Iain Kightley, a member of the Royal College of Nursing’s Association of Nursing Students, said that out of 65 nurses who recently qualified from Stirling University, 20 did not get jobs.

Nurse Helen Scott has been forced to take a job in her local pub after qualifying at Stirling in September because she could not get work as a nurse.

But Mrs Summerhill said all but four or five of the nurses who left Dundee University in September and wanted to work locally had filled vacancies in Tayside hospitals. The few still not in posts were in the process of being placed.

Mrs Summerhill said 132 nurses completed their studies at Dundee University in September and 62 of those had sought jobs in local hospitals. Everyone who wanted to work locally was being offered a job.

A few weeks ago Mrs Summerhill spoke of the difficulty of recruiting specialist nurses to care for patients with kidney failure and those admitted to intensive care units. She said certain posts for very experienced nurses were remaining unfilled despite being advertised widely on several occasions.

It was a national problem that would not be solved immediately by new recruits to the nursing profession. New recruits were looking for the most junior ‘D’ grade posts after their university courses were completed.

Revisiting the issue today, Mrs Summerhill said, “The position is still the same — if anything it’s worse. We really have struggled to try to get staff into the renal unit. It is the same across the UK.”

A Department of Health spokeswoman said, “There are still lots of jobs in the NHS, but we don’t have the shortages we once had and there is more competition now. We still need more newly qualified staff to replace those who retire or take career breaks, but new staff may need to be more flexible.

“NHS Jobs, which advertises NHS vacancies, has hundreds of jobs for all staff groups.”