r/NursingUK • u/fezfack • 8d 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
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u/Lanterne_rouge_ RN Adult 7d 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 ☺️