Nurses striking

[Yel]

I don't understand why they don't just announce the return of the bursary?

That would be small change and would help the supply (in a couple of years).

 

[Ensay]

I think they’re underpaid for what they do and how hard they work. I support the strikes.

 

[Rosie glow]

Front line in Tesco probably

I was a frontline worker in a supermarket throughout the pandemic and I was bloody proud of that too. We had no ppe at all for the first few weeks and we worked bloody hard going above and beyond what we would normally, we were helping people yes in a different way but we were still helping people. As were many other people who worked through it.
Where would hospitals of been without the people who kept them fed or the lorry drivers who brought in the supplies for example.
There's no need look down on us because we don't work for the nhs.

 

[Emsie]

This is the thing, a lot of people's anger about the strikes (of nurses, teachers) not just here but what I see everywhere is that we are all (or most of us anyway) doing worse financially each year. I wish I was in an industry that had a union and could strike, which we all should have the right to do, we shouldn't be taking anger/annoyance out on workers that are fighting for their rights it should be at governments that have curtailed ours

No we shouldn't. My anger is directed at the following:
1. Nurses earning 33k but "forced to use food banks" when people earning less are not using foodbanks.
2. Nurses who "have a degree but would better off stacking shelves" go stack the shelves then Hun, or is it beneath you
3. Nurses who are striking for me. You're striking for you.
4. Real terms paycuts that are actually payrises
5. "I worked in the pandemic" so did the people in Aldi that are beneath you
6. I work sooooo hard. We all do.
The emotive blackmailing around the nurses strikes has been terrible. No other profession uses this type of language.
And now, they've had their payrise, they've had their second payrise, and a lump sum and I've seen posts saying that not all nurses should get it just the ones that worked through the pandemic. Fucking hell, grow up!

 

[bourb0nbiscuits]

Thank you for this. As a HCA of 10 years. I am paid peanuts and take the bulk of the work from 7-7:30. I can’t excuse that the nurses have their own workload and it can be very demanding too but their job like you say is mainly paperwork, tick boxes, audits & no patient hands on care. Changes need to be made across the whole of the NHS, not just the Nurses.

What I can’t get on board with is….

they’re striking for better conditions aswell as better pay.
They can’t just magic more staff which is the main issue here, they’re just going to be paid more to be understaffed and overworked!

I suppose the point is that for nurses to receive a better pay so they don’t either leave the profession completely or go to work for an agency where pay is a lot better and usually weekly pay.

I don’t want to get into the ins and outs of a nurse’s role but nurses do much more than ‘paperwork’. Nurses work in many different roles in different areas- adult, child, mental health, learning disabilities- and are highly skilled and work with a lot of autonomy and responsibilities.

 

[cee-bee]

General medical wards are the kiss of death for anyones sanity or wellbeing
The whole model of care never used to be like this…older general medical patients died at the end of their natural lifespan with little intervention and nursing expertise was focused on specialised medical patients and elective surgical patients

The older medical cohort remained in community based care and nobody would have thought of ringing 999 for an 80 year old with a breathing problem

The problem is the unwillingness of folks to face up to mortality, a modicum of patient behaviour and a whole heap of entitlement etc

I have to agree with you, based on my experience of death in my family. As a nation, we aren’t good at handling death at all. The prerogative seems to be to avoid it at all costs, instead of accepting that it’s an inevitability for all of us.

My grandma meant the world to me… I absolutely adored her. But she had rapid onset dementia following the death of my grandpa and was a lifelong smoker with COPD in her 80s… it was her time to go but it just seemed to be the only recourse was to call 999 when things seemed bad for her (a few years ago). We couldn’t stand by at watch her struggle to breath and get ill without doing something.

At the time I was in a better place emotionally/mentally to accept her death than other members of my family. She’d deteriorated so badly it was a relief when she died for me, because the cycle of hospital visits was honestly more traumatic and undignified for her. Hospitals should be for people who have a chance of getting better.

I wish the stress and trauma of her being taken in and out of hospital wasn’t a thing. I wish calling 999 wasn’t the only “option” for us a family. But we didn’t feel we had any other recourse.

I wish there had been some sort of support for us to manage her decline in a dignified way at home, instead of the ups and downs of getting sick -> hospital admission -> stable again -> sick and then that cycle until she died. Community based care would have been a saviour. Not just for my grandma but for my wider family. It would have been more peaceful.

Being in and out of hospital seemed like a sad end to an otherwise full and happy life.
Mentally, she had already left us. It was just her body clinging on and it felt like an utter waste of time and money and resources to keep her body alive at that point.

Maybe that sounds harsh but that’s how it felt to me. I guess it’s a whole can of ethical worms though.

 

[Londonchick]

I am a nurse and I do know why we are striking. I agree with the reasons why but I don’t feel a strike will solve anything. Support will be lost quickly if people’s care is impacted. I feel for people who may have waited a long time for an appointment only to have it cancelled due to striking staff.

I do get it, I really do but I just don’t see it solving anything and making matters worse for some people

 

[ChilliBean]

I'm really not trying to be an arsehole I am trying to understand. If the NHS working conditions are so crap why don't you all leave and go and work for a private authority... If that's the right term. I work for an accountancy firm. If my conditions were this awful I'd leave. I wouldnt have loyalty to the shitty accountants.
I appreciate nursing is more vocational though and that might explain why you stay x

yes, all the nurses who are unhappy should leave and go and work for private healthcare, then we would have no NHS and no health service to care for any poor/vulnerable people. Everyone who can’t afford private healthcare should then just suffer should they?
why don’t we just open the workhouse as well whilst we are at it?
honestly listen to yourself

 

[gigilouxx]

Every single fucking time the NHS staff give their reasons for striking it always includes mentioning supermarket workers for some reason. Why?!
They go to work, do a job same as everyone else.
You want a pay rise and the public to support your cause whilst making snide hand comments about people who aren’t in the medical field, dunno if it’s occurred to you but not everyone wants to be a nurse/doctor etc.
The “frontline in Tesco” staff were the ones keeping fridges and cupboards filled, providing deliveries for those who couldn’t leave the house due to medical reasons. We’d have been fucked without supermarket staff.
Also, bit hypocritical from NHS staff to keep jibing at supermarket workers considering “nurses are leaving their trusts to work at Lidl for more money”

 

[Tui]

I don’t really know but putting patients at risk isn’t right. It all needs a huge overhaul but I don’t know what the answer is.

Patients are already at risk every day by nurse understaffing. Which will only get worse if nursing pay and conditions do not improve

 

[miss n thropy]

Exactly, these people don't understand economics. When the economy is shrinking and we are sliding into a recession they all want unrealistic pay rises. Say hello to lay offs

When people on lower salaries get paid more they spend it in local shops and services. The people employed there then pay more in taxes. Large corporations and multi millionaire on with huge tax breaks simply hoard it in off shore banks or spend it in Gucci.

The recession and the current financial crisis are primarily as a result of years of fiscal mismanagement by the government. The difference in pay between the highest and lowest paid has massively grown over the last twenty years.

This isn’t a cost of living crisis it is a cost of greed crisis.

 

[Jaceydooley]

Say it louder for the people at the back!!!
Absolutely spot on!

Are the staff in the medical field that blind and self absorbed to their own issues that they think the answer is “strike yourselves”
People can’t lose days of pay to strike, some people such as the police and the army aren’t even allowed to strike which is abhorrent. Some don’t strike because they’re in a sector that’s stretched and don’t want to cause additional problems to their colleagues.
Those who have no choice but to rely on agency work for shit money, no guaranteed hours and often piss poor working conditions can’t strike.
Why is no one allowed to have a bitter taste in their mouth that in the middle of a cost of living crisis where everyone’s skint, people are going without food and heating, that the ones making the biggest stink about their wages are on a decent salary.

If you aren’t a nurse/dr/health worker working in a hospital and seeing the horrific situations then it’s hard to understand and comment on the situation. It’s not about us being paid a bigger salary personally. It’s about there being an incentive for new health professionals to join and make the nhs a safe place to be cared for in. I am a nurse and I have seen pts die because there are not enough qualified and competent nurses. The standard of care is SHOCKING and to be honest I am scared that any of my family or friends will need to go into hospital. I used to be so proud to be a nurse, now I am ashamed. Ashamed that we can’t look after people properly. Ashamed that patients are dying because we are having to give below standard care. Ashamed that we are having to strike to make people aware that the nhs is in CRISIS. I like many other nurses couldn’t give a Shit how much we get paid. We didn’t go into nursing for the money. We did it for the love and care.

 

[Yel]

I think the issue is a lot bigger than just improving pay and working conditions for nurses. The whole NHS needs huge change.

Many cancers have a far lower survival rate in the UK compared to similar countries. There needs to be an honest discussion on modernizing the NHS. But I don't think anyone of any political party dare say anything.

 

[cee-bee]

Two very short sighted but not uncommon attitudes that will always baffle me;

“I have a crappy job and put up with it, why don’t they put up with it if I do?”

“well they chose this career, they should just leave if they don’t like it”

there’s just so much… wrong with it. Because a crab/bucket mentality hurts everyone? Because we aren’t in the Middle Ages and should be allowed to expect basic, decent working conditions and stand ground if these aren’t being met.

 

[Polythene Pam]

People say it's an embarrassment the strikes now, I think actually it's a step in the right direction. Brits for too long have not striked while things get worse and worse.

Maybe it there had of been strikes ages ago then it wouldn't have ended up where we are today? So many aspects in society are in dire need of reform. It's way bigger than a few essential services.

Completely agree. We have working people pointing the finger at each other while the politicians dine on their subsidised lunches and hand out lucrative contracts to their mates. That's embarrassing.

 

[Yel]

I think nurses do highlight the squeezed middle. When you're on 30k something you're not entitled to any top up benefits. Someone working far less hours on less pay could have top ups that massively boost finances.

I get the thinking behind top ups, but they do seem to be allowing companies to pay less and allow those at the top to cream off even more profit.

 

[user123498765]

Sums it up really

 

[onservantannie]

Nursing, like any other line of work, is a choice. You surely don’t go into the profession for the money. You go into the profession to make a difference and save lives of the vulnerable. Striking goes against that very ethos in my opinion. You don’t like the pay, the conditions, or the fees you have to pay for your pin or for parking, then leave. As for saying everyone feels the same and everyone will leave and the NHS will collapse etc, surely that’s not the concern of those who chose to jump ship. You don’t want to be a nurse because you don’t like the way the profession is, then don’t be. Why should anyone be held to ransom with the threat of pay us more or we’ll strike and withdraw labour. Pay us more or we’ll leave. There are always people wanting to do the job you’re complaining about. Nobody, apart from the elite, have had fair pay rises and nobody is managing very well with the rising costs of everything. It’s not just nurses!

 

[xcyber]

Nurses withholding their labour is morally and ethically wrong. No wonder the respect for the profession is declining.

This comment is so uneducated and ridiculous. Oh so I trained to be a doctor or nurse now I OWE you my ‘labour’ for whatever price our snakey government think is adequate. And if I decide to make a stand you won’t respect me?! The audacity of you to bring morals and ethics into this.

 

[Eltonjohnsflorist]

I think people saying that entry to nursing should be easier (no degree) or that their friend/ neighbour sister was desperate to be one but couldn’t because she didn’t have gcse maths are feeding into the narrative that nursing is an easy little woman’s job that anyone can do.

There have to be barriers to entry because it’s hard and skilled. It’s like saying let anyone who wants to train to be a doctor, I know they aren’t smart enough but they really want to do it