Fighting for their future: student nurses protesting outside Mayday Hospital this morning, after they were told none of them would be offered jobs after they finish their training course
As government launches its 10-year plan for the NHS, newly qualified nurses are being turned down for jobs at the hospital where they have spent the past three years training
Around 100 student nurses staged a demonstration outside Mayday Hospital today, protesting at being abandoned by the local NHS Trust, which is refusing to offer jobs to any of them at the end of their three-year nursing degree course.
Croydon University Hospital, as it is sometimes known, is in the middle of a recruitment freeze, while according to the student nurses it is also closing wards to save money. The A&E department, meanwhile, is having to deal with an average of 450 patients daily.
“This is deeply alarming,” the student nurses say. “How is it that the largest borough in London is so chronically underfunded?”
The student nurses say that they have been “neglected, undervalued, and overwhelmed after dedicating years to academic and clinical training”.
The demo on London Road, Thornton Heath outside the hospital came just a day after Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his health secretary launched their “10-year plan” for the NHS. “We can’t even plan our futures for the next 10 days,” said one of the student nurses.
“We’ve been saddled with tens of thousands of pounds of student debt, and now the trust that runs the hospital where we’ve worked and studied for the past three years has just dumped us and told us we’re not wanted.”
In the past, all those in a year group of student nurses would be offered jobs by the Croydon NHS Trust. This year, there are 91 in the year group. Not one has been offered a job, as the Trust seeks to make drastic cuts to its spending.
Men with a plan: Starmer and Streeting at yesterday’s policy launch. But student nurses in Croydon don’t know if they will have jobs when their courses end
Today’s protest was organised by the Royal College of Nursing. The students waved banners carrying slogans “We Want Jobs”, “Fighting For Our Futures”, and “The patients need us!”
Student nurses at the well-attended protest spoke of feeling abandoned and having wasted three years of their lives.
“We want patients and the public to aware of what is happening at the Trust,” one of the student nurses told Inside Croydon.
“Why do people think the long waits in A&E are happening?”
Deborah Kelly, the Chief Nursing Officer at Croydon Health Services Trust, wrote to the student nurses recently, saying, “I fully appreciate the upset and anxiety that this uncertainty is causing.”
‘Deep regret’: Deborah Kelly, Croydon’s chief nurse
And Kelly wrote that it is “a matter of deep regret that we are unable to offer the same level of employment opportunities to final year students here at Croydon Health Services in 2025-2026”.
The student nurses have written to all four of Croydon’s MPs, as well as to health secretary Streeting “to express our growing concerns and deep frustration about the lack of employment opportunities available to newly qualified nurses in our borough”.
The nurses wrote that, “This situation has left us feeling neglected, undervalued, and overwhelmed after dedicating years to academic and clinical training.”
They estimate that many of the “cohort class of 2022” have accumulated student debt of as much as £80,000 each through tuition fees and associated living costs, “under the promise that our hard work would lead to meaningful employment and the opportunity to contribute to our communities”.
But they add: “We are now facing an uncertain future where jobs are scarce, and support is limited.”
And their letter to the Chief Nursing Officer was clinically critical of the way they had been treated. “The communication around employment pathways for newly qualified nurses has been poor. Information is often vague or inconsistent, and many of us have been left with unanswered questions and no clear plan forward.
“While we understand that healthcare staffing is a nationwide issue, the situation in Croydon is especially dire. As one of the largest and most diverse boroughs in London, Croydon should be a place of opportunity for new nurses. Instead, we are facing barriers to employment due to budget limitations, lack of available roles, and the prioritisation of experienced hires.”
Getting their message across: the RCN is backing Croydon’s job-less, newly qualified nurses
The student nurses have caught in the middle of a 12-month job freeze at the hospital. “The irony is painful—while the healthcare system continues to suffer from understaffing, newly trained professionals like us are left on the sidelines…
“By refusing to invest in newly qualified staff, the system is pushing existing healthcare workers toward burnout… We are qualified, ready, and willing to step up and help carry the weight. Yet instead, we’re being left on the sidelines, with… no opportunity to apply the skills we’ve spent years developing…
“The long-term sustainability of the NHS depends on nurturing and retaining the next generation of nurses — not turning them away at the starting line… We are not asking for special treatment. We are asking for fairness, for opportunity and for the chance to serve the community we have trained to care for.”
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An absolutely awful state of affairs! With an ageing population more nurses is exactly what’s needed. Speaking as a former nursing officer, the profession used to be a safe career choice. Not any more it seems, sadly for all concerned!
📣 Calling All Third-Year Nursing Students! 📣
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is running a survey to hear directly from student nurses like YOU about your experience applying for Band 5 roles.
This is your chance to speak up about the challenges you’re facing when applying for jobs – and the RCN needs your voice!
🕐 Closing date: 20 July 2025 – there’s not much time, so please take part and spread the word!
We want to hear:
What branch of nursing you’re studying (e.g. Adult, Child, Mental Health, Learning Disability)?
Have you applied for Band 5 roles?
Are you applying in your hometown, where you study, or a new region?
Which country are you applying in? England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland or outside the UK?
What region specifically? (e.g. North West England, South Wales)
Are you applying through the All Wales Student Streamlining Scheme?
How many jobs have you applied for?
How many interviews have you been offered?
How many job offers have you received?
If unsuccessful, have you been given feedback?
🎓 Whether you’re still applying or already secured a role – your experience matters.
Let’s shine a light on the process and support each other. Please complete the survey and share this post with your fellow students.
🗣️ The RCN is listening – now’s your time to be heard.
https://surveys.rcn.org.uk/s/graduatejobs
I was one of the student nurses on the protest today. I am about to qualify in two weeks, but with no jobs available, how are we suppose to live?
I started my course thinking that I would have a job at the end of it, so to be here now is deeply disheartening, worrying and causing a lot of stress.
I am about to finish my course in three weeks time and am so scared where will get a job as a single parent to help my children. I enrolled for the course thinking that I will secure a job but the NhS is failing us.
This is not only Croydon. Even here in Manchester we are struggling to get a job. Hospitals are not recruiting. The government has to do something.
This is so sad. I’ve just had a week in hospital and all but one of my excellent nurses were Filipinos! Looks like a policy fuckup to me
📣 Calling All Third-Year Nursing Students! 📣
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is running a survey to hear directly from student nurses like YOU about your experience applying for Band 5 roles.
This is your chance to speak up about the challenges you’re facing when applying for jobs – and the RCN needs your voice!
🕐 Closing date: 20 July 2025 – there’s not much time, so please take part and spread the word!
We want to hear:
What branch of nursing you’re studying (e.g. Adult, Child, Mental Health, Learning Disability)?
Have you applied for Band 5 roles?
Are you applying in your hometown, where you study, or a new region?
Which country are you applying in? England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland or outside the UK?
What region specifically? (e.g. North West England, South Wales)
Are you applying through the All Wales Student Streamlining Scheme?
How many jobs have you applied for?
How many interviews have you been offered?
How many job offers have you received?
If unsuccessful, have you been given feedback?
🎓 Whether you’re still applying or already secured a role – your experience matters.
Let’s shine a light on the process and support each other. Please complete the survey and share this post with your fellow students.
🗣️ The RCN is listening – now’s your time to be heard.
https://surveys.rcn.org.uk/s/graduatejobs
Utterly ridiculous. To get waiting lists down we need MORE wards open and more of these trained staff used locally.
Nothing wrong with Filipino nurses either.
I don’t care where talented staff come from. I just want qualified staff USED at decent pay rates for both hospital and care in the community use.
A while back i spent some time as a patient in CUH and i was really impressed by the student nurses who looked after me.They were -and still are-a credit to their profession and i’m appalled at the way they’re now being treated.
This is not an isolated case. It’s like this across most Trusts in the country. We are having same issue in North East UK. My Cohort alone has 30 due to qualify and only 5 have jobs across the North East. Thinking of all of us due to qualify, only 1 or 2 posts to fight for, hundreds left without jobs. Not only putting debt on us, but debt on our country as we can’t pay our loans back until we are employed. Makes no financial sense not to give us jobs.
Meanwhile how much is spent on agency staff to fill day to day staff shortages?
As one of the student nurses involved in the recent protest, I must express the profound sense of betrayal we experienced at Croydon University Hospital (CUH). The way we were treated was not only unfair but indicative of a larger systemic issue within the institution. It is unfathomable to think that a hospital would initiate a job freeze with only four weeks left in our management placement, especially when such measures must have been planned well in advance—likely for a year or more. Instead of communicating this crucial information to us in a timely manner, management chose to wait until we were on the brink of completing our training, leaving us devastated.
The disappointment and heartbreak we felt seemed to mean nothing to those in charge. Their actions felt incredibly cruel. It was as if we were mere tools in their operational strategy, used to fulfill staffing gaps and meet departmental targets. We tirelessly worked in multiple roles—serving as healthcare assistants, nurses, and, of course, student nurses—often filling in for absent healthcare assistants who should have been part of the team. This had become a normalized practice across various wards, making us feel like disposable resources rather than valued professionals in training.
During one particularly poignant meeting with the chief nurse, we openly expressed our concerns about the future of students training at CUH, especially given the knowledge that there would be no job offers at the end of our arduous training. Her response was alarmingly blunt: “Yes, CUH will continue to train students.” She also advised us against sharing our disillusionment publicly, claiming that it could harm the hospital’s reputation. It was disheartening to realise that the leadership prioritized their institutional image over our mental well-being and career prospects.
The chief nurse and her team were acutely aware of the implications of their decisions, and this negligence feels profoundly unjust. We were left contemplating our futures, our families, and the aspirations we held dear, only to be met with disregard. CUH has failed us in ways that deeply impact our mental health and career paths.
Given the breach of the implied contract we had with our universities, we believe it is imperative to seek justice for the wrongs we endured. Had we been given appropriate notice — perhaps a full year — I would have been able to inform my university in time to seek opportunities with a different Trust.
The betrayal and disappointment we experienced at CUH are unacceptable. We have been used and discarded, and now we will pursue legal action. We will not stand for this any longer!
I think you’ve been let down Jackie. Bu when you started your course, did they really promise a job at Mayday when you graduated? That seems a bit risky – doesn’t happen in most careers
That has been the process since you were in nappies, Chris. The NHS gets three years’ free work on wards from student nurses.
The bigger risk is of thousands of student nurses walking away to find jobs with employers who won’t shaft them.