‘New nurses must not accept the current state of nursing as normal’

A year ago Jessica Vaughan stepped into the emergency department (ED) as a newly qualified nurse, with a first class degree and a Nursing Times ‘student nurse of the year’ award under her belt. She was brimming with enthusiasm, but now feels depleted and disillusioned

"As a previous student editor for the Nursing Times, I said I would write an article on my experiences. But words failed me. After my previous articles declaring hope, resilience, and the beauty of nursing, writing a litany of complaints felt shameful.

"But the truth is, I am not achieving what I set out to. Maybe I was simply too idealistic and naive. But there is something fundamentally wrong if eager new nurses are burning out so quickly.

"I do not know the answer but I do urge those of us on the frontline to keep using our voices to tell the truth about what is happening. We owe it to our patients but also ourselves."

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Source: Nursing Times, 25 February 2025

Further reading on the hub:

The crisis of corridor care in the NHS: patient safety concerns and incident reporting 

Patient Safety Learning's response to RCN report: on the frontline of the UK’s corridor care crisis

How corridor care in the NHS is affecting safety culture: A blog by Claire Cox

A nurse's response to the NHSE guidance on their principles for providing safe and good quality care in temporary escalation spaces

A silent safety scandal: A nurse’s first-hand account of a corridor nursing shift