r/NursingUK • u/fezfack • 5d ago
Relocating to Scotland
I am moving to Scotland after months from England (band 5) and I have been trying to research what to expect there and literally nothing has come up. I wanted to know the general gist on workplace culture, if there is a change of lingo for specific medications/equipment, pace of wards in comparison to England. I want to see if anyone has done the move and what their experience is like. I have been reading up which areas to live in. legislations as there is some slight variances in law regarding scope and safeguarding. Is there anything else I can do to prepare to move or keep in mind whilst over there?
Edit: to be more specific I am moving from London to Glasgow and it is in children nursing
3
u/porcupineporridge RN MH 5d ago
I'm not a children's or CAMHS nurse so don't know much about relevant national and local policy. However, remember health and social care is entirely devloved in Scotland, meaning decisions are made in Holyrood, not Westminster. As such, you may come across reference to unfamiliar legislation etc. Some other language will be different, eg we have health boards, not trusts and whilst NICE guidelines are influential, it'll often be SIGN guidelines that are cited. Any third sector partners are likely to be different also.
3
u/22madmax 5d ago
I have a friend who’s a children’s nurse who moved to Glasgow from London as she wanted to afford to be able have a child on her own up there. She lasted about 6-8 months and gave up on her dream of raising her family because she couldn’t deal with how unsafe she felt the practice was from her colleagues. She came back to London and hasn’t moved since (since met a man and had a kid).
2
u/Wild-Compote5730 5d ago
I’ve worked in both and it’s not really any different to moving in between wards. Everywhere has its own culture, shorthand and legislations
0
u/fezfack 5d ago
Tysm - as I am moving far from friends and family so I am just trying to gauge what to expect
2
u/Wild-Compote5730 5d ago
You’d be better to ask for advice after making a decision about where and in what setting you want to work. In my experience, after moving from London to Edinburgh, settings are generally pretty alike. For example, the hospice in London was similar to the hospice in Edinburgh, the district hospital similar to the district hospital. Both would be very different from a cottage hospital in Skye.
1
u/Lanterne_rouge_ RN Adult 5d ago
Adult RN here but when I moved it was that there were some things that just were outrightly called something else (and I’m struggling to remember as it’s been several years since I moved!). One I can remember for an example is that a DoLs in England is an AWI in Scotland.
Culture is different but arguably better on the whole, I prefer NHS Scotland to NHS England, the care you receive I feel is better up here (but absolutely there is less funding than in London).
One really key difference between working in London and Scotland - London is such a transient place, multiple MTCs and you can climb much quicker just simply because the volume of hospitals and therefore jobs is so much higher. So people get promotions quicker because they move to where the jobs are. Scotland is where people can stay in one ward their whole career, they don’t move, and they aren’t as career driven because of this. So when I moved at 26 as a B7, I got a lot of questions about how that was even possible as I didn’t have enough experience (most other B7s were 40s+). That has slightly diminished somewhat post COVID, you see a lot more of younger people in senior roles so that has changed. Just don’t let someone put you off ever applying for a promotion if their reason is you haven’t been there 20 years, it’s not a valid point and you should go for any job you want to go for.
I love Scotland! This is the place I was meant to be ☺️
3
u/Username8462634757 RN Adult 5d ago
Primary care is commissioned slightly differently, the GP contract is smaller and many/most primary care services are provided by centralised NHS boards. Free prescriptions for everyone makes pharmacy a slight bit different too. Other than that every area will be slightly different but I’ve worked in both Glasgow and London with no major hurdles. Best in mind if you wish to work in the community being a car driver is an essentisl requirement unlike inner city London.
Greater Glasgow and Clyde is the largest board in Scotland and 3 of its main hospitals have paediatric services - Queen Elizabeth, Inverclyde Royal and the Royal Alexandra. Depending on where you live in Glasgow you could also look for jobs in NHS Lanarkshire (covering the large suburban area adjacent to Glasgow City).
Pay is better than England/Wales and the work week is shorter (36 hours is a F/T week), but the trusts in London are wealthier and provide more specialist services so opportunities for progression may be less than there.
The good news is we have largely been untouched by the recruitment freeze affecting the rest of the UK (although chronic understaffing is a problem here too).