student nurse fed up with the NHS

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Specializes in gynae.

I am a student nurse who qualifies in 2 weeks and at the minute i do not have a job to go to, neither are ther eany jobs advertised for band 5 staff nurses. the trust in which i have done my training ( Mid yorkshire) has just announced that the 340 jobs which it had frozen they are scrapping all together now, so it doesn't look like there is a chance of me getting one in the near future as they are meking people redundent as well. i am just so annoyed that i have spent 3 years doing all of this training and obtaining my BSc and now there are no rewards for it at all. it seams daft to me that they are still training nurses when there are no joobs for them. we have spoken tio university and all they have said is that we should not worry, and that we will get a job some where! but NHS professionals are not even giving out bank contracts at the minute.

is there anybody else in this situation and what have you done about it

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.
I am a student nurse who qualifies in 2 weeks and at the minute i do not have a job to go to, neither are ther eany jobs advertised for band 5 staff nurses. the trust in which i have done my training ( Mid yorkshire) has just announced that the 340 jobs which it had frozen they are scrapping all together now, so it doesn't look like there is a chance of me getting one in the near future as they are meking people redundent as well. i am just so annoyed that i have spent 3 years doing all of this training and obtaining my BSc and now there are no rewards for it at all. it seams daft to me that they are still training nurses when there are no joobs for them. we have spoken tio university and all they have said is that we should not worry, and that we will get a job some where! but NHS professionals are not even giving out bank contracts at the minute.

is there anybody else in this situation and what have you done about it

I wish I could wave a magic wand but unfortunately that will not fix what is going wrong with the NHS.... Used to work for mid yorks and moved into practice nursing 4 years ago and was glad I did move as even then there was a lot of stress in the job.

Is there a chance of you relocating to somewhere else in the UK if you try for jobs elsewhere?

I do wish you good luck and hope you manage to get something sorted

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Specializes in RN, BSN, CHDN.
I am a student nurse who qualifies in 2 weeks and at the minute i do not have a job to go to, neither are ther eany jobs advertised for band 5 staff nurses. the trust in which i have done my training ( Mid yorkshire) has just announced that the 340 jobs which it had frozen they are scrapping all together now, so it doesn't look like there is a chance of me getting one in the near future as they are meking people redundent as well. i am just so annoyed that i have spent 3 years doing all of this training and obtaining my BSc and now there are no rewards for it at all. it seams daft to me that they are still training nurses when there are no joobs for them. we have spoken tio university and all they have said is that we should not worry, and that we will get a job some where! but NHS professionals are not even giving out bank contracts at the minute.

is there anybody else in this situation and what have you done about it

I am so sorry that this has happened to you, especially as you are needed. I am sure things will work out for you in time, It happened to me in the early 90's and lots of other nurses, every job interview was over subscribed and you knew you never get it. I will keep my fingers crossed for you

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I'm in the same boat as you at the moment I have just qualified & still haven't got a job, lucky the trust I did my training as being good & are giving us bank jobs until a permanent post comes up.

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Specializes in Surgery, ICU, Emergency Care, NP.

As with madwife when I qualified in the early 90's there were no jobs, all of my group were unemployed for a while. But the NHS is constantly changing so don't lose hope something will come up, I just hope you don't have to wait too long.

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Specializes in General Med & ITU.

I really feel for you, babes690 and the others, who are having trouble. I'm a Staff Nurse in the West Midlands, and I'm probably at one of the better Trusts - at least all we're doing is freezing jobs, not filling vacancies, and not accepting newly-qualified graduates for the next year - most other Trusts around this area are actively making staff redundant. I know in comparison that I should be grateful to have a job, but I myself am trying to find a new post and it's pretty much impossible. NHS Professionals have been entirely disbanded down here too, with the Trust arguing that they need to reduce agency spending (the wards are still short of staff, but they don't seem overly worried about that bit!).

From an insider's point of view, the only area I know where jobs are still available in the UK is London & Greater London - but the cost of living is so high down there that most people simply can't afford to live down there, even with the London weighting. If you have the money, try there - otherwise maybe consider nursing homes etc., or something completely outside nursing, until it improves (God hope it does!).

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Specializes in med/surg.

Have you looked outside the NHS box? There may be GP jobs/ private hospital jobs/ nursing home jobs or hospice jobs??? You don't owe the NHS anything after the way it's treated you.

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I am a student nurse who qualifies in 2 weeks and at the minute i do not have a job to go to, neither are ther eany jobs advertised for band 5 staff nurses. the trust in which i have done my training ( Mid yorkshire) has just announced that the 340 jobs which it had frozen they are scrapping all together now, so it doesn't look like there is a chance of me getting one in the near future as they are meking people redundent as well. i am just so annoyed that i have spent 3 years doing all of this training and obtaining my BSc and now there are no rewards for it at all. it seams daft to me that they are still training nurses when there are no joobs for them. we have spoken tio university and all they have said is that we should not worry, and that we will get a job some where! but NHS professionals are not even giving out bank contracts at the minute.

is there anybody else in this situation and what have you done about it

Hi there

Unfortunately yes, there are very little jobs for new nurses...and just as worse, in my experience so far the support for new nurses has been really poor. I recently qualified in february 2006 and gained a post on an obs ward in the emergency department...I quit my job in july...it was a really awful place to work,doctors always harrasing me, nurse managers always in my face about moving patients and it was constantly busy...i hate every minute and it got to the point where i was dreading going into each shift and eventually i became so stressed and unhappy i was being physically sick after each shift...when i went to my manger, they didn't really help and told me i would have to find work elsewhere if i couldnt cope with the job and i also was told how they were unsure whether they would take me on in the first place given that i had a timid personality!

I will be now working in a job out of nursing, sadly...but there are no other jobs for me to apply to at the moment in the area of nursing i want to go into (theatre nursing) so till something in theatres or similar comes up i will be working out of nursing... the nhs realllly need to place emphasis on supporting newly qualified nurses...as well as prioviding jobs , but unfortunately i don't see this happening so soon...

Tina K

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Specializes in RN, BSN, CHDN.
Hi there

Unfortunately yes, there are very little jobs for new nurses...and just as worse, in my experience so far the support for new nurses has been really poor. I recently qualified in february 2006 and gained a post on an obs ward in the emergency department...I quit my job in july...it was a really awful place to work,doctors always harrasing me, nurse managers always in my face about moving patients and it was constantly busy...i hate every minute and it got to the point where i was dreading going into each shift and eventually i became so stressed and unhappy i was being physically sick after each shift...when i went to my manger, they didn't really help and told me i would have to find work elsewhere if i couldnt cope with the job and i also was told how they were unsure whether they would take me on in the first place given that i had a timid personality!

I will be now working in a job out of nursing, sadly...but there are no other jobs for me to apply to at the moment in the area of nursing i want to go into (theatre nursing) so till something in theatres or similar comes up i will be working out of nursing... the nhs realllly need to place emphasis on supporting newly qualified nurses...as well as prioviding jobs , but unfortunately i don't see this happening so soon...

Tina K

Very sad Tina, I just think that nurses are not prepared anymore for the hard road in front of them. What is the worse thing about your encounter is firstly appears to be the 'norm' now rather than the exception and secondly there are so many young nurses on this bb from the UK who are leaving very quickly after qualifying and looking elsewhere and to other countries to work.

:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

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Very sad Tina, I just think that nurses are not prepared anymore for the hard road in front of them. What is the worse thing about your encounter is firstly appears to be the 'norm' now rather than the exception and secondly there are so many young nurses on this bb from the UK who are leaving very quickly after qualifying and looking elsewhere and to other countries to work.

:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Madwife, its not that i was not prepared for the hard road in front of me, its just as a newly qualified nurse I was assigned to a very difficult area where i reallly reallly needed the support and sadly i did not receive it...my self esteem was completely destroyed where i was and why should i have stayed in an area which was making me so miserable that i would throw up after every shift... I understand what your saying about new nurses leaving so soon but i really think if there was better support out there for them then this wouldnt be happening, and conversely they wouldnt be looking to go abroad for jobs.

Furthermore, if young nurses do want to go abroad for a while, why shouldnt they? inmy experience, you should do the things you want while you are young, because you never know what is around the corner ...and you don't want to end up getting to later stage of your life and having regrets about not doing something, going abroad to experience new things is ideal when your young and have no other commitments like to a family etc... and also lets people learn about other cultures and how things are done over there. This is just my opinion so I know i will probably get flamed for saying it but i had to say it...

Tina

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Specializes in RN, BSN, CHDN.
Madwife, its not that i was not prepared for the hard road in front of me, its just as a newly qualified nurse I was assigned to a very difficult area where i reallly reallly needed the support and sadly i did not receive it...my self esteem was completely destroyed where i was and why should i have stayed in an area which was making me so miserable that i would throw up after every shift... I understand what your saying about new nurses leaving so soon but i really think if there was better support out there for them then this wouldnt be happening, and conversely they wouldnt be looking to go abroad for jobs.

Furthermore, if young nurses do want to go abroad for a while, why shouldnt they? inmy experience, you should do the things you want while you are young, because you never know what is around the corner ...and you don't want to end up getting to later stage of your life and having regrets about not doing something, going abroad to experience new things is ideal when your young and have no other commitments like to a family etc... and also lets people learn about other cultures and how things are done over there. This is just my opinion so I know i will probably get flamed for saying it but i had to say it...

Tina

Wow Tina I wasnt critising you I was critisising the system. The nurses who were supporting you probably hadnt been supported themselves it is like a domino effect and the last domino was you.

I am living in the USA so how can I say young nurses shouldnt travel, that would be ironic would it not.

Remember the system was changed in the late 80's early 90's so if we look back and evaluate the nursing system has been slowly deteriorating since the middle/end 90's when the 'experienced' nurses starting leaving to have families or for promotion. Then what you had were a lot of newer trained nurses who didnt remember how it was, so had no compassion for how hard it had been and helped each other out.

Dog eat dog comes to mind-no matter how many times we say there are no staff now-there never has been a time when wards had fuill quota of staff, we have alays made do.

So please dont feel I am getting at you because I am not like that I have been an advocate for the nurses when I worked in the NHS, and when I got into a postion where I could help out by taking a stand I did.

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Wow Tina I wasnt critising you I was critisising the system. The nurses who were supporting you probably hadnt been supported themselves it is like a domino effect and the last domino was you.

I am living in the USA so how can I say young nurses shouldnt travel, that would be ironic would it not.

Remember the system was changed in the late 80's early 90's so if we look back and evaluate the nursing system has been slowly deteriorating since the middle/end 90's when the 'experienced' nurses starting leaving to have families or for promotion. Then what you had were a lot of newer trained nurses who didnt remember how it was, so had no compassion for how hard it had been and helped each other out.

Dog eat dog comes to mind-no matter how many times we say there are no staff now-there never has been a time when wards had fuill quota of staff, we have alays made do.

So please dont feel I am getting at you because I am not like that I have been an advocate for the nurses when I worked in the NHS, and when I got into a postion where I could help out by taking a stand I did.

Hi madwife,

Sorry, I think I overreacted just slightlyyyy :( I apologize about that! I've had a lottt of people being quite critical towards me lately for suddenly dropping out of nursing so soon and I suppose my defences are up. I agree with you that yes looks like I was the last domino in the line to go down due to the poor system. I will return to nursing hopefully when a post comes up that I think will be suitable for me , however in the meantime I will be happy to be in a non nursing job just so i can recover a lot of the confidence I have lost.

Tina K

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