The best thing about being an NHS job is the guaranteed income and the freedom to choose how many hours you want to work. You can either do full time (13-14 shifts monthly) or 34.5 hours (3 shifts per week). Or 30 per week or 24 hours/week. The good thing about a full-time job is, it is an advantage when you apply for a home loan/ personal loan or house to rent etc. The other good thing about the NHS job is the flexibility. If you have issues with child care when the husband and wife both work, you can request specific days/ nights only / days only. The managers will try their best to accommodate your requests. The next benefit is the annual leave. You get 27 days per year and 8 public holidays. They will try to give the leave together for 3-4 weeks whenever possible. We can also add up our days off at the beginning and end of the leave to extend the leave. Once you have completed 10 years your annual leave will be 33 days. The next benefit is maternity pay which can be up to one year if you want to, it is a blessing to the families. 9 months will be paid and the amount will be decreasing slowly. Another benefit is the sick pay, which can be up to 6 months for a genuine reason with the doctor’s certificate. For a leave of up to one week, you can call up the hospital and inform them you cannot make it to work because of feeling unwell. This is a great advantage because if you are self-employed or working for agencies, you will have no income if you become unwell. This is why most nurses stick with the NHS. The next thing is the pension, which will be deducted each month from your salary. On retirement, it will be paid according to your band, experience etc… The retirement age is currently 67 which was 55 before.