Nursing graduates are forced to stack supermarket shelves because they can’t get jobs in supermarkets NHSwarns a union.
Students – many with huge debts – are facing ‘unacceptable barriers’ to finding work, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has said.
About 33 percent of entry-level nurse vacancies in the past month required experience that “blocked” new graduates, according to RCN student committee members.
According to RCN’s analysis, only a quarter were full-time, permanent and open to people with no professional experience.
Last year the government launched a ‘graduate guarantee’ that would give all newly qualified nurses and midwives in England the chance to apply to work in health and social care.
But despite this, the commission said some 2024 graduates still have not found jobs.
Many have left the profession entirely, while others have moved abroad to find work, nursing leaders said.
The RCN wants a plan to get graduates into work, including an ‘end to inappropriate advertising and the improper allocation of jobs, funding to recruit enough staff to keep patients safe and to align workforce planning and university recruitment’.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) warns that newly qualified British nurses burdened with student debt are struggling to secure jobs in the NHS due to restrictive entry requirements and poor workforce planning
Patricia Marquis of RCN England said: ‘Services are being battered by record demand, but the next generation is facing unacceptable barriers.
Non-existent workforce planning… keeps the system in a cycle of boom and bust, of over-dependence on international recruitment… followed by an inability to employ British graduates.
‘Students feel used by a university system that saddles them with debts [and] by employers who lean on them during clinical placements but refuse to offer them work at the end.”
Ms Marquis added: ‘It is an insult to a workforce so vital to the safe functioning of the healthcare system.’
In a letter to chief nurse Duncan Burton, the RCN said that ‘some have spent years with trusts advertising a guaranteed job when their degree began, only to be told that this no longer applies.’
It added: ‘We see newly qualified nurses stacking the supermarket shelves; some move abroad; and others leave altogether.”
Burton added: ‘I understand how upsetting and frustrating it is for new graduate nurses who may feel insecure about securing their first role – no one who has committed to becoming a nurse should be left wondering if there is a place for them in the job market.
‘Recruitment for nursing roles is becoming increasingly competitive in some parts of the country, but I would like to reassure graduates that opportunities remain and encourage them to think broadly about the possibilities for their first job, including considering roles within community services, primary care, social care and the independent sector.
“We continue to work closely with employers, universities and system partners to connect newly qualified nurses with opportunities and support in pursuing nursing careers.”
The Ministry of Health was asked for comment.
The RCN Students’ Committee has written to England’s chief nurse Duncan Burton calling for action.
The letter states: “Some of us have submitted more than 40 applications for a first post; some move hundreds of miles to start their careers; and some have spent years in trusts that advertised a guaranteed job when their studies began, only to be told that guarantee no longer applies.
‘Some 2024 graduates are still waiting for their first nursing job.
‘We see newly graduated nurses stacking the supermarket shelves with a PIN in hand; some move abroad; and others leave the profession altogether before even starting.”
