They started out with high hopes, now 11 have quit the NHS. Do you

Sunday Mirror, Jan 10, 1999 by TRACY SCHAVERIEN, AMANDA KELLY

A GROUP of newly-qualified nurses sit proudly in their uniforms as they pose for a souvenir photograph.

After three years of training at the prestigious Nightingale School of Nursing, founded by Lady Of The Lamp Florence Nightingale and based at St Thomas's Hospital, London, the future seems bright.

But that was 1989. A decade later much of their pride and optimism has been replaced by disillusionment and disappointment.

Out of the 21 we tracked down 11 have quit the NHS - blaming staff shortages, poor working conditions, low wages and a lack of decent promotion prospects.

Others have seen the job they love change dramatically, and now spend more time on paperwork than with patients.

Adele Waters is typical. She quit three years ago after becoming more and more disillusioned. Now a journalist with the Nursing Standard, Adele, 31, says: "There is a culture in hospitals that is a bit like the army - and nurses are treated pretty badly because they are at the bottom of the pecking order."

Alice Miller, 32, quit the NHS after just eight months, and says she'll never go back: "It would be like tearing myself into 500 million pieces. After I qualified I was put in charge of a busy orthopaedic ward at St Thomas's.

"It was ridiculous - there was just me and a few students. I felt like I didn't have enough experience for the job and was terrified. I was tired all the time and the hours were very unsociable, so I left."

Suzy Jones, 31, who now works in computing for a private healthcare firm in West Hampstead, London, says: "I miss nursing. But I wouldn't recommend it to anyone today."

Karen Jacobs, 31, is now a sister in a private unit in Worthing, Sussex. She says: "I am now now able to enjoy the kind of nursing I want to do."

Penny Sims, 31, left soon after qualifying and is now an acting senior ward sister at a private hospital in Hastings. She says: "The environment is nicer and we have more time to spend with patients."

Surprisingly, BUPA pay their nurses less than the NHS, but Penny says: "I wouldn't go back. Text books have replaced old-fashioned skills."

Hazel Dickie, 31, was a midwife for several years but quit to be a health visitor in London. "Being a midwife was very stressful. We were more and more overworked. We were so short-staffed it was dangerous."

Jane O'Donnell, 31, left nursing shortly after qualifying and after five years at medical school, is now a GP trainee at Battle Hospital, Reading.

Jane said: "I didn't see a future in nursing because to climb the career ladder you have to go into management and have almost no contact with patients."

Lucy Capper, 31, of Balham, South London, spent just nine months in the NHS as a staff nurse on a recovery ward at Guildford Hospital. She said: "The career prospects and the pay prospects, are fairly minimal." She now works as a Health and Safety adviser for Wandsworth Council.

Victoria McGinley, 30, became fed-up with nursing almost as soon as she qualified.She emigrated to Canada and is an estate agent.

Claire Abbott, 31, gave up work to have a baby, and says: "If I go back to work it will be in the private sector. The pressure in the NHS is so enormous that the standard of care is dropping."

Lisa Connolly quit her occupational health job to be a full-time mother to her three children.

Paula Tonkin, 30, is still a nurse - but only just. She is so desperate to leave she has taken on two jobs to fund a masters degree.

She juggles a full-time job at Hereford Hospital with shifts 100 miles away in Basingstoke and says: "I'm keen to get out because of the lack of prospects, lack of morale and terrible pay."

Karen Egan, 31, is a member of a NHS midwifery team in Epsom, Surrey - but only part-time. She says: "Childcare is too expensive to do more "

Nicky Copper went part-time at Guys' children's intensive care ward after becoming a mum four years ago and is now expecting her second baby.

Emma Tonkin - sister-in-law of Paula - is a senior staff nurse at London's Charing Cross Hospital, where she works one 13-hour shift a week now she has children.

"Everyone has more work," says Emma, 31. "Patients don't get the emotional support they need because we simply don't have the time."

But not all the nurses are disillusioned. Suzanne Vizor, 30, who works for the Royal Marsden says: "I can't imagine myself doing anything else."

Faye Penston, 31, ward manager in Weybridge Community Hospital, Surrey, says: "I'd dreamed of being a nurse since I was a girl and there's still nothing I would rather do."

Alison Lundy is still at St Thomas's, where she works in gynaecology. Louise Brennan, 30, on maternity leave from St Mary's, Paddington, adds: "I've never regretted my choice."

Nicky Ray, 30, is a Macmillan Nurse at Mount Vernon Hospital, Middlesex. She earns pounds 25,000 a year and loves her job. "I have an awful lot of patient contact, which is what I went into nursing for," she says.

Jackie Feaver, 31, works in intensive care at the Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge and says: "It's hard work, but I really like it."