they haven't applied for a pin straight away in order to complete bank HCA shifts to earn some money until a newly qualified band 5 role becomes available.

My local trust, 50% of nursing staff are international nurses. Great they have filled the gap, and they don't get paid as much and work hard, however the trust also took on many cohorts of student nurse associates (apprenticeships) and have many student nurses on placement who as a result are not guaranteed jobs at the end as promised. So not DM at all.

What is especially frustrating is that an Asian nurse isn't qualified to the same standard as a UK one, they don't have 'similar' experience. The NHS is literally hiring recent grads from India and the Philippines for some 'more experienced' roles who have less practical experience than a student / grad nurse.

So frustrated. I have worked in nursing for years but the way the government has watered down standards in nursing just to avoid paying UK qualified nurses a fair wage is so disgusting.

Our trust has paused all external recruitment, others around us have too. So our students are not being offered jobs once they qualify

Are you a nurse? Are you studying nursing?
It sounds like neither.

There is a massive shortage of qualified nursing staff. Huge. Gigantic.

ICBs have frozen recruiting

For newly qualified? Where are these jobs being advertised?

First one that came up
www.bmj.com/healthcareers/job/678581/newly-qualified-staff-nurse/?utm_campaign=google_jobs_apply&utm_source=google_jobs_apply&utm_medium=organic

@nj32 what do you mean foreign nurses don't get paid as much? They get exactly the same AFC banding as everyone else.

It takes longer to go up the AFC scale, in my trust anyway. So band 5 goes up after a year for example, an international nurse has to wait 2 years for the same increment.

I’m a nursing lecturer. All the local trusts have a hiring freeze, there are no jobs in commuting distance. Many of our students are mature students with families here and can’t up sticks and go to London.

It’s even worse nationwide for midwifery students. There’s a few adverts about but at my local trusts they had 4 fte vacancies and something like 500 applicants. Many students who finished a year ago are still unemployed according to the fb groups I’m on. So now two years worth of students fighting for very limited jobs. People are worried they won’t get a job before it’s time to revalidate and they’ll be kicked off the register. Hopefully things improve.

And I know someone who was a hcsw, her trust “sponsored” her to do a nursing apprenticeship. No job at the end for her but her trust ave said she can go back to her hcsw position. What a waste. A lot of universities aren’t doing an apprenticeship intake this Sept as so many trusts have stopped funding for it.

i am sure it will improve
i wouldnt let it stop her

DD is a radiographer, qualified in 2018. Her student nursing friends at that time literally went to Open Days at their chosen hospital and picked where they wanted to work. DD had to apply to a few different trusts as a Radiographer but still got 3 offers. For several years after there was always band 5 jobs on NHs jobs with a “newly qualified” tag on them, open to new starters. These seem to have disappeared now. DD says there is currently hardly any budget to recruit so the vacancies are for experienced staff first if they can get them.

Blimey that's awful for them after all that hard work and dedication.

How long can they put off applying for their pin so they can continue to work as a HCA?

Well you need to revalidate every 3 years and demonstrate in that time you’ve worked I think 420 hours. So I assume they’d need to register at around the 2.5 year mark.

To be honest it’s not just healthcare sector that this is an issue. Dd is training to be an architect, after doing your first degree you have to do a part 1 job for a year before starting part 2 training. You can’t qualify as an architect until you’ve done your 3 parts. In her cohort of 55 finishers her and one other got a part 1 job. She knows so many of her old cohort who are working in shops and warehouses. She’s going to do part 2 training next but will have the same issue in 2 years of having to find a job for a year in order to complete her part 2 training. Otherwise it’s been for nothing.🤷‍♀️. She’s hoping it’ll be easier to find a part 2 job. All sorts of organisations are cutting back on staff.

Teaching is the same, requires post-qualification training, now of two years within 5 years of qualifying: and a lot depends on finding the right mentor to qualify you who will actually do their job. I remember when qualifications actually qualified you, and once acquired you had it for life. What’s the point now?

Meanwhile all these professions are short staffed and demoralised, whatever London government stats about productivity say. All wealth is tied up in unaffordable housing. I’ve been asking where this is going for over 20 years.