Dundee nurse graduate Sasha Munnslet down by a Scottish Government ‘job guarantee’ scheme which in five months has not found her a jobhas finally found work, thanks to The Courier.
The delighted 21-year-old will be starting at Bughties Nursing Home in Broughty Ferry on Saturday, February 12, and said, as she left the interview, “I’m over the moon.
“I’m delighted to get this chance and can’t wait to start. I thank Bughties and The Courier for making this happen.”
Earlier we revealed that Sasha graduated in nursing from Dundee University in September and registered with the government’s One Year Job Guarantee Scheme. The initiative is meant to find graduate nurses a year’s work anywhere in Scotland and was intended to operate similarly to the probationer scheme for new teachers.
The nursing scheme has been unable to find Sasha any work, however, and left her in limbo. She applied for several advertised nursing posts but was unsuccessful as she did not have the experience the job guarantee scheme would have given her.
Her frustrated mother Ann bemoaned that her daughter, who always wanted to be a nurse, was trapped in a Catch 22 situation. She could not start her career because she could not get experience and the only way she could get experience was by getting a nursing job.
Sasha did find employment in a call centre but that has now ended and she is registered as unemployed.
Her plight has provoked outrage in the Scottish Parliament with opposition politicians blasting “the scandalous waste of talent” and branding the scheme “a sham,” with it costing £45,000 to £51,000 to train a student nurse to degree level.
MSPs have called for the government to investigate the scheme to see why it was not working.’Interviewed well’Our article was also read by Jennifer Chalmers, administrator at Bughties, who immediately called our office. We put her in touch with Sasha who went for an interview yesterday and emerged thrilled to be starting her nursing career.
Ms Chalmers said, “We were thinking about our staffing because we have a vacancy and then I read about poor Sasha in The Courier. She came along this afternoon and interviewed very well.
“She was well prepared and had her registration and disclosure certificates with her. Everything was positive and we are delighted to offer her a job which she has accepted. We have a shift rota here which means she’ll start next Saturday although she’ll come for a day’s orientation next week.”
Ms Chalmers said Sasha actually did a work placement at Bughties as part of her course and remembered some of the staff and residents.
Ms Chalmers said, “Our nurses have plenty of contact with patients and it is not like what you often see in hospitals which is nurses sitting at computer screens or writing reports. We have employed four graduate nurses in the past two years and they have been fine. Three are still with us and one has got a promoted post-she is our deputy matron.”
Sasha is still on file at the job guarantee scheme but is not holding her breath waiting for officials to call. “I’ll let the future take care of itself,” she said. “I’m just very happy to get a job.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said on Thursday that all newly qualified nurses and midwives registered with the scheme will be offered a post with NHS Scotland in the next few months.