What's it like to work in the NHS?

[LightSpeeds]

I currently work in the third sector and, after over a decade, am seriously considering a job change. My current job is administrative/client-focused.

I'm looking at jobs in the NHS and there are some really interesting admin roles that I seem (mostly) qualified to do. So apart from nursing and doctoring, what's it like working in the NHS? Has anyone ever been a ward clerk?

Wow big question, the NHS is absolutely huge and very diverse, it's not just hospitals and GPs, doctors and nurses, there are community trusts, mental health trusts, commissioning bodies, ambulance trusts, arms length bodies and so on, and there is a very large range of different roles and professions working within it both clinical and non clinical. And of course everyone's experience is different so you'll get people saying it's amazing and terrible and everywhere in between. Personally I would say it's a good place to work as an administrator, there's lots of variety and interest, scope for learning and progression (although you do have to choose jobs carefully, work hard and put yourself out there a bit), plus of course the opportunity to make a difference. Pay is average/poor compared to private sector but other terms/conditions such as annual leave, sick pay, pension are good, working hours can be long depending on the role but there often is good flexibility too.

Ward clerk is a tough one, one of the most 'frontline' admin roles you can get, very poorly paid (usually Band 2 or max Band 3), a bit of a mixture of quite boring routine admin work and data entry with tough stuff like dealing with upset patients/families or stroppy clinicians so you def need to be robust and patient as well as good computer skills and attention to detail etc and able to cope with stress. And you get the chance to make a real difference although of course it might not feel like it as you input the 100th admission summary of the day or whatever. It could be a good intro to the NHS although personally I'm not sure it's a job I could do long term...

Our ward Clark is the most indispensable person on the ward and is paid a pittance! She works far harder then any of us nurses!

I work for the nhs in a research role. Been there for 2 years after a long career in tv production. The money is terrible but does get better with guaranteed increments. The people are lovely and hard working and I work from home which I love. The work can be repetitive I manage an inbox but it's interesting looking at all the different trials and I felt really important during the height of the pandemic when work I was doing came up on the one o'clock news! It's been a good move for me.

I am not a ward clerk, but I have worked closely with them. You need to be organised and manage many many things at once. Good ward clerks are worth their weight in gold and they run the show! I have a few I remember dearly! When one particular one retired earlier this year there were personal cards left by the nurses, junior doctors, patients- she really was a huge part of the ward family. It involves working with lots of people; colleagues and patients/relatives too so you need to be a people person. Honestly I think you'll only know if it's for you if you try it. In a small friendly hospital it looked like a lovely job. It is busy though! Oh, and wards can really smell sometimes. Good luck!

Wrt working in the NHS itself. Expect busy shifts, terrible pay roll, never understanding your paycheck. Sometimes terrible decisions by management. Patients can be bonkers. Some very sad stories too. Lots of very confused elderly patients that will wander around some wards. Paying for parking I really resent. Otherwise I enjoy it!!

I genuinely cannot discourage you from working from the NHS enough.

Just imagine everything is on fire and lots of screaming but you’re sat at your desk trying to work.

No respect for staff whatsoever. Patronising, inexperienced managers. No break or a five minute one if you think you might pass out. It does vary trust to trust, I’m in the north.

Well I’m pleased I’ve just applied for an admin job in the NHS

Tbf it’s a small, local hospital and it’s a more back office type role. I don’t think I’d be cut out to manage a busy ward in a big bustling hospital.

I worked for the NHS and a couple of branch offs for over 15 years I seriously discourage you. Avoid at all costs for your mental health and well-being.
Pretty much as @Wavypurple says I’m afraid, no fluffy unicorns.

Oh just to add I’m also in the north !

I’ve just been offered an interview for the nhs admin job I applied for

Well I've worked in the NHS in admin for 3 years and I love it!

Moved to the NHS a year ago and don't recognise the majority of the complaints here. I agree with poor management and generally disjointed procedures, but overall it's been almost relaxing in comparison to my previous role in the community. Fairly flexible working, mainly from home and overtime/enhanced pay opportunities for weekend working.

And the holidays and pension are fantastic compared to the statutory minimum I was getting before.

This is just my experience, and will be very different to someone else such as a nurse who's working night shifts on a ward. I'm just trying to say that the NHS is so large that everyone will have different experiences depending on their role/location/team.

Busy!

Worked in both.
Charity sector is more pleasant. In the NHS I was referred to as my band number, not even my name.

Never again.

Being a ward clerk, you need to be an expert at multi tasking and filtering through multiple requests, prioritizing, answering phones and passing on messages, all at the same time😀

It’s a multi faceted job, I am in constant awe of one of our ward clerks, she manages to get what the clinical staff know before they know and will take on many, many requests without visible stress. She is also very discreet and has excellent professional boundaries.

It’s an interesting job I think. You do a lot for not much pay though.

I’m clinical so no direct experience of the workload.

I spent 3 months as Rota Co-ordinator in the NHS and couldn't have lasted any longer. So many people are off sick with stress, really bad management and the pay is very low for the responsibility.

It depends so much on each trust. Some are great, some not so bad, some total shit. Just like other employers. The NHS is a big brand with hundreds of different employers operating under it.

My mum has been a ward/clinic clerk for 32 years and has absolutely loved every minute of it. 65 but to plans to retire yet. She loves the busyness, the pressure, working with a real variety of people but most of all, the patients.

I've got an interview for an NHS admin job on Monday! It's just at a small local hospital so it probably won't be as frantic, but if I eventually moved to the big hospital that would probably change!

Never been a ward clerk but currently a senior support administrator for a large NHS team. It’s busy but boring imo. I’m paid decently considering what I do but as others have said you need to be very organised as you will have you daily tasks with things thrown as you constantly. Moody management who expect miracles and some staff who try and use you as their personal skivvy.

Worked in a variety of band 2, 3 and 4 jobs. Never as a ward clark but did cover a few times when the ward clark was on leave. It can be cliquey. Doctors (especially consultants and higher up "junior" doctors - reg's etc) can be almost hilariously rude. Occasionally there will be a consultant who everyone's literally scared of but nobody does anything. It is very hard to get fired once you're past your probationary period.
There was barely any socialising in most of the places I worked (one didn't even have an xmas do) although at one there was monthly drinks in the pub. There are some odd eggs who have worked there for ages and are really eccentric and / or stuck in their ways. Especially in medical records and other non-patient-facing roles.

I think the massive disparity in pay can make it a weird working environment: on the one hand everyone is working for this amazing institution, our beloved NHS 🌈 on the other you have HCAs and receptionists on less than 20 grand a year working symbiotically with consultants on 6-figure salaries (and doubling their salaries if they had private patients) who get mad and yell at them if they make a little. It felt like Downton Abbey at times. Some of the med secs were really deferential to the doctors calling them Dr X or Mrs Y when the doctor they worked for would call them their first name. Occasionally there would be a very nice doctor who would allow you to call them by their first name.

Oh also in my experience the lower grade admin roles were almost all done by women. It is a very female heavy workforce. And it is a very multicultural and diverse place to work (at least where I was in the South near London) which is really lovely!

It's awful.

I work in a NHS admin role. Min wage. We do way more than what our job is advertised and we should be paid a lot more. There's so many pressures from all directions. Everything falls onto the admin team. Wouldn't recommend getting into the NHS now to any of my friends or family.

I worked for in 2019 as NHS Business intelligence analyst.

Hmmmm...

People in my usual industry complain about our poor IT set up -- they have no idea. IT integration & ease of use is Anteluvian in NHS. I never got my NHS laptop to go online at main other NHS site where I had regular meetings (firewalled). So needed copies of all meeting documents on our hard-drives Couldn't make it up. You couldn't do a Powerpoint presentation at any of the ... 5? NHS sites we regularly worked, tech was there but somehow didn't work in any of the many meeting rooms. Commissioners used paper copies for meetings because laptops were too unreliable. I wonder if covid finally meant TEAMS started working for all.

I remember a senior leader nurse talking about why she was behind in her 'compulsory' training, how she had to click like 11 things to answer each simple question.

There were Different passwords (different rules to write each one, different change frequency) required for everything except our employee record. Henry Marsh & Adam Kay talk about the almighty frustrations of the IT systems & endlessly forgettable multiple passwords to do anything, so many different login systems. Almost weekly (when forced to change one) I had to update a 'hints' file I kept to help me remember them all.

One colleague mentioned how all our dock stations (properly compatible with our laptops) had been changed for no particular reason at large cost (now slower since didn't suit the laptop brand). Some were on ethernet & some on wifi you tried hard to avoid the wifi ones, very slow. Colleague kept running out of email server space so he couldn't send or receive. We were crammed hotdesking into a noisy room like sardines (not sure what happens in covid times) friend who is Band8 said he had no better in his workplace (big acute). Like me, he just had a locker space for a few things at work.

The versions of Office we had were far behind whatever latest Microsoft was.

To get IT support you phoned some central number which might refer you to a support person who was 100 miles away or was... sitting 3 feet behind you but you couldn't ask them directly for any IT help.

it was ordinary for people to go off work from stress. A giant bullying allegation came out about one colleague & we all got lectured to say the Fk out of it.

The seniors (band8s?) must have received 100-300 emails/day.

One colleague laughed at me moaning in my first week "It's so easy to tell you come from outside the NHS," he said. "You moan about things not working whereas we are just grateful when things do work."

I'd keep that last thought in mind, whatever you decide to do.
I enjoyed my time, good team spirit, I came to worship the fierce women who chaired the meetings, but sheesh... Jurassic it was, from tech PoV.