r/NursingUK

Recruitment of clinicians trained from overseas, rather than the U.K. has apparently saved our NHS millions of pounds. See NHS Digital. This was an economic strategy driven by NHS HR policy.
Our NHS matters, but why bother offering U.K. based degrees & training? Close U.K. training & degrees down so our people don’t waste their time and money.

So, I qualified as a nurse in September 2023. I started my first post on 9th October 2023, but was sadly diagnosed with CTEPH on the 16th October 2023. Since the diagnosis, I have continued to work. There are times when I have had to take sick leave, especially in the winter months as I am prone to chest infections and pneumonia. I moved into a new post June last year, a Band 6 physical health nurse. I have however found the service poorly run, with very little support. I am now physically burnt out, made worse by my CTEPH. In March I went off sick due to physical burnout. I asked my manager for a meeting to request reasonable adjustments as my CTEPH is considered a disability (confirmed by occ health) under the equality act 2010. My manager out right refused reduced hours or anything I proposed. She is instead offered to allow me to make Wednesday afternoons 'non physical', or suggested I accept re-deployment. At the time, re-deployment was not an option, due to the recruitment freeze and the fact I would only have 4 weeks to accept a job, which may be even worse for my physical health. I agreed to take Wednesday afternoon as non physical and returned to work. However, every Wed afternoon I would be constantly asked to see patients ad hoc or interrupted to do other tasks (all of which were physical). It just was not working out for me. I tried my best to persevere. I applied for a PIP assessor role as they can offer me hybrid. I was successful and gave my notice in. However, in week since I gave my notice my manager has been completely unsupportive, she kept adding tasks for me to do, knowing I was already struggling. I had enough and got a sick note from my GP who wished me luck in my new role. When I submitted this to the trust, my manager emailed me twice and texted me three time yesterday trying to get me to agree to PILON. Now my husband is unable to work, so he gets UC. They wanted me to take a lump sum, affecting this but also owe more holidays. I didn't agree to this but I went in to drop off my stuff today and got the cold shoulder. My colleagues, who see how poorly the place is managed, all wished me the best. I just feel like the NHS just do not care about their staff. Working keeps my mental health good, I don't want to have no purpose but if they had reduced my hours by one day they would not be scrambling for cover now! I just feel so guilty, even though I know I tried my best.

I recently interviewed for a role as a NQN, unfortunately I didn’t get the job, ok fair enough. When asking for feedback on the phone, the lead interviewer declined to give me any feedback and said I would have to request the notes through recruitment. I found this odd, but accepted this. Emailed recruitment, initially fobbed off, with an email saying they were still shortlisting applicants, and they couldn’t give me the feedback. Which confused me. I replied saying I’m not sure what the problem was and I was advised this was the way to get feedback. Follow up email, says they have requested the notes, followed by another email ten minutes later saying they had requested the notes but were told I needed to request a freedom of information and gave me the relevant email address. Which I have now emailed. I only wanted informal feedback on how to improve. Why is this happening?

This is really just a rant and just to get others' thoughts about the use of AI.

Bit of background, I am a lead nurse, so I do a bit of management and a lot of clinical work. My service (like most) is struggling at the moment with not enough staff and overload of patients. I have been working excessive hours unpaid ( I know I shouldn't do this, but I am concerned for patients). I have escalated my concerns verbally and by email.

Every time I escalate my concerns, I get emails back that I can tell have been run through Co pilot or chatgpt. I think this comes across as unprofessional and disrespectful. Like can they care any less?

I think AI is useful. I use it myself to help structure some of my emails. But I put the bulk of the email together myself and just run it through co-pilot to ensure I am being polite and not emotional. However, the responses I have been getting back just look like the manager has copied and pasted my email into co-pilot and asked for it to give a response. I can see they don't even check the grammar and punctuation because it has those telltale signs of AI with the long forward dash rather than a comma. I find it lazy and rude.

Anyway, that's my rant. I don't feel heard. But I guess most of us are probably feeling that way.

Hi all,

I’ve received a job offer for a band 6 role. I’ve mainly been working bank along side a non nursing job. They asked for reference which I provided from the bank but they are also looking for a professional reference from a band 6. I go to many different wards, sometimes I don’t go back to the same area for a while and I’m not close to the band 6s etc. my last permanent post was almost 4 years ago and I don’t think most of the team are still there. Honestly stuck for what to do because I’m also don’t have nurse friends either who would be able to even provide a professional reference. Any advice ? Based in Scotland if it helps x

The title is from the Daily mail and the Financial Times.

is it over then? I thought we’d seen the worst of the recruitment freezes but seems the worse is yet to come.

in my trust we are still using paper notes. how on earth will they afford or get consultants on board for AI?

Long story short and omitting a lot of details due to confidentiality. The nurse from day shift was handing over a patient to me and we both realised there was absolutely no plan; basically this person bypassed ED and had a direct admission due to a referral from their GP, the only documentation available in the system was from the on call doctor who arranged the admission but it was like "this person is getting admitted for this and that, if scan and bloods worsening will go for this procedure otherwise biopsy tomorrow"... okay, but other than that no clerking, no admission notes and no plan. I contacted the on call doctor for the night who came back to me after 3 hours due to high workload in the Trust, I told them the scan and bloods were out but they were waiting for a specific results and asked me to chase the lab. Not my job but whatever, lab didn't come back to me; once again I chase to know what's the plan with this patient but no answer, so as it was 1am I assumed they were going to stick to the original plan with no extra intervention.

By 5am I accidentally found a prescription for fluids... what? The patient was clinically stable, I couldn't find any possible rationale for that and, guess what, no bloody documentation! Dude c'mon I know we are all busy but you were literally standing next to me, why in the world did you not tell me the patient needed fluids and why?

Anyway I want to stress that the patient was perfectly fine. In the morning I spoke to the NIC who took over, explained them the situation and they gave me the look, if you know you know. I hate to pass on for the lazy or, god forbid, negligent nurse, but how am I supposed to know? There is no documentation, there was no verbal order or whatever, the system didn't flag the prescription (it was an incidental finding) and, I don't know about you, but personally I can't possibly spend the whole damn shift checking on the system just to make sure something that wasn't communicated to me didn't magically pop up. Other than the NIC who gave me THE look everybody else backed me up, but still I want to make sure there was no negligence on my side. What do you guys think? Personally if I want something to be done quickly I document it and inform the allocated person ASAP

I'm studying MH nursing and tbh I want to move abroad after I graduate (family reasons), but if I don't do my preceptorship will it be hard to get a job if I ever move back to Wales? Do you need a preceptorship, or is it just for your employer to help you out? Seems like you need it bc you have to get stuff signed off, but idk maybe I'm confused.

Hi all,

Hope this is ok to post here🙂

I’m a student nurse and called in sick for placement due to a cold/covid. I rang in because I don’t want to make patients (who are going for/have had cardiac surgery) nor the staff ill. I’m soon to graduate this year and I’m thinking what do nurses (ie. me very soon) do when they have a cold. Like I would have worked through it but again I don’t want to make others ill who are already ill and vulnerable or those who are looking after the ill. Obviously my calling in sick now doesn’t impact the ward as I am not in the numbers but it’ll be different when I am in the numbers

Hi, please forgive me if not allowed but I have received my next placement as a student at a day surgery centre. Surgery was the one thing I didn’t want to be allocated as I had a theatre day on my last placement and it really wasn’t for me. I like talking to patients and the operating room atmosphere felt quite slow paced for my neurodivergent brain.

I’ve been trying to find more information about what day surgeries entail and what a day might look like for me. For instance, is there usually a list of surgeries for that day and do pre/post op checks? Any advice is appreciated :)

This will be my second job in the Nhs and I received the offer last week but since my ID check it states “Convictions
Submitted, awaiting countersigning”.

What does this mean and what can I do to expedite it???? This will be my second job in the nhs btw and I had my dbs done last year.

Hi everyone,

I recently moved to England and I’m trying to understand the difference between Band 5 and Band 6 nursing in AWP (mental health).

I have mental health nursing experience from abroad, but I’m thinking of starting at Band 5 because I’m a bit worried Band 6 might be a big jump in responsibility and independence in a new system. The only issue is that I can barely find any Band 5 roles available.

How big is the difference day-to-day, and would it be normal to start at Band 5 in my situation?

Thanks!

Hi. I am a US trained nurse living in the UK currently and I am in the process of obtaining my UK nursing license. I failed my NMC Adult Nursing OSCE the first attempt and I just got my results back for my second attempt and I failed again. I failed because according to the examiner I did not look at the patient wristband and verify their ID, when I clearly verbalized it to the examiner and looked at it as well. I put in for an appeal. My first appeal was rejected and I was given a level 2 appeal form. I just don’t understand why this is the case. I am competent and made sure I did everything correctly. The exam center even got the date wrong for my exam and I pointed that out to them. I honestly feel so angry since I worked so hard for this. Has this happened to anyone else and can anyone give me advice on this? This has made me feel so hopeless and angry because if they don’t accept my second appeal I made I only have one more chance to resit it and it will be two stations. My clinical assessor was also very rude and had a bad attitude towards me while grading my exam. My current job told me once I pass this nursing exam they can sponsor me on a work visa so I can stay in the UK, since I would need visa sponsorship because I am from the US.

I keep hearing people saying NHS has a bullying and "mean girls" culture.Is it true? Yes, like literally every other workplace, your friend who works in Tesco or in the police is going to confirm that. Is whining about it gonna change anything? Heck no.

My previous workplace had a terrible reputation in the whole hospital and the staff turnover was sky high, the culrpits were the usual 2 or 3 people. Back then I was a NQN and the favorite target of the unit big bully, at first I tried to ignore it then to escalate and nothing happened for months. At some point I got fed up of their daily games and harassing so I decided to put an end to it, I didn't need to raise my voice or become unprofessional but just a simple "next time you pull me a shite like that this ward will not be big enough for the both of us"; the bully tried to manipulate the rest of the team and make me look like the ba guy but I couldn't give an eff, ever since I've had no issue putting them back in their place and finally they left me alone.

The bullying I received back in school really did a number on me back then so I know what I am talking about, but when someone tries to pull these pranks on me I tell myself "hang on a minute, I am not a 12 year old skinny ass child anymore, I am a grown ass adult with a professional registration. Why in the world am I supposed to be scared of these losers and put up with this non sense?". It doesn't matter whether you are an HCA, bank staff, a clear, a junior doctor or a NQN, if you work in healthcare I can safely assume you are an adult so it's your responsibility to set up boundaries and protect yourself. I am sorry to break it to you but management won't do much about it, they might have a chat with the bully to remind them "we have to be nice to each other" but that's it, they got more important stuff to think about than coming to solve the playground drama. Is any of that fair? Well of course not, a lot of things are not fair but I am sure y'all know this world doesn't run on fairness, the earlier you understand that the better it is for your overall health. Remember, you are an adult and you are entitled to protect yourself, please speak up and put these frustrated losers back where they belong

Without identifying myself too much, I am currently working as a band 6 specialist nurse in a small, very niche speciality within a larger department/team. I have been in this job for 4 years now, there's just me, my band 7 and a support worker who work specifically in this area. There are other band 6s and 7s in the wider team but no jobs are coming up in the near future it would seem.

I have experience on a surgical ward and ICU as a band 5. I don't currently have any experience really with leadership/management or teaching. I haven't completed an audit really but I am working on a few projects.
My current job doesn't get any nursing students. I am a qualified non-medical prescriber however and I'm in the middle of a clinical CPD course.

What kind of things should I be focusing on to strengthen my CV for a band 7 and what sort of positions would I be most likely to get with my kind of experience?

I received a letter from our ward manager inviting me to a fact finding investigation and when I asked if I could bring a union rep ,was told no need as it is just fact finding. But the letter also stated that depending on the outcome of the investigation, the matter may proceed to a formal disciplinary hearing. Where do I stand on this? Could you please share your experience. Thank you.

So as the title goes I’m currently pregnant on maternity and basically due only few months after I return. I opted for enhanced maternity pay, is it still required to be back 3 months in order to not pay the money back and also will I still be eligible for maternity pay again?. I’m feeling so anxious it was totally unplanned worried how team will feel about it too.

Does anyone else genuinely not understand the shocking culture in the NHS of mean girls, cliques and bullying? Seriously?

Like all of these people were students and newly qualified themselves at some point! Did people treat them like that and so they think they have to do the same? And it’s almost always women in their 30s/40s/50s?!

The saying “that’s ridiculous you should know that by now” and that type of thing especially in front of other staff is absolutely infuriating. Not helpful or even the truth. That’s very easy for a nurse of 10 or 20 years to say to a newly qualified nurse or student.

And it’s the purposely excluding people and gossiping about others like they’re children in highschool that I actually find painfully embarrassing as well.

I had an absolutely horrendous first job experience as a newly qualified nurse and the ward I worked in had a ridiculously bad reputation so I though it was just that area but since moving to this new job I’ve noticed the exact same thing.

When did nursing become like this?