Nursing degree disaster

[Rye0179]

AIBU to feel really fed up and disheartened?

I’m about to qualify as a registered mental health nurse. One of the main reasons I chose this degree was because I was told it offered strong job prospects. Even during my initial nursing interview, I asked about employability and was reassured I’d have plenty of options to choose from.

But now that I’ve started looking for jobs, there’s absolutely nothing out there. Not a single position I can apply for. All the Band 5 RMN jobs require someone with experience and post-preceptorship, someone who’s already worked in the role.

I’m feeling really disheartened. After completing 2,300 unpaid clinical hours and working hard to maintain good grades (around 75% overall), it looks like I might finish qualified but unemployed. Even more frustrating is that areas are not staffed well, but trusts have hiring freezes due to budgets and have apparently over recruited international nurses, leaving those who have trained here struggling for jobs.

Does anyone have any advice or suggestions for alternative career paths where nursing skills might transfer well?

No.
Totally different degree and focus.

The NHS is in need of staff but it’s not spending money on them. Meanwhile the managers are still trotting over to India to recruit international nurses! It’s absolutely awful! These things come in cycles. Can you widen your search geographically? Can you attend recruitment events? This will shift in time but this year it’s crap.

You’d be surprised how many social care organisations are desperate for RMNs - agree with the poster who said try Cygnet, Exemplar, etc. Community Care jobs board might also be a good place to look.

Trusts near me seem to be recruiting a lot of Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners at the moment. I don’t know much about what those roles entail but may be worth a look?

Wishing you all the best for your search!

@x2boys @Paganpentacle
I asked about the general, adult nursing, because I have colleagues who work in a sector/ward which isn't their specific degree.

1 is a paediatric nurse that works in a mixed adult/paed A&E. The paeds area is just 1 bay, but she also works in the adult bays, triage etc. The other is an adult trained nurse who works on a paeds ward. I was told that as long as there are X amount of paeds trained nurses on shift, then its fine. This may be different for MH nursing though, hence I asked.

It'll make them aware of the issue a little more than they might be now.

The nonsense going on with recruitment of UK trained staff is really outrageous.

You have up to 5 years after qualifying to apply for your pin so you can delay it to work as HCA until more nursing jobs start coming up in your area. As others have said though, I’d look at jobs outside the NHS. I agree that NHS hiring procedure is ridiculous. They’re so understaffed yet not hiring and whilst they are wasting money on agency staff all the unemployed qualified nurses are retraining as something else.

Some trusts (ours included) are only just/haven't quite yet gone out to advert for preceptorship posts for NQN's. I'd be proactive. Call every preceptorship/education team in every trust that you could realistically work in and make enquiries directly with them. There are certainly less jobs, but they are still out there and candidates are going to have to be assertive and manage the experience themselves, rather than wait for employers to knock at the door like in previous times. Good luck OP, you will get something I'm sure. As others have said, think widely. Private sector can be an excellent staring point. Do you have any prisons in your area? They often need RMN's and a brilliant place to really develop skills. Alternatively, lots of public health roles out there that you might have the skill set for

I actually had a placement in a private hospital who have informed me they’re not hiring at the moment and have a list of NQN’s wanting to work there

Yes I’m happy to travel up to 1-2h - I drive so took this into account while searching, I have cast the net wide! I can’t relocate for a role as I have DC in school, and have a secure council property I would have to give up

Look for roles within substance misuse with Change Grow Live we have services across the country. We always welcome newly qualified nurses from any discipline.

Thanks for this - I will be proactive and try and contact some education teams for info. I have a prison ~45 minutes away and they had a vacancy a while ago but it required prison experience. I’m happy to work privately or in a different setting, I’m not stuck on working for the NHS - I have looked at the priory, community teams, other private hospitals, and agencies but no luck yet. The agencies I’ve looked at require you to have completed your preceptorship before joining

Yes I don’t really understand the logic - loads of nurses who train here who are really struggling to find work. I understand the need for international recruitment when roles cannot be filled, but that doesn’t seem to be the case at the moment

In several of my MH placements a large % of new staff are international general nurses. It seems nonsensical to offer a specialist mental health nursing degree in the UK but employ general adult nurses from abroad to fill the roles. I feel like I’m missing the point!

Thanks for this - going to look this up today!

From my understanding MH nurses can’t go into general wards easily - the reverse seems easier. I think because I’ve had pretty much sole focus on mental health, and no placements on general medical wards, so I haven’t had the appropriate training

It's a totally different skill set i used to be an RMN
I only have a very basic knowledge of adult nursing ,and that's from a couple of placement, s during my nurse training 30+ years ago
I imagine it's the same for adult nurses
Back in the day some nurses used to be doubly registered ,and held both qualifications but that's not a thing any more. ( or wasn't when I was still a nurse)

I qualified just as a recruitment freeze was put in place for the NHS back in the 80s. It was short lived - about 6-8 months IIRC, but it really messed up a lot of people's plans.

Can you move areas ? I agree with others apply anyway and sign up for Bank and agency shifts as that get you known and don't just think NHS - you've paid for your degree (Or more correctly - will be paying for your degree) - you owe the NHS nothing.

Good luck

https://www.changegrowlive.org/careers-volunteering/careers

And in support of the other poster, CGL are a great organisation to work for. So much to learn in that sector

I qualified 20 years ago as a midwife and there was a recruitment freeze then. Took me 6 months to find a job but I did find one.

Maybe the 3% nhs increase Reeves has just announced will help Trusts be able to recruit more?

I do agree that recruiting international nurses while allowing students to be unemployed at the end of their degree is wrong. Problem is this is starting to hit social media big time and people are pulling out of degree courses for Sept. Give it a few years and there will too many vacancies, nobody available to fill them with and no students coming through.

The NMC say you can work as a hcsw btw with a PIN. But yes I know some trusts don't like it but maybe that's where as a MH nurse you could potentially say well it's not a conflict as you're not an adult nurse????

I worked in a call centre for months while job hunting.

I know a NQ MW in the same situation. It's ridiculous. Not like anywhere is overstaffed!

I'm so sorry that's awful. I had to start in nursing homes when I first qualified. It was experience and money. I got a good job a couple of years later.

I’m in the exact same position basically, though in Scotland.

qualified as an adult nurse July last year but didn’t take a ‘newly qualified’ post straight from uni as I was having my baby in September, they were so short and had so many vacancies that I thought it would be fine just reapply with the uni graduates this year. Interviewed for it and it went so well I was so confident but got reserve listed, there’s just no jobs anywhere.

I will probably keep applying for everything til about end of July and then take a care home job if nothing else sticks. They’ll take newly qualified and it wont be forever, just to get some experience. It wont count for any banding increments etc with nhs but it’s better than nothing.

Many Trusts, including mine, are currently running the voluntary resignation scheme that comes up periodically when they're trying to get rid of older, more expensive staff so there may be jobs in the not too distant future, just not now. Even agency work has dried up, as my partner has found to both our costs.

There's plenty of work, just no money to actually pay for staff, and if course we're all waiting to see how Wes Streeting is going to restructure the NHS so his GP mates can get wealthier. I'm inside the system and I often wonder what the hell the NHS is spending its money on - although given the trust I work at has one of the best paid medical directors in the country - more than the CEO or even the Prime Minister - there's at least a partial answer.

Keep an eye on what's happening in primary care also, and good luck.

That’s interesting.

I suppose part of the reason I’m so worried is that more and more nurses are graduating over time so it seems like the number of unemployed nurses looking for work is just going to increase over time. This time next year there will be the year below me graduating, I’m not even confident I will have secured a nursing role by that point.

Pretty much all of the students in my cohort are having the same problem too.

It will be interesting to see how the NHS changes impact things!

I’m sorry to hear you’re having the same problem. It’s surprising how quickly the job market seems to have shifted!

I haven’t done care home work before, but I have worked with the elderly so open to it. It’s not the area I wanted to go into, but better than unemployment.