Questions about nursing in Edinburgh

Traprain · Sep 10, 2005

Hi Mio!

I'm currently working in the psychiatric hospital in Edinburgh, so am not sure if our experience of agency nurses is exactly the same as the general hospitals. We do use BNA, Allied, and New Cross, but Scottish Nursing Guild is a last resort agency for us as they are the most expensive (good rates for the nurses = higher costs for the hospital)

As most of the hospital posts are advertised internally within the trusts first, it may be hard to find out about them from outside. Do you have the details of the local hospitals? Do you have any particular area you would like to work in? If you want, get in touch off list and I could look them up for you :)

Hope this helps, a bit....

All the best

Traprain

kerry1979 · Sep 16, 2005

Hi,

I work full time but work the occasional shift for the Guild. the wages are very good and it is the best paid agency in scotland. The work is plentiful esp as it nears xmas. You can be flexable and you give them your availability and they phone you the day of the shift if there is any work I think the BNA can give you the shifts the week before but they are not so well paid, They get about half of the Guillds wages.

Hope that helps.

Kerry

bubbles30 · Sep 21, 2005

hi, :)

scotland is a great place to work and visit for a while. i'm sure you will have a fab time. the advice given by the mental health nurse is completely accurate. i live in glasgow now but i did my nursing training in edinburgh and lived and worked there for a while. i have worked with the BNA myself. they are a typical average agency and no better or worse than a lot of others. the pay is average with a lot of the others. the nursing guild is the best paid (similar to premium rates paid down south). i have an aussie friend who worked with them before she settled and got herself a permanent job. they ARE the last resort for a hospital to contact. i have a permanent post in a glasgow hospital and if we use agency, which is rarely at the moment, there are 3 other agencies contacted before the guild and even then the boss is not happy. also if with the guild you will need transport because they send you quite far afield. my aussie friend had a loan of her boyfriends car so no prob there. definitely good money though.

perhaps another option would be to try and contact some of the hospitals directly and join their 'nurse bank'. that is their own inhouse nurse supply. again the pay will be less than the agencies (though in some cases not a lot less)but you will get definite, regular work, holiday pay now (depending how long you are planning on staying) and i think they are suppose to give you study time also. just a thought. it is not a permanent contract so you can take off when ever you like for travelling. paperwork can take awhile which ever route you go down. so it may be worth starting the process at home.

good luck :)

hi everyone,
i'm a NZ nurse hoping to move to scotland early next year and would like to work in Edinburgh. many people have told me that it's hard to get nursing jobs in Edinburgh-is this true?
also, which nursing agencies are mostly used in scotland? i'm thinking about joining BNA as i want temporary work that will aloow me to be somewhat felxible so i can do some travelling. someone also suggested the scottish nurses guild.
if anyone could help me out/give me any pointers it would be much appreciated.
thanks!

Mio · Oct 3, 2005

:) Thanks everyone for their information, it's been very helpful.

cheers, Mio