Job market still dire?

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Hi there,

I'm wondering if anyone could give me an update on the job market in the UK? I know that things have been tough with the NHS of late - but are things still as dire on hiring front? (I have searched the posts on here, and have been reading this forum for years - but I haven't seen anything in the last 6 months or so about this topic)

I see a fair few job posts on the NHS jobs website whenever I search - are these actual posts that are intended to be filled? Or are they posted because they legally have to be, but there is no budget to actually fill the positions (this is happening a lot where I work in Canada)

One more question about the NHS job site - are the postings I see ALL the job postings that the NHS has available, or is there a portion of jobs for internal applicants only that I'm not privy to as I'm not working for the NHS? I'm just wondering if the jobs I see posted is a true indication of how many available jobs there are, or if there are more available to those already employed by eh NHS.

I am an RN in Canada with British Citizenship, and would love to move back to England - but I know that conditions and health care are in a bit of an upheaval (as they are here in my neck of the woods)… I don't want to be naive in my decision making, and don't want to go through the costly overseas registration only to get to the UK and be jobless.

Specializes in Emergency Department.
Yikes! I am a U.S. nurse hoping to move to Scotland. Are working conditions for nurses the same all across the UK?

No!!!!

Unfortunately summerscoopy26 sounds like a disgruntled employee. Of course she had to work as health care assistant until she received her PIN, it is a legal thing. Nursing is governed by law in the UK and Europe. As for her assertion that US training is more detailed, why then do UK nurses get told that their training is too specialised and US has a much more generalised training? If she is a Nurse Practitioner in the US why would she expect to just walk into a job in the UK? She has to work her way into these things the same way the rest of us had to.

Like everywhere else, it is what you make it. I have worked with nurses from various countries and the only one who we as a group disliked was the one who had an attitude and made it plain that she felt she was superior to us - not an American by the way - she even managed to be sarcastic when we gave her a leaving gift.

Working conditions in the NHS are dependent on where you go, some trusts are excellent and others - especially in England can be a bit suspect. Scotland did not go down the route of the competitive market so retains a bit of the old ethos. Not perfect but still pretty good despite various government attempts to screw it up.

Always ask yourself, if the NHS is so bad why does the UK have a better life expectancy than the US?

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Forgive me if this has become a case of one place is better than another. I can only speak of my entire experience here, not just in healthcare. And that is the truth that I live every day. Your experience will be different than mine. This is a forum where we express our ideas and opinions. I am not a disgruntled employee and I have never ever had an attitude. The patients and nurses I encouter and work with appreciate my work ethic and care.

if anyone wants to come here and work...by all means do it. I have a right to be here I am a dual citizen, but I have encountered some extreme behaviors. I was excited to come here and experience nursing in a different paradigm, however, I too had rose coloured glasses.

I wasn't going to address the comments above, but I will today. Those of us who have trained and worked in the US, I beleive it is very different and there is a huge cultural adjustment. Of course the entire UK isn't the same, just like the entire Us isn't the same, nor what it appears on TV. I will say the hospitals, in my area, are dingy, old and the pay is so much lower than the U.S., even when you factor is currency difference and cost of living.

In in my experience, there is a tit for tat and there seems to be negative comments about Americans every other sentence. It maybe Brit humor that I don't get, but this is my experience. I do ignore it, but I do wondered why is there is comparison to Americans all the time.

I do prefer the depth of teaching and knowledge of pathophisilogy, pharmacology, etc that I received at my university because it allows me to see entire view of my patients. And this allows me to provide better care and understanding to them. The nurses I worked with say they didn't learn anything like that in their training courses.

I have been been angry at this process, it is unnecessarily long and borders on incompetence. The NMC has lost my paperwork more than once and in turn I need to furnish these documents again. This will be a year and half and no pin yet, because of the slow process. So excuse my frustration when I am a citizen here and this process continues to be an issue. This cannot be effective nor efficient, I have realized that the NMC bends and blows to the political atmosphere here, which is not immigrant friendly right now, everything in the news or the papers denigrates immigrants and blames them for most problems.

My issue is with some nurses treating you like $&$@)!. That's it pure and simple. The system of transferring your pin to US, doesn't make you come to the U.S. and work below your level of skill. That is the difference. By the time you get there, it is mostly sorted. I cannot speak for the immigration process, because I am a U.S. citizen, as well as a UK citizen.

So, I hope this lends some understanding of my experience. I don't take away from anyone else's either. Forgive those in the US who didn't know where you were from. It could of been a teaching moment, where you both learned about each other. As for me, I want to be in a place where my heart smiles and diversity isn't just something to put on your website or on paper. For me, it isn't here, it is the US. But by any means, experience and live life where you chose and always love nursing!

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Thank you so much for your honest posts and responses. I definitely am interested in any point of view I can hear from. Yours, having worked in the U.S. and the UK, is especially helpful. There is so much to think about and consider before making such a huge life change. I want to make sure I am doing all I can to prepare and the feedback from this site has been exceptional.

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I was just looking at a job post on NHS...23,000 pounds...I think annually? ...really? thats all?

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Due to the new law of migrant workers from out of the EU working the UK having to earn £35,000 per year otherwise they'll have to leave the UK. Im not sure how this affects North American workers, but unless you have citizenship or earning £35k you may have to leave.

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Its a bit less, around 21,000 or even less after tax. I dont think its a bad wage, just a low wage considering our workload, responsibilities and the cost of living here.

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yea that doesn't sound enticing at all. That's nothing considering the work that we do. Money isn't why I am a nurse, but I'd be lying if I said it doesn't matter.

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yea that doesn't sound enticing at all. That's nothing considering the work that we do. Money isn't why I am a nurse, but I'd be lying if I said it doesn't matter.

I've worked in minimum wage jobs, but they weren't hard jobs, nor did I have the same level of responsibility as nursing. I'm still a student, so maybe in two years wages will be much improved (wishful thinking)

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@summerscoopy26 I sympathise with you as I can imagine it's a hard process, but there isn't much of a precedent for North American nurses coming to the UK. In my whole life I've only ever met one nurse from New York who was pretty miserable to be here.

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Specializes in Critical care.
I've worked in minimum wage jobs, but they weren't hard jobs, nor did I have the same level of responsibility as nursing. I'm still a student, so maybe in two years wages will be much improved (wishful thinking)

It's important to have a sense of humour when working as a nurse ;)

Seriously though, the press may be going on about doctors and weekend working and the DDRB, but they're wanting to further dilute AfC as well. Don't be surprised if the starting wage for a band 5 nurse is exactly the same as it is now in two years time.

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It's important to have a sense of humour when working as a nurse ;)

Seriously though, the press may be going on about doctors and weekend working and the DDRB, but they're wanting to further dilute AfC as well. Don't be surprised if the starting wage for a band 5 nurse is exactly the same as it is now in two years time.

:(

I agree. I can't imagine it increasing by even a penny. I regularly argue to fellow nurses/students about why we deserve pay increases but I'm only hit by a wall of 'we didn't enter this profession for the money' :banghead:

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Specializes in Emergency Department.
Don't be surprised if the starting wage for a band 5 nurse is exactly the same as it is now in two years time.

No, look at what the Scottish government did for nurses. They gave us the increase that Cameron was too pennypinching to do. Scotland and England now have different pay rates. I'm not happy about that, I want my English colleagues to have the same as me, but as long as we have a conservative government that wants to dismantle the NHS then pay will remain low.

I agree. I can't imagine it increasing by even a penny. I regularly argue to fellow nurses/students about why we deserve pay increases but I'm only hit by a wall of 'we didn't enter this profession for the money' :banghead:

Yes, I hear it lots from the public and the media, "nursing is a vocation". Just another way of saying, "lets keep salaries low as we have done for the past 67 years".

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