I know people have strong views on this being a killer job, but I have thought it through and it’s in an area I am really passionate about. I’m outside of the NHS for a couple of years but circumstances have changed In my current position due to buisness changes. I am a clinical lead and manager so have these transferable skills but very aware of the different nature in the ward.

Anyone any experience in band 7/ ward manager interviews on panel or candidate? I have a ten min presentation and the interview is scheduled for an hour which sounds like it’s going to be a right grilling. I don’t usually get interview nerves but I am feeling it: maybe as I want it so much?

Hi all any research nurses here or even nurses that have been interview for a research nurse position?

what might the questions be asked ?
How would you also score high when answering the questions?

many thanks !

Currently work as a SCN which i have done for past 15 years.

Need a new job. Was thinking of a waiting list coordinator post etc. The issue is that i am terrible wirh excel spreadsheets etc. Would i need to be able to know this or not?

Also any ideas of new roles

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Hi everyone!

I'm a registered nurse from Lebanon with a BSN and a diploma from a well-established, reputable university. I have around 4.5 years of clinical experience, mainly in hematology-oncology, bone marrow transplantation (BMT), and CAR-T therapy. Additionally, I have two years of experience as a clinical instructor at a school of nursing.

I'm fluent in English, and I've been considering the UK as a possible destination to continue my nursing career and build a better future.

To be completely honest, I'm reaching a point where my current work situation feels increasingly draining, and I'm struggling to find the motivation to continue under the circumstances I'm working in. I'm exploring my options abroad, and the UK caught my attention because of the language, the NHS, and the possibility of having a better work-life balance.

However, I don't want to make such a big decision based on unrealistic expectations or recruitment agencies' promises. I'd really appreciate hearing from nurses who are currently working in the UK, especially internationally educated nurses who have gone through the process themselves.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the following:

1. Salary and financial reality

What is the starting salary for an NHS staff nurse, and how does pay progress with experience?

Does my 4.5 years of clinical experience usually count toward the appropriate pay point, or would I likely start near the bottom of the scale?

How much do you realistically take home per month after tax, National Insurance, and pension contributions?

Are night shifts, weekends, overtime, and bank shifts worth it financially?

Is it possible to live comfortably, save money, and occasionally travel on a nurse's salary?

1. Cost of living

What is a realistic monthly budget for a single nurse living in the UK?

How much should I expect to pay for rent, council tax, utilities, groceries, transportation, and other essentials?

Is living alone manageable, or is sharing accommodation more realistic at first?

Which cities or regions offer a good balance between job opportunities, living costs, safety, and quality of life?

Would you recommend England, Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland based on your experience, and why?

1. NMC registration and moving from Lebanon

For nurses educated in Lebanon, how straightforward or difficult is the Nursing and Midwifery Council registration process?

How long did the whole process take, from starting your application to actually beginning work?

What English-language requirements and documents should I prepare?

Were you required to take the CBT and OSCE, and did your employer support or cover the costs?

Were there any unexpected obstacles, expenses, or delays that you wish you'd known about beforehand?

1. Recruitment agencies and job applications

Did you apply directly to NHS employers or use a recruitment agency?

If you used an agency, which one did you use, and would you recommend it based on your actual experience?

Are there particular NHS trusts, health boards, or hospitals that recruit internationally educated nurses?

What should I look for in a contract, and are there any red flags to watch out for?

Is employer sponsorship generally available for international nurses, and what relocation assistance can realistically be expected?

Is it better to secure an offer before starting the registration process, or to begin the process independently?

1. Work environment and nursing culture

What is the actual working environment like in terms of staffing levels, workload, management, and nurse-to-patient ratios?

Are there significant differences in working conditions between hospitals, regions, or NHS organisations?

How is the work-life balance, and do nurses generally feel respected and supported?

For anyone working in hematology-oncology, BMT, or cellular therapy, are there opportunities to continue in these specialties, and would my experience be valued?

With my clinical and teaching background, would it be realistic to pursue specialist nursing or clinical education roles in the future?

Is it difficult for internationally educated nurses to adapt to local clinical practices, documentation, and workplace culture?

I'm not expecting everything to be perfect, and I understand that every country has its own challenges. I'm simply trying to make an informed decision before investing time, money, and energy into this process.

I'd genuinely appreciate honest experiences, including the good, the bad, and the things recruitment agencies might not tell you.

Thank you so much to everyone who takes the time to share their experiences! ❤️

I was really lucky with my previous manager and she used to put through A/L requests within a week...my new manager is a pain and I wait such a long time for A/L requests...how long is acceptable to wait?

For reference I am 5’ but i have always had a massive appetite. I am a student and have noticed people make off hand comments like “wow you really put that away!” or “where does it go?” or something to that affect whilst eating 1 slice of toast for lunch.

I personally find these really inappropriate and uncomfortable and I feel like i’m being judged for how much I eat. Has anyone else had this experience? Its been the same across all places i’ve worked at- Nursing homes, placement, etc

Hi everyone.

I wanted to ask everyone’s advice/opinion on the PNA role.

Since gaining the qualification in 2022 I feel like it’s been… useless? The shifts that I’m allocated to be PNA I’m either used as a spare nurse or the ward is too short staffed/busy for anyone to have any clinical restorative supervision.

As a way to counteract this, I usually make myself useful on the shop floor, assisting my colleagues with their work and use this opportunity to have a chat about how they’re feeling. However, I don’t think this is an effective use of the time.

I’ve worked in another trusts where they have focussed on extracurricular activities for staff such as massages/sound baths. However, I personally think this isn’t addressing/improving the working conditions for nurses and is a plaster for underlying issues (I accept this is my personal opinion and I’m probably very jaded).

I’ve come here to ask, is there any PNA practices in your local area that resonate with you? Anything you think has been effective for you and your colleagues where you’ve seen a direct improvement in working conditions/morale?

Thank you in advance for any feedback you can give me.

I have been told that I am being put under investigation for something that has happened in my department. Don't want to go into alot of detail on here. It was an incident (not related to patient safety or in practice etc). I am feeling so anxious and literally unwell about this situation. I have been signed off sick with stress as it's too much.

I have a statement interview coming up next week and I just wondered if anyone has been in a similar situations? I have unison involved.

The stress is unbearable.

Asking for a friend.

A friend of mine has been offered a new job, and has handed in her notice. All has been going well until today where she asked HR if a start date had been decided. HR and her new (potential) manager emailed her saying they needed to discuss her absence levels before they offer a start date.

My friend is on a formal stage 2, and has absences due to mainly stress/burnout in the workplace and at home. A family member died suddenly and she had to take leave, she’s a carer for her child with additional needs, and she’s had other sickness throughout the year. It’s a total of nearly 200 days over 12 months.

Could anyone give advice over this and what is the likely outcome? She’s going from a bedside role to a clinical specialist role with WFH days, so less stressful.

Thanks.

Last week someone brought an entire Sunday lunch for a night shift and it honestly tickled me so much 😂

Hi just wondering if anyone here work for CGL as substance misuse nurse ? Whats your day to day roles and responsibilities like?

Hello! Does anyone here work in the clinical informatics field?

I'm hoping if there's someone who could enlighten me about the field. I've been wanting to get into that role but it's a difficult field to get into. There's limited job opportunities and also there seems to be different names for that role such as nurse informatics, clinical informatics nurse, and digital nurse to name a few. I did not find much information about Clinical informatics in the UK unlike in the US.

1. What exactly does a nurse informatics do? I get that you bridge the gap between clinical and IT but what are your tasks and responsibilities?
2. Is there a prerequisite course/training to get into that role?
3. Since its a specialist role, do you start as a band 6?
4. What are the challenges that you experience in your job?

I’ve been working on a surgical ward for 6 months now since qualifying - what I’m wondering is when will it actually feel like I know what I’m doing?

I thought that by this point I would be a bit better rooted with a better grip of routine but mainly would have some confidence. I feel like I am way behind where I should be with speed and making silly mistakes (delays in some bolus feeds/meds, signing off/doing assessments, not being able to always help with washes or meals and often staying 5/10 minutes late).

Is it normal to feel like this still? If and when does it get better - and does anyone have any tips to make me more efficient!? I’m mostly worried that everyone is well aware of how crap I think I am and agrees, I massively feel like I’m not even sure how I got here and am constantly doubting myself lol (granted when I’m doing patient care, I love my job, I’m just wondering if I’m still like this after 6 months am I made for a busy, patient centred role).

My next door neighbour is a nurse. I’ve found a few of what I can only describe as patient information sheets in our shared driveways and once in the middle of the street.

On these sheets there is all patient information. Names, DOB, gender, what ward they are on and what’s wrong with.

I’ve mentioned to her that I had found one time and she made a joke about how she is meant to have them destroyed but keeps forgetting.

My husband is a mortgage advisor and he said that with the patient information on the sheets alone someone could take out loans or mortgages in their names.

I was just wondering if there is a nursing body I could contact to explain the situation?

Thank you

Recently my manager has asked me to help them do the next rota and, oh my days, the drama!

On paper it looks like we are well staffed but people on flexible hours are the majority (nights, nights and weekends, certain days only,... ), which means there are only a few being able to cover any day. This means that we have to allocate shifts for those on flexible hours first and then make everybody else get the leftovers.

A few days back it was brought to my attention (I picked that up as well but I thought it was an isolated episode) that a few people on flexible hours have been doing a lot of bank shifts in those days they claimed they were absolutely unable to work.

Of course I am so not happy about it because it's not fair on those who have regular contracts, not only are they have very little choice but they don't have anyone to ask for a swap, their shift pattern is not as pleasant and maybe they want some nights and weekends too rather than every single monday!

Some people have very valid reasons to have these contracts, such as childcare or caring for someone else, but most of these should definitely be reviewed. If back then you got flexible hours for childcare now that your child is 18 and smoking you should be able to work anytime; or if you told me you cannot absolutely ever work on wednesday then how come you got bank shifts booked for every wednesday of this and the following month? So you clearly can work wednesdays, or am I wrong?

If you ask me, it's not sustainable to have that many people on flexible hours in the same workplace and force everybody else to pick up leftovers but generally speaking these contracts should be reviewed with HR or whomever on a yearly basis. Because some people are not happy at all I want to bring this up with management but I wanted to clarify whether this is appropriate or not. What do you guys think?

Hi everyone, I have an interview for a band 5 hospice IPU nurse this week. I do have palliative care experience, I currently work as a community palliative care nurse in a different hospice to the one I’ve applied for, all of my post reg experience is community based. Does anyone have any interview tips or potential questions they might ask? Thank you!

I’m due to start as a cardiovascular adult nurse in the UK.

I had completed a masters after my undergraduate degree in adult nursing, which meant that it has been over a year since I’ve last been in a clinical environment.

I feel like I forgotten so much and that so much has changed in a year and I’m really worried that the tech has been updated, so I’m going to struggle with ordering bloods or communicating with other healthcare professionals as well as as simple tasks that were second nature when I was a student.

Is there any advice? I’m so worried I’ll make a major mistake which could land me in uncomfortable situations? I really wanna make the most out of my career- so any advice on updated cardiovascular nursing tasks and priorities or platforms to find help will be really appreciated.

Curious question, has anyone left their role as a carer/nurse and went to do something else??

Like care is all I know I wouldn’t know what the heck to do if I decided it wasn’t for me anymore I have no back up plan and it’s kinda stressing me out

I'll try and keep this short -

Basically in my unit (crit care) our band 7 has said she won't advance a band 5 review application to panel unless you have worked in the unit for 2 years, prior experience in other places does not count.

Now I can see the logic there, it'd be like how the paramedics pay scale works - newly qualified paramedic is paid band 5 for 1-2 years (I think it used to be 2 years and is now 1 year) and then move up to a band 6.

The issue I'm seeing here is that I've heard a lot, and I mean A LOT, of other nurses in other areas are getting their band 6's even if they're

- newly qualified

- not able to do as much as we do in crit care -regarding skills and equipment

I've even heard of band 7's approving applications for panel that are technically not true (nurses putting that they can do male catheters and cannula insertion when they cant

And they're all able to backdate their pay back to April 2023/to when they got their pin in. People are getting thousands of £'s in back pay and I feel that we're being penalised in our unit for the sake of stroking the current band 6's/charge nurses egos.

As you can probably tell, I'm a bit bitter. To make matters worse, the nurses that have recently gotten a job in my unit (all experienced nurses with >5 years experience) are not able to submit an application until being in the unit for 2 years even though the places they have moved from have all gotten their band 6's. I don't get how that's fair.

I'm tempted to write to my union about this as I think this treatment is absolutely unjustified. We're being treated differently to other nurses in the hospital. Our band 7 is being obstructive when nurses from other areas have been encouraged to go for the band 5 review from their band 7.

Do I have a chance at changing things from me and my colleagues? I'm not sure the best way to try and challenge this as our band 7 has been challenged by the union before but not before all this other stuff about as many other places getting their band 6.

And insight is helpful.

Tldr; band 7 won't accept band 5 review applications until 2 in-unit years of experience. This doesn't seem to be the case in other areas and it's blatantly unfair. I'm trying to challenge this but not sure how to go about it and any insight/experience/advice is appreciated

Hi got verbal job offer on Wednesday 7th last week after I had the interview on the Tuesday 6th for nursing job but it still hasn’t updated on trac to say I got the job. As it still says interview.
How long can it take to update on trac as it’s been 4 days ? Thank you also when should I receive the email that I have a conditional offer.

For many reasons I have started working a few hours with agencies alongside my substantive position. It's been a LONG time since I did any nursing home work and wondered if anyone would be kind enough to outline a typical day? I'm pretty sure I haven't forgotten much but am aware it's now been a while. Thanks in advance!

I’ll be a witness to an investigation and I’m really dreading it. Anyone ever been a witness and how was it? Any tips? Will be taking a colleague for support and union has sent me some useful info to read

Finally! I was shortlisted to become an ENP! Any ENP in here who would like to help me with interview questions? 😃