A Dundee nursing graduate is still waiting to begin her career, despite last year joining the Scottish Government scheme that is meant to guarantee her a job.
Sasha Munns (21) is now registered as unemployed and is starting to despair of ever being able to fulfil her ambition to treat the ill.
Her mother Ann said, “Sasha only ever wanted to be a nurse and she was thrilled when she got that chance.
“She graduated from Dundee University in September and registered right away with the one-year job guarantee scheme and waited to hear about where she would be sent to work. She is still waiting.”
The Scottish Government launched the One Year Job Guarantee Scheme to help nurses start their careers as health authorities were struggling to employ new nurses and midwives under their own funding and initiatives.
After graduating and registering, the nurses have to accept employment wherever it is offered, which may not be in their area.
It was intended to operate in the same way as the scheme for probationer teachers.
Sasha, a former pupil of St Saviour’s High School, registered within days of graduating.
If she wasn’t successful at the scheme’s first entry point in September, she hoped the next one, in January, would bring good news.
It hasn’t. Despite her repeated calls and emails to the government, which have all received replies, she has not had an offer of a post apparently because of the financial position affecting all health authorities.
She has tried to find a job on her own, but has failed because of her Catch 22 predicament.’How can it make sense?’Mrs Munns said, “Sasha has applied for nursing jobs on the NHS website but each one has been for nurses with experience, and Sasha can’t get the experience in the first place.
“She’s checked the noticeboards at Ninewells for jobs but hasn’t been lucky there for the same reason, although I think they tend to go to internal applicants.”
She added, “She’s even been in touch with nursing agencies for vacancies but these posts are all looking for at least six months’ post-registration experience and Sasha can’t get the experience to get work because she can’t get on to this so-called guarantee scheme.”
Sasha said, “I’ll go anywhere in Scotland to get a job. I’ve applied for posts in Aberdeen, Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy but the answer is always the same ‘Sorry but you don’t have experience.’
“At a couple of these interviews the employer has come back and told me that I’d interviewed well but I don’t have the experience. They’ve said go away and get some experience and try again, but how do you get the experience?”
Mrs Munns said Sasha had a short-term job in a call centre but is now unemployed.
She added, “How can it make sense for the government to spend thousands of pounds for Sasha to go to university for three years to study nursing and for her not to get a job at the end of it?
“It is an absolute scandal.”
Sasha keeps in touch with many of her fellow students and said most are in the same position.
A government spokesperson said, “We have made clear the Scottish Government’s commitment to the One Year Job Guarantee Scheme and are currently developing ways in which we can build on this to ensure newly-trained staff have access to employment.
“All newly-qualified nurses and midwives registered with the scheme will be offered a post with NHS Scotland within the next few months.”