My Experience Of Using NHS Professionals

Jonathan, a Registered Nurse discusses his experience working for NHS Professionals as a member of bank staff. His experience was one that worked for him and his lifestyle.

Hello there.

So my name's Jonathan and I've been a qualified Nurse almost four years now in October in this year, actually.

I'm gonna give you a little conversation about NHS Professionals and what it's like to work for them.

But first of all, I'll just give you a slight background on my Nursing career so far.

So as a newly qualified Nurse I went into Trauma Orthopaedics in my local Trust which was very good for my progression and early days as a Nurse.

I left there in August 2020, when I went into a private company to work as a OPAT Nurse.

And for those of you that don't know what an OPAT Nurse is its an Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy Team.

It's pretty much going around to people's houses, administering IV medications and explaining to them how the process works.

So What Are NHS Professionals?

Then in the same year in October, I decided to join NHS Professionals.

A question that a lot of people ask is why would you potentially choose NHSP over a specific role?

So for those of you who don't know what NHS Professionals are, they are a company that's set up to work alongside the NHS but not necessarily directly with a Trust itself.

There are sort of 2 or 3 types of memberships.

Understanding The NHSP Membership?

The two most common memberships that people are aware of are a bank membership, which is when you work for an NHS Trust.

You're able to work as a bank member to pick up extra shifts if you want to earn a bit of extra money.

And then there's also a bank exclusive membership, which is for those people that are perhaps have worked for a Trust but then left the Trust and perhaps want to go back and work in that Trust on a more flexible basis.

A question that a lot of people ask is why would you potentially choose NHSP over a specific role?

Working For NHS Professionals Gave Me A Chance To Explore

I suppose, in my personal circumstances, I work for a Trust and I enjoyed working at that Trust.

But when I finished my time as OPAT Nurse, I was unsure of what direction I wanted to take in my Nursing career and the flexibility that NHSP offers and the advantages that it gives you at the particular time, was a great opportunity.

Flexibility Of Your Working Week

So for example, some of the advantages you have when you work for NHSP are obvious ones, where you are in charge of your own shifts.

So you can work days, nights, short shifts, long days a lot of wards as well, are quite flexible if you want to pick up a shift, but can't potentially work the whole of the shift that they put out.

Increased Pay

Your pay is slightly more than it would be if you worked for an NHS Trust.

You obviously had the flexibility which I spoke about earlier.

Gaining Experience

You get the option to gain the experience in the different wards.

All of this is very good experience going forward and potentially experience that you might not get if you work for a Trust.

You get to meet lots of new people which by exposing yourself to new colleagues and potentially enhance your own knowledge and training.

For example, I myself worked in trauma orthopaedics quite a lot, but I also went and worked on surgery wards, some medical wards and also gained a bit of experience on burns wards.

All of this is very good experience going forward and potentially experience that you might not get if you work for a Trust.

The Less Favourable Terms

The downsides of working as an NHS Professional is the sick pay.

So the sick pay doesn't always work the same.

So, whereas when you work in a Trust you get a statutory sick pay.

You don't always get a sick pay when you work for NHSP.

Obviously, during the COVID situation it was slightly different.

However, as a lot of people now know that the rules and regulations around the COVID-19 sick have changed.

So that does impact.

The other thing that is very different is how the holiday works.

So as with most Trusts, you get at a certain period of holiday.

NHSP work differently.

So how the holiday works is for every shift you work, you earn a holiday entitlement.

So for example, if you worked a long day, if you did a 12-hour shift initially, you would get 1 hour 23 minutes holiday.

And once you've completed a certain probationary period that holiday increases to 1 hour 47 as a holiday shift.

So there is room for you to get quite a lot of holidays, but it obviously doesn't give you that same in holiday entitlement.

Another downside of NHSP at times can be is the responsibility towards yourself and how it's taken.

Negotiating Who Is Responsible For My Ongoing Training?

Sometimes you can find that the training is a bit tricky to get around.

Sometimes the Trust that you work for want NHSP to take responsibility.

And then on the flip side NHSP want the Trust to take responsibility for your training.

So it can be quite a fiddly while I'm trying to work that out.

Flexibility of Being A Bank Nurse

So for example, some of the advantages you have when you work for NHSP are obvious ones, where you are in charge of your own shifts.

Personally speaking, NHSP has worked very well for me alongside personal reasons, it's fitted into my timeframe and my family, social life very well.

As I've said before, I've always tended to lean towards trauma orthopaedics, I think that my background in trauma orthopaedics tends to always lead me into that area.

I quite enjoy the acute Nursing, so that's pretty good.

Leading To New Ventures

I'm actually just about to go into Forensic Nursing with my local police force, which is quite exciting.

It's a very new chapter.

It's very different to what I'm used to.

Hopefully, I will continue my development and my education and hopefully I might be able to persuade some more people to join the force.