Junior Doctor unable to find work

Giles_81

Hi,
I have just qualified from Leeds Uni and have not yet found a post as a junior doctor. I think, in my personal opinion, that the NHS is cutting down on staff due to the recent escalating debt of the hospitals. I find this increasingly frustrating as there are many foreign doctors practicing (not that they're incompetent) whilst I am of British origin and cannot find a post.
The problem being I have a fiance who is a student nurse due to qualify in one year, and feels she is going to be in the same position as I am. She has high aspirations of her and I, going travelling and earning lots of money, which I feel inadequate to fulfill at this moment in time due to being unemployed. Shes gone out with her friends tonight and I'm sat in worrying what to do about our future!!!! Anyone any suggestions???? I'm feeling a little stressed!!

wolfehouse

the future for junior doctors does seem worrying. the nhs seems to want to get nurse practicioners to do night shifts now because it is cheaper than having a doctor on call and nurses can put in a venflon etc. just as well as a doctor. so if you are a doctor/nurse couple you may be alright.

But the consequence will be that new doctors will not get the training opportunities they had previously and of course less work and less money for the job. I don't think foreign doctors has anything to do with this.

i have med. student kids and a gp husband and i really worry if my kids will find work that lets them progress. As much as it hurts me I guess the BMA might be the last line of defence. (just hope they are better than my union)

I'm sure you will get a job eventually as there have been a lot of teething problems with the new junior doctor foundation year thing. It is not in the interest of the nhs to spend a fortune training you and then not giving you a job.
Have you thought about writing in to one of the 'comic' newspapers (like pulse)?

Lady_K

Same concern for my daughter whos a Student Nurse, she is due to qualify in 2008 and her friend a Student Doctor, who is due to qualify in 2007. Her friend has already said if she cannot get work in the UK she will have to be prepared to move to Australia to work and her parents have said they will emigrate with her.

There are a lot of foriegn adapatation nurses taking jobs and I just don't understand why the NHS keep spending money training people up then taking Nurses and Doctors from abroad. There are so many redundancies and job cuts at the moment too yet hospitals seem understaffed. Its very very worrying

inkie

the future for junior doctors does seem worrying. the nhs seems to want to get nurse practicioners to do night shifts now because it is cheaper than having a doctor on call and nurses can put in a venflon etc.

Not strictly true re: pay, as a senior nurse working nights (which is a Nurse practitioner grade), I was earning more than a House Officer.

Although its true that many NHS Trusts have a 'turnaround strategy' in place, there are still HO posts out there. I would not worry about your finace either - if she cannot get a substantive post whaen she qualifies, then she will get plenty of work through NHS professionals - shifts have to be covered whether the trust is in the red or not.

emg

there does seem to be a bit of a recruitment crisis going on this year - too many graduates and not enough jobs. Allied Health Professionals and Nurses are being really hard hit.

According to the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists 9 out of 10 physios graduating this year wont get an NHS job.

Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists report that 8 out of 10 graduates wont get an NHS post.

Royal College of Nursing are currently collecting data on the lack of band 5 posts to inform a national campaign about the problem.

You only have to look on the NHS jobs website to see the scale of the problem (all NHS jobs now have to be advertised on NHSnet). In my field (SLT) there are about 50 vacancies nationwide of which about half could go to new graduates. In contrast there are 24 different graduate courses with between 12 and 60 students graduating from each one each year.

The scandal is that the NHS pays bursaries to these students and funds the running of these courses. It's a waste of NHS money to train more people than we need - they just end up going into private practise or overseas and never benefit the NHS at all.

I'll get off my soapbox now!

LondonDiva

Keep plugging away. Yes there are cuts due to the government's ever changing financial rules, but the only areas really recruiting now are clinical.

try the NHS jobs website https://www.jobs.nhs.uk

Would also advise you to work on application and interview skills.

A friend of mine is in recruitment for a trust and from what he tells me, the quality of recent graduates are very poor.

Little effort made with the application form or at the interview - he says that they turn up to the interview and expect to be given a job because they've got a degree. In the meantime, the application form's not filled in properly and they don't bother to sell themselves.

It's got so bad that he's volunteering to teach 'how to fill in an applcation form' (fill in all the bits they asked for, write only in blue or black and check your spelling) and 'interview techniques' (first important point, turn up on time and iron your shirt) sessions at what should be a feeder unibecause the situation is dire.

Good luck

DrFluffy

Can you not find a job at all, or are you specifically after a job with a training number?

DrFluffy

LondonDiva wrote:

Would also advise you to work on application and interview skills.

The scheme doesn't work like this for F1 and F2 anymore, so your friend in med personel sounds very out of date...

It's all done on a blind computer submitted application form - no interview at all... MDAP was pants, and there is no real evidence that MTAS (which is replacing MDAP after just 1 year of use - and massive cost) will be much better...

tobyjug

I think hang in there too...the trust I work for is slowly releasing more posts.I think nearly every trust in the country has had a really tough year due to the finacial restraints of this new funding structure. It has got to the point now where staff morale is so low and so many vacancies have been frozen and staff are not being replaced that over the next year jobs will start to filter through.

Good luck.....

itsmylife_2

It amazes me that I work on a ward that is severly short staffed with nurses and there are nurses who are out there that are not able to get work. My ward does not employ temporary contracts to cover maternity leave/long term sickness, and working in a mainly female profession there are usually a couple of girls off on maternity leave each year - so they tell us we are fully staffed when in reality we are short staffed. Other professions bring in extra staff to conver maternity leave. Every year the medical staff have one or two doctors who turn down the jobs at the last minute and leave them in the lurch, or a doctor gets another position and leaves a few weeks into the new job... so please don't give up hope!

Jake'sGran

Giles, I am so angry for you. I am a heart patient and have wonderful treatment by the NHS and met a lot of young doctors. Is it possible for you to write directly to individual hospitals or do you have to go through an established system for finding a position? Could you take up a research position or go back and study a speciality? Maybe things will get better when these foreign quickie treatment centres that are said not to be giving good treatment are done away with. Just wanted to sympathise with you and wish you luck. It will come right in the end.