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Students can take steps to secure a job while on placement – showing passion for an area of practice and talking to managers will help
For Trudi Gibson, securing her dream nursing job began even before her placement. As an adult nursing student at King’s College London, she opted into the university’s community circuit, where around half of her placements were community-based.
Nursing Standard. 39, 6, 33-34. doi: 10.7748/ns.39.6.33.s13
Published: 05 June 2024
‘I was told by the placement team that it would be difficult to put me into general practice, although I knew that’s where I wanted to work,’ she recalls.
Undaunted, she used social media, contacting her local training hub. ‘I said I was passionate about primary care and could they point me in the direction of a practice that would take me on for 12 weeks,’ says Ms Gibson.
Her perseverance paid dividends and she was linked with Aberfeldy Practice in Tower Hamlets, where she is now a newly registered general practice nurse.
» Networking is key Community mental health nurse Holly Brown suggests building links with managers and those more senior. ‘Try to get as many learning opportunities alongside them as you can,’ she says. ‘It all helps to strengthen those relationships’
» Gain skills that will be helpful in your chosen role ‘I was conscious of what I would need to know working in the community,’ says Ms Brown
» If you want to work in an obscure specialty find people at your university who are also passionate about it. ‘They will have contacts and be your way in’, says general practice nurse Trudi Gibson
» When you are on placement make sure managers there know the specialty is where you want to work, says care home manager Kirsty Cartin. ‘Show your passion and make them want you,’ she says
» If there isn’t a job there, remember jobs can be created ‘Keep in touch and offer to go in and shadow people, so you can gain more experience,’ adds Ms Cartin. ‘If a job does come up, there is a chance they’ll approach you first’
» Have conversations early with the right people ‘It can set you apart from other candidates when applying for jobs,’ says newly registered cardiac nurse Alice Amil
As the first student they had ever taken on, it took effort from both sides to get the placement up and running, says Ms Gibson. ‘It was my final placement, so it’s a big responsibility for any provider,’ she says. ‘I felt very fortunate, as few nursing students have this exposure.’
Once there, she made the most of the opportunity. ‘I tried to make myself as indispensable as I could,’ says Ms Gibson. This included seeing patients with long-term conditions such as diabetes and hypertension on her own.
They were so impressed, they offered her a job as soon as her studies ended in September 2023, while she waited for her PIN. She now splits her time equally between clinical practice and education, where she is doing a post-graduate diploma in primary care nursing.
‘I absolutely love general practice,’ says Ms Gibson. ‘As a nurse in hospital, I couldn’t give the care I wanted to. You see people when things have gone awry or escalated – and I wanted to stop people from getting there in the first place.’
Securing a post in her favoured setting gave Alice Amil the motivation she needed to reach the finishing line of her nursing degree. ‘When I found out I’d got the job, I was on a long and intensive placement block,’ she says. ‘It was the push I needed and what I was working towards.’
During her second year at Plymouth University, Ms Amil had completed a 14-week placement in the cardiac catheter lab at Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust. ‘Initially I wasn’t sure I’d enjoy it,’ she says. ‘But about halfway through, I took to it like a duck to water and I knew it was where I wanted to work.’
Among the attractions for Ms Amil is being able to make a prompt and positive impact on many patients’ lives. ‘It’s rare in nursing that you see an instantaneous response to your treatment,’ she says. During the placement, she spoke to the unit manager, who said they would be in touch when jobs came up.
She applied around six months before qualification, securing her role. ‘When I came back, it was as if I’d never been gone,’ says Ms Amil.
When no posts were available for a nursing student who had made a big impact during their management placement at Rashielee care home in Erskine, Scotland, one was created. ‘She really wanted to work here and had stayed in touch with us, but we didn’t have a job at that time, so we changed our set up,’ says care home manager Kirsty Cartin. ‘It’s gone very well. She’s still happy in her role and is very competent and person-centred.’
As the student had already done her placement there, it also meant she knew the home and its 42 residents well. ‘It was great for us because we got someone who really wanted to do the job. If you have passion for a specific area, that’s where you should be,’ she says.
‘If you have a passion for a specific area, that’s where you should be’
Kirsty Cartin, Rashielee care home manager, Erskine
A second-year placement with a community mental health nursing team cemented Holly Brown’s wish to work in the community, rather than being based on a hospital ward.
‘I liked the busyness,’ she says. ‘I’m very much a community person and I like managing my own diary, having my own caseload and getting to know the service-users. On the placement, there was always something new and I could see more future routes for my career.’
The University of East Anglia organised interview days with the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust. ‘If you were successful, you would be allocated somewhere to work by the trust,’ explains Ms Brown, who qualified in 2022.
She was able to express a preference for the community team, who she’d stayed in touch with throughout, doing bank shifts once a week. As a result, she got the job she wanted and was promoted to a band 6 just six months later.
‘I was very open throughout about wanting a job with them,’ recalls Ms Brown, although she took up a new community-based post for Oxford Health in January, moving for family reasons.
‘I had said if a job comes up here, I’m going to go for it. I’d been very happy there as a student and this was a role I could see myself doing.’
I secured my dream role while still a second-year – tips on finding your first job rcni.com/dream-role
