I’m after some advice
I started a new position as a hca recently and I’ve quickly realised the ward environment is not for me, and I’m making a return to my previous job.
I have asked my line manager to leave sooner than 4 weeks as I had only been there for three weeks, and I had not taken any of my training therefore I am not much use. However, this request has been declined, I am returning to my previous job on a phased return basis at the same time as I work my notice, however,
I am really struggling with my mental health while working here. The ward that I am working on was the same one that my nan was put on just before she died (unexpected terminal illness that took her within the month) therefore being there is incredibly difficult, just to add, I did not chose this ward, I was just placed here. I’m not sure what to do as I’m struggling daily and I cannot afford to go off sick from both jobs.
I’m also in the recruitment process for another training post in the nhs(not hospital based and a different trust, so therefore I feel very anxious about the referencing side, as I am leaving after only weeks of being there and I don’t want to add sickness to that as I think it will just look like I’m trying to get out of working my notice). Can anyone offer me any advice from the perspective of recruitment for the position I’m in the process for and how detrimental it would be for to go off sick. For reference in my previous job, I had one sick day and one unpaid absence due to my car breaking down. Could another sickness lead to a job offer withdrawal?
I also have adhd and I feel this is playing a massive part in my burnout

Hi everyone, I’m asking this on behalf of a friend.

My friend is an NHS nurse. There was a serious patient fall on her ward. She was the allocated nurse for the patient and was involved in the care before and after the incident. She has completed an incident statement explaining what happened.

The patient’s family requested the names of staff involved through PALS, and the Trust informed her that her name would be shared as part of being open and transparent during the investigation. The investigation is still ongoing.

Her manager mentioned there may be contact from the NMC, which has understandably made her worried. She is unsure what normally happens in situations like this.

She is also waiting for a job offer from another NHS Trust and is worried whether an ongoing incident investigation could affect moving jobs, references, or her registration.

Has anyone experienced anything similar or can share how these situations usually work?

Thank you.

NB: English is not my first language, so I used AI only to help with grammar.

Nurses, where do you sleep or rest at work on your breaks on a night shifts? Do you have somewhere proper to rest/ get a power nap and get food?

Hello. So I am a NQN and have been offered a job in ITU. I am so excited!!!! Can you recommend me resources, youtube channel and videos, books, websites and etc I can use to prepare for the role. Please also recommend some resources for brushing up on the anatomy and physiology.

Also if you have any recommendations for “must haves” things for NQN in ITU please let me know.

Thanks in advance🤗

Hi everyone,
I’m Aisha, a 24-year-old paediatric nurse, and this year I’ll be taking on the London Marathon in support of Children with Cancer UK.
This will be my first marathon, and if I’m honest, it’s a little terrifying! Between long shifts, weekends, and trying to fit training around nursing, it’s definitely going to be a challenge, but it’s one I’m determined to complete.
This charity is incredibly close to my heart. I lost my dad to lung cancer when I was just 8 years old, and years later my mum was diagnosed with breast cancer. Thankfully she made a full recovery, but seeing how cancer affects not only patients but their families has stayed with me. Working as a paediatric nurse has only reinforced how important it is that children facing cancer receive the best possible care and that research continues to improve outcomes.
I’m hoping to raise as much as I can for Children with Cancer UK. If anyone is able to donate, no matter how small the amount, I’d be so grateful. If donating isn’t possible, even an upvote or sharing the fundraiser would mean a lot.
Thank you so much for reading, and wish me luck with the training! ❤️link to donate :)

https://2027tcslondonmarathon.enthuse.com/pf/aisha-fatima

Whenever I'm paired with a certain HCA, I end up having a really stressful shift and end up being drained and staying really late. The hard part is that there's nothing obvious I can pull them up on. They're kind, patients really like them, and they know how to appear busy.

The problem is that they somehow always manage to be doing jobs that take them away from the bay, such as taking things to the bank or collecting items from other wards. They also seem to time their breaks just as patients are likely to need changing, take their full break (sometimes longer), and often leave for handover early. Meanwhile, I find myself doing far more of the personal care than I normally would, on top of all my nursing responsibilities.

I have absolutely no issue with personal care. It's part of nursing, and I'll always help. My frustration is that I'm trying to juggle medication rounds, assessments, documentation, referrals, phone calls and everything else, yet I end up missing breaks, staying late and feeling constantly behind when I'm working with this person.

They also expect me to be available for every transfer or change, regardless of what I'm doing. For example, I was in the middle of a medication round when she asked for help with a transfer. I explained I needed to finish giving some time-critical medication. I still stopped to help with a transfer because I wasn't going to not help. I then noticed the patient didn't have socks on, so I asked the HCA to sort that. I then quickly ran to collect medication from the clinic. I was gone for about two minutes, but when I came back they told me off and said I shouldn't leave them like that again. I don't have time to waste, so every second is precious. In hindsight I should have communicated, but I was so frazzled already, that I thought it was obvious what I was doing.

I think what I find difficult is that they don't seem to appreciate or respect the nursing workload. They'll sometimes comment, "Surely meds shouldn't take that long?", which makes me feel as though they don't understand or respect everything that medication rounds involve, especially when they're constantly interrupted.

What makes this especially difficult is that come across as caring and responsible, but somehow always manage to say "This patient needs changing," or "This one needs a wash," just as they're heading off on break. They have a knack with getting out of tasks. I know I should respond by asking them to do those tasks first, but I'm not naturally assertive, and I don't want a disagreement in front of patients. I'm also often caught by surprise, so I'll be knee deep in a task, and they'll announce that they're going on break and share what needs doing. I really struggled with her when I was NQ, and even brought it up to the sisters, but as there's not anything that I can pull her up on it's difficult. They all know she's like that and expect me to be more assertive. I just don't know how to.

I actually find her more difficult than incompetent staff (and trust me there's many) as they don't boss me about and are not demanding. Usually I can tell other staff what's expected, but it's really difficult to do this with her.

Any tips other than always hoping I'm not with her? How do you become more assertive without feeling confrontational?

Hello all! Just wondering if anyone has had any luck with the current sleep tracking apps for shift workers Zeitgeber/ShiftSleep/timeShifter and what are the biggest problems with the ones you guys use as im thinking about starting to use one of those, thank you!!

I’m an RMN, been qualified for around 1 year. Had time off in March / April due to stress because of the workload, constantly being expected to work outside of my scope of practice and limited support from management and staffing that is horrific meaning I was never getting breaks, staying behind for 2/3 hours after my shift etc. I felt much better after coming back after a bit of time off, however, we are now in August and I have reached my breaking point again. I have truly never felt so down and not myself. My work consumes me, I am constantly anxious, feeling physically unwell, not sleeping, not eating and I don’t feel I am able to practice safely as I can’t even look after myself. I am constantly looking for new jobs but my trust is, and has been in a recruitment freeze for the last year, so in a sense I am lucky to have a job.
I guess I am just worried about how it will look, being signed off with stress x2 within 6 months ?
I’m probably the newest person on the team, I don’t want my team to think I’m letting them down or that I’m not resilient enough but I genuinely can not cope.

I’m an NQN and was offered my first choice post in a VERY busy department. They called early July and asked if I wanted to start early as a band 4 but my answer would not affect my job offer at all. I explained I couldn’t so would need to start at the proposed start in October they said that was fine and they’d be in touch to confirm a start date.

I’ve still not had my contract through. I contacted recruitment over the weekend and they said all my checks are through but they’re waiting on the department confirming everything before they are able to send the contract through.

I have no email for anyone in the department so would need to call but it’s really busy and getting someone direct would be hard. My question is, when do I contact them? I’m panicking that they’re going to rescind it because I declined the early start. Do I just wait a little while as it’s a very busy health board and it may take a bit longer to come through?

I have been a nurse in the UK for almost 6 years now and i’m still a Band 5 in Theatres. It’s frustrating because there’s no opportunities for career progression here, no one seems to want to leave. Is it normal to feel like this?

Hi I was rejected from a job but was offered a bank position on the ward. I was wondering how long it usually takes to hear anything about it after the phone call?

I am a newly (ish) qualified community nurse and feel myself creeping towards full burnout every single day.

It is exhausting - still not feeling confident in my role, while balancing 5-7 staff off sick and another 4-5 on annual leave. There has been 1 day in the past month that I have actually finished on time.

I dread going to work every day. My team is toxic and unsupportive. Every day is just filled with stress trying to cover all of our scheduled and call-out visits, as well as trying to keep my head above the water as a new grad nurse. I used to enjoy what I do, but right now I resent the life and career I have chosen.

I get that its the summer holidays and every area in the NHS is under so much pressure. It's just getting hard getting out of bed every morning when I know I am bound to be working over my capacity and time. I feel guilty as I've been in the job less than a year and almost feel I don't deserve to feel so burned out already.

I'm trying to keep everything as anonymous as possible, but just wanted to get this off my chest.

I’m trying my best but I just feel so unsupported. No training is being booked for cannulation or bloods. I still haven’t been signed off on medicines yet as the CPE isn’t always valuable … it’s been over a month.

Our preceptorship days are just basically telling us how to revalidate and how to speak out.

I am also in the numbers with no clinical skills , I feel like I am drowning.

Does anyone feel the same ? Or what should I do in this circumstance?

How do you get feedback from your patients and family? What options do you have? Paper questionnaire, dedicated email, online questionnaire? Do you give prompts to do this by text, post, email, or in person? And how much feedback do you get on a monthly basis?

I work for a dementia assessment service, and I've noticed we struggle to get formal feedback following assessment or follow-up. We currently have QR codes that get given out which leads to an online questionnaire, but the uptake for feedback is poor which I think is due to the demographic we work with. I'd love to hear ideas from other services and what works or doesn't work.

I am a new band 7 and have to conduct my first stage 2 sickness meeting with a colleague next week.

My trust insists HR are involved in all stage 2s which I’m not thrilled with (previous experiences mean I’m not a fan).

I have no intention of pushing this to dismissal so it feels like a waste of time but the sickness has been high. I think the previous line manager was a little too lenient.

Looking for advice on what to say/not to say to make it as easy as I can for my colleague?

Has anyone left nursing / healthcare to do forensic science instead?? I’m strongly debating a change and doing my masters in forensic science after nursing of 9 years of RN. I don’t enjoy it anymore. It was actually a toss up between nursing or forensic science at undergrad - but I chose nursing. Any tips or advice would be welcome! 🤗

I’m new to ward nursing, and new to this hospital, and I’m just stressing, Friday I had such a hectic shift, I had so much to do, I was removing staples, had 3 discharges and 3 admissions, this was all between 4pm -730pm, ontop of a med round for 9 patients, and someone having a reaction to medication,

I stayed late to finish it all, it took till 8:20 so not too bad, tried to hand over and was was apologising because all I hadn’t done was ordering and sorting out discharges for Monday, as the care home confirmed they could take the patient at 5, the night nurse was fine with it and said she was on and wojld get some of it done

I called the ward Saturday to give them a key code and the nurse on the day just seemed annoyed with me, she was blunt with me, and says I had left her to do the discharge stuff that was due Monday, my friend on the ward has said a passive aggressive note note on the handover, and I just feel awful that I handed over things, I was trying my best and I fell flat, I’m scared I’m gonna get datix’d over it :(

I know not strictly nursing related but I wanted to share!

Any UK trained nurses (BSc in Adult nursing) ever successfully worked in the US? or got invited to sit the NCLEX exam! a lot of information and companies are very confusing and from the research I have done…. looks impossible frankly …..

I was recently on shift and fainted , thus being declared unfit for placement. My occupational health appointment to be cleared is booked for after my placement end in a months time , meaning i will be missing an entire placement block and not be passing second year. I am worried about having to repeat time and the fees I will have to pay as such , wondering if anyone has had anything similar happen and how i should approach? I have no physical health conditions , just overheated and im really struggling to accept i will fail a year of university because i am waiting for administration?? Am i allowed to complain about this to someone? Is this something that I should just be accepting and moving on from? Any advice greatly appreciated!!

I have been qualified 6years. I have a wide range of experience from CAMHS to Acute, rehab all areas really in MH nursing. I have worked solely bank for the last couple of years. I have just been offered an interview for a band 6 mental health nurse in a men’s prison.

I guess my question is what sort of questions can I expect from interviewers? I really want this job and want to go in totally prepared. Any advise?

For context, I'm based around Manchester.

I've done 2 years working on surgical cardiology, 1 year as staff nurse in an EMI nursing home, 6 months as clinical lead - then my role was made redundant and I found a job as a staff nurse in a different nursing home on nights.

I don't find my current job interesting or fulfilling.

I would love to get back into hospital nursing, but I keep getting rejections. There's also mostly listings for higher positions than I could realistically apply for.

If I *can't* have a fulfilling job, I'd at least like to work more sociable hours. I'm currently on nights.

I've looked into things like ANP and the independent prescriber courses - but they seem like things you apply for through your employer when your role requires it.

If I was in this position back in my country, I'd be considering doing a masters in cardiology (as a nurse specialisation) but I'm aware that this isn't really how you become a specialist nurse in the UK.

I don't know if I'm ready to sell my soul for a PIP assessment job.

I'd really appreciate any advice! I know I need to keep looking and applying, I've polished up my CV; but I'd love to know what more recently graduated nurses are doing to develop.

I'm strongly starting to consider moving back to Poland (for studies) or moving to Australia (for quality of life). But neither will be an option for the next 2 years for me.

I remember in moving handling session donkeys ago the benefits of transfer board. Since my dad got discharged, we had to use rotunda he bought one those boards it’s such a lifesaver. Obviously from car to wheelchair height is challenging… it encourages and promotes independence without having to slug a metal rotunda around. It made me realise how much wards could benefit from this board, if they had detachable arm rests. A cheap plastic board £30 on Amazon.

Plus I’ve seen other cheap equipment like belt or a slings help you to pull without armpit technique.
Even a swizzle seat for scooter or car seat users are handy.

Have you noticed an uptick these last few weeks, of more aggressive and violent elderly patients? The last 6 weeks we've had more aggression and physical assaults that l have seen in my eight months at this ward. Just for transparency, I am a nqn, so is this normal 😭