If I’m being totally honest, the thought of qualifying terrifies me. The unknown is scary and the time to start applying for jobs is fast approaching, but where are they?
Throughout my studies, I have not been overly concerned with getting a job once I qualify. You often hear things like “there are loads of jobs for you when you qualify” and “we are crying out for nurses”.
This may be the case for other fields of nursing, but for learning disability nursing students, where do we stand? Is this a misconception? Have I got this wrong and what is really going on?
“I really did not think I would be in a position where I am questioning if I will even get a job upon qualifying”
Hearing the child field students saying that they had already been applying for jobs and had had interviews gave me a wake-up call to start looking for jobs myself.
I began my search on NHS trust websites for the area I will be relocating to following completion of my training. This involved six different websites; I am fairly flexible in where I want to work and may I add, this covers a large region.
To my surprise, there were no vacancies that fitted my experience and qualifications. I moved my search to alternative websites to identify areas that I may have missed, and by doing so, I found a single band 5 vacancy. I appreciate that we are a minority, but research supports the idea that the number of individuals with a learning disability is rising each and every year due to better education, knowledge and recognition of disabilities, yet there are so few jobs out there.
Despite the figures showing that the population of individuals with learning disabilities is increasing, for some reason it appears as though learning disability services are some of the first areas to take a cut in funding.
Is it fair to suggest that I am qualifying at a time where funding and NHS services are stretched to the limit? Every single placement I have been on, both inpatient and within the community, the teams have been strained. Waiting lists are growing, an increasing number of staff are experiencing burnout and within the learning disability field, patients are falling through the net because there are simply not enough specialised nurses.
From my understanding, it is not the case that there are too many newly qualified nurses going for a small number of jobs, as statistics show there are 40% fewer learning disability nurses in the NHS in England in 2020 compared to 2010.
Instead, I wonder if the nursing associate route is becoming more appealing, which could be why we are seeing a decline in learning disability nurses. This brings me to another question: do some teams prefer to employ nursing associates over band 5 nurses?
As a disclaimer, I think nursing associates are invaluable and have amazing knowledge and experience, but are they being employed as a cost-effective option as opposed to employing newly qualified nurses? From experience in placements, nursing associates often go on to do their nursing training, anticipating that a band 5 job may be waiting for them; but due to funding issues this is not always the case.
Should more be done to focus on employing a range of professionals with a wide range of skills, knowledge, and expertise to enhance teams instead of making them smaller?
From speaking with my learning disability student nurse colleagues, I know this is a shared concern and there are so many unanswered questions we have. Is it more of a postcode lottery, where minimal vacancies only appear in certain areas? Are certain trusts focusing more on learning disability nurses than others?
What can student nurses do to feel more confident when it comes to finding a job? I really did not think I would be in a position where I am questioning if I will even get a job upon qualifying.
Ellie Sims is a second-year learning disability nursing student, University of Nottingham and 2023-24 Nursing Times student editor