Leaving the NHS to go abroad ...

With UK nursing vacancies at an all time high, the topic of leaving the NHS to go abroad for a better work life balance, and lucrative pay packages can be an extremely controversial topic. Latest stats from the RCN state that there are ‘40,000 nursing posts vacant in England alone’. Leaving the NHS to go abroad brings about a variety of opinions. Some people applaud you. Others think you are a traitor.

The raised eyebrows, the side eyes when you’ve announced ‘I’m leaving’.

Regardless of whether you do or don’t agree with it, the facts are it’s happening more than ever. Stats show that 26,000 nurses in 2017/18 left the NHS! It would be interesting to know what proportion of that went abroad.

I have left the NHS. Twice in fact. I am currently still nursing in the Middle East (don’t shoot me). However I returned once before from down under and I firmly believe I will return once again.

Travelling in any shape of form is good for you. It’s character building. It opens your mind and forces you out of your comfort zone. Not everyone is fortunate enough to travel let alone travel and still be doing the job they love.

However I can’t sometimes help but feel like a fraud. Cheering people on for still pushing on in the NHS whilst watching from afar.

What I have learned from being abroad is that elsewhere nursing is a very highly respected profession. Whilst living in Melbourne when I would tell people that I was a nurse the praise, the admiration, the respect I honestly wasn’t used to it.

UK trained nurses in particular are highly regarded. As we all know the education and the standards that are expected of you in your training is extremely high! The irony is, in many countries abroad UK nurses are so sought after, but yet I feel in our system, the system that made us we aren’t always very much appreciated at all.

Nursing is still hard wherever you are. In a hot climate or a cold climate staffing levels are still an issue and the hours are still gruelling.

“But you don’t go into nursing to be rich” they tell you. Whilst that may be true, you also didn’t go into nursing to be burnt out, to be underpaid and to be over-stretched. And yet soo many times the same words of “well you didn’t go into nursing to be rich” are used to pacify and beat down nurses who dare to complain about lack of pay.

And so it brings the question of are people wrong to leave the NHS? Are people wrong to take their skills elsewhere to places where the profession is respected and pay scales reflect real life?

I’d be interested to know your thoughts.