79 Guardian Unlimited
Nurses desert NHS for good life
Eighteen months ago, Katie Morgan was living in a –cramped former –council house in Torbay and traveling to work at the local hospital in a –rusting car hat often refused to start. Now she lives in a large house with swimming pool in Phoenix, Arizona, and has two new cars. 1………………..
Figures to be released next month from the UK Central Council for Nursing and Midwifery will show that 5,500 nurses emigrated last year.
Morgan, 26, earned £14,000 a year at Torbay Hospital’s cardiology department, but instantly doubled her salary in the United States. ‘Once you are here for a while, it is possible to increase your pay almost without limit it’s not capped like in the UK she said 2…………………
But here you are seen as a professional and paid a professional salary.
Trade magazines such as the Nursing Times carry several pages of advertisements enticing nurses to leave the UK. Nurses going to work in the US which also has a nursing shortage have their flights paid and receive green cards for their families. 3………………
The only disadvantage is two week holiday a year compared with seven in Britain. 4……………
Said Morgan. I’m never going to go back not in a million years.