OP, thank you for getting back. Unless she really really wanted to be a doctor she has made the right decision.
DD leaves for Australia this week. Her friend left last month. Both would have preferred to stay but they have no choice.
I am quoting Tigerbalmshark as her experience is so very different from DDs.
Last August DD and her friend were two of the 50% of F2s without jobs to go to, so joined the vast army of locums, so many that NHS bank did not bother to process her application. Both, after a few weeks without shifts, found work via a private agency. (The advice there was to hang on in. By September some of the staff recruited from overseas would start quitting, and they would get their chance.) Private agencies are used for jobs NHS bank can fill, ie less popular or more remote or both. With no money coming in neither dared turn down work they were offered, and though both were retained for six months, neither job was tenable in the longer term.
DD's friend was bored stiff essentially writing discharge letters in a community hospital. She quit as soon as her Australian job/visa were confirmed
DD was at the other end of the scale, covering for an associate specialist working alongside a part timer but on her own 50% of the time. She had 25 very sick patients, half a dozen F1s to supervise, and a great team of nurses to support her. The sort of job where, if you are lucky, you get to grab some lunch at 3.00pm. No immediate collegiate support, though consultants elsewhere in the hospital understood and were helpful, even if they were bemused at their previous year's F2 attempting consultant-to-consultant referrals.
The statistics are that 50% of this patient group will die within 12 months. Small errors can be catastrophic. (Even within the last month DD spotted a potentially fatal error by an F1 not paying sufficient attention during a ward round, whilst a couple of others made overnight, were caught by the daytime nursing staff.) The penalties for getting something wrong can be huge. Her job also carried the pressure of regularly discussing DNRs with distressed relatives with the inevitable emotional fall out.
Probably because of the availability of experienced staff from overseas willing to apply for jobs at the bottom of the scale, as well as newly qualified doctors emerging from F2 and those (UK and IMG) coming to the end of fixed term contracts there is a large pool of doctors either experiencing pay erosion and no obvious career progression, or under/unemployed. The NHS is saving money but at the expense of a group of frustrated and increasingly unmotivated staff.
A pay increase is effectively treating the symptom, not the disease. The problem is the lack of Resident priority when making hiring decisions. This would allow competent, well-qualified, F2s and other talented SHOs to apply for jobs which suit their ambitions with a reasonable hope of getting them. Trusts should also consider mentoring programmes for F2s, to help them in job search and also help Trusts make small tweaks that would help their recruitment. (For example it was decided to create a permanent F3 job where DD was working, to allow for more cover. If the job had been advertised with an August start date they would have had their pick of new F2s. Instead out of 50 applications only 2 were considered appointable, and a real fear that neither will take it.) There also really needs to be some sort of career path. Obviously not everyone can or wants to become a consultant, but it is not sensible to expect capable staff (UK or IMGs) to stay at entry level through a career.
Being a locum is tough. There is no pension, sick leave or other support. There is no training, which means DD is struggling as one of the F1 appraisals she needs to write is slightly problematic. It also meant that a friend who did her F1/F2 elsewhere cannot get locum work as they have not been trained on the computer system used by local Trusts. Those working as locums also don't have access to the NHS wider data which would allow them to use time without work to carry out audits to improve their chances of getting on training. Zero hours contracts mean it is difficult to take leave as you would need to be sure of your position to ask that the cover you provide is covered. Whilst the glut of underemployed doctors means locum rates are low. (An awful lot less per hour than I pay my plumber or car mechanic.)
The worst though is that there is no support. DD could not have stayed a day longer. She is pretty resilient but by the end of six months was absolutely burnt out. Though it was an active decision to put someone with only two years experience, albeit someone who knew the hospital, into the post, no one was checking up on her. Locums are temporary stand ins. You get kept on if you are good enough. If not you are sent home.
It will be interesting to see how a structured rotational contract in Australia compares. She plans to return, but unless things improve may not be able to face working for the NHS.