Nurses striking

[Jaceydooley]

I can see the firefighters have accepted a 7% payrise. That seems fair to me. What do the nurses on this thread think? Is 7% reasonable?

Anything that’s going to attract more staff and make patients safe is reasonable to me!

 

[Usagisakura90]

A similar issue (I teach English as a foreign language) is the langauge exam they need to pass, is involves thigns that are totally irrevent for practical work, a lot of the people I teach from overseas wanting to go into nursing fall at this (totally unfair) hurdle

I agree that you need a certain amount of maths knowledge such as for medications etc....but I'm getting ready to sit an exam full of algebra and stuff its ridiculous. I'd gotten places at 4/4 of the unis I applied for but I couldn't get onto any of them as they absolutely would not take me without that C/4/level 2 in maths.

 

[Tui]

Don’t try and look better now you insulted other frontline workers Just own it. Like I own my shit.
Yes, key worker here and the reason I know a lot of people in the medical field. We produced ventilators and worked bloody hard to get them where they were needed.
You act like you were some sort of martyr during the pandemic. Thank fuck you didn’t need to martyr yourself for me

Nope actually due to my personal health circumstances i was shielded. Just sticking up for my colleagues. I maintain that you don’t know what it’s like. I imagine your company provided you with proper PPE if you went into a hospital?

 

[bourb0nbiscuits]

i think the PA experiment will fail. Nobody wants to do the scut work forever, they will always want training up in other things because the core of their job (ward work) is not going to be enough to sustain a career. But in the meanwhile they are creaming off the good bits about being a more junior doctor and leaving the shit work .

incidentally you have a medical degree you are exempt from training as a PA

Agree with this, give it a few years , PAs will have more work given to them ( extended practice) for the same pay & will get fed up and feel stuck in their roles.

 

[HoGi]

Be interesting to see how they will work it because normally I get £900 a month in deductions , when they do lump sumps I end up with £1500 in deductions so I’m worse off for that month

They don't take 100% of your lump sum in deductions though do they. So you're not worse off.

You earn more you pay more in tax/NI/pension etc. But they don't take all of it.

If you paid £600 more in deductions you still would have taken home probably £1200 more NET than a month with no lump sum.

 

[Mummy442]

Same for everyone, even people with degrees in other professions. We need to be directing our anger at energy companies and the government.

How do you suggest we do this? Very interested to hear?

 

[anotheronebitesthedust.1]

Curious to see what peoples thoughts are ?

 

[Tui]

I mean tbf they do have a point
The Mandate runs out at midnight 1st may so there is like 8 hours of illegality

I think the question is whether that makes it illegal if the strike began whilst the mandate was still active.

 

[anotheronebitesthedust.1]

I’m always amaze that high cost areas like London and the south east have any public sector workers at all

Ive done the sums and I just can’t make it add up…

£33k after tax and student loan is £2163 per month…I can easily see how rent and childcare would eat that up straight away, that’s before car finance or railcard, car tax, insurance, food, clothes, phone, council tax…etc etc etc

So average nhs nurses start of on 27k and go up to 33k after yearly appraisals and I think it’s 4/5 years before they’re on top of band
London nurses are I believe are on about extra 4K a year compared to rest of country due to high cost area supplements

 

[Avenged7Fold]

Student nurses are often protected from all the shit that goes on behind the scenes , they are contracted to certain hours for insurance purposes , they don’t stay behind for hours to catch up on paperwork , go withoit breaks because there isn’t anybody to relieve them , ask for extra help on the nhsp rota hoping someone picks up shifts to help out the ward , give up days off to cover shifts

give them a few months of being qualified and struggling to get through their preceptorship period because there’s a lack of support and are just seen as part of the numbers once they Have their blues and they will see the real struggles

Which is surely a case for bringing back on the job training.

 

[anotheronebitesthedust.1]

I read today that the lump sum is non pensionable. Not sure how they'll manage that though!

Be interesting to see how they will work it because normally I get £900 a month in deductions , when they do lump sumps I end up with £1500 in deductions so I’m worse off for that month

 

[OnlyHereForTheLolz]

It’s not up to you to decide what’s irrelevant. Nurses are leaving in their droves because of poor pay and can obviously transfer their skills to other countries.

You can’t compare apples and oranges. You need tonuse your critical thinking skills here

 

[Gossip101xoxo]

This just about sums it up for me. I used to work on a kidney dialysis unit. We were treating people in their 70s three times a week. They had no quality of life. One of them said to me “Why don’t you just let me die” heartbreaking

Could they not refuse treatment?

 

[instasham13]

The pensions are very good but not as good as they used to be. I think when people are struggling in the here and now a pension which you may or may not be alive to claim isn't such a big draw for staying in a job as once was. Everyone I know who does agency adds to a pension but also manages to save more which in turn means they'll have investments beyond a pension like a property.

I agree with the Aldi thing that it's not the same salary, but for a newly qualified nurse the take home is fairly similar unless you've racked up some unsocial hours etc. Of course earning potential is greater as a nurse but I think when people are feeling so burnt out and hate their jobs so much its hard to see the bigger picture and to wait around for the future- if you can earn similar in a less stressful job why wouldn't you. This isn't to say those in retail don't work hard, but it's not a bad thing to say its not as pressurised and stressful as being a nurse on an understaffed ward.

The pay in Scotland seems like a really positive step, I do think part of the issue is the downgrading of jobs to lower bands even though the responsibility stays the same. Some of the more desirable band 6 jobs were remanded to band 5s for the same duties and responsibility etc as they knew there'd be applicants; for those they'll be underpaid still but it's part of a bigger issue and any progress isn't to be sniffed at as other areas aren't perfect.

I really hope they will also stand by their commitment to look at agenda for change as there are some band 5 roles that should deffo be a 6.

I think there should atleast be a difference between clinical and clerical in terms of banding. There needs to be recognition of being a degree educated professional.

I say 38k is a little too low but in my opinion only by a little. 40k seems about right in my opinion. Will be interesting to see what teachers in Scotland get from their strikes as I believe their top salary for a normal teacher is 40-42k I'd need to check that though. Can't quite remember the exact figure and I've no idea how many years it takes to reach that level.

The new 2015 pension is not as good as the previous one. Its linked to the state pension age and is a career avaege appose to final salary. The amount the NHS pay in is good I think though but I believe it qpuld be heavily taxed if you were to take it before state pension age where as most people on the old pension can go at 55 with a lump sum.

 

[emm]

I applied to do nursing at university 3 years ago and sadly despite having all the UCAS points and them loving me in the interview I didn't get on due to not getting the Maths grade required because of the stupid predicted grades nonsense during covid. Many people I know ended up in the same boat and either just gave up or like me went onto another course whilst we waited to be able to do the Maths that is required for the course.

My university said that a whole load of nursing students were lost due to covid and the predicted grades that no one could do anything about and since then the UCAS tarrifs have gone up, I even did nursing for health professionals but that still wasn't enough. I'd be nearly qualified by now if I'd been able to do the degree, but unfortunately covid messed alot up for potential nursing students.

I've reapplied but there are such a small amount of spaces for each degree and university its hard even to know if you'll be offered a place.

A similar issue (I teach English as a foreign language) is the langauge exam they need to pass, is involves thigns that are totally irrevent for practical work, a lot of the people I teach from overseas wanting to go into nursing fall at this (totally unfair) hurdle

 

[Rosie glow]

It's not about better or worse. Do you think everyone should earn the same salary regardless of the job and different responsibilities? I find comments like this so strange.

Where did I say we should all earn the same salary ?

 

[Polythene Pam]

Aren't they only allowed to strike over pay? So it's the only official point of dispute.
Pay is a huge factor in making nursing an attractive career but as PP said, there are commitments to other things to improve working conditions.

 

[Emsie]

Right what did the people striking expect? What I wrote earlier explained why people might be “turning on you”
---

That should’ve been the unions message, bigger wages to attract the best staff possible and improve working conditions. Instead of snidey remarks about every non medical worker and insulting bullshit about their £33k a year nurses using food banks. If the fuckery and stupid comments wasn’t at the focal point of their reasons for striking I don’t think people would’ve turned on them at all

A hundred million percent.

 

[Hairraiser]

W

I know an 80 something year old who's on the waiting list for a shoulder replacement. I also know a 33 year old mother who is having to pay £750 a month towards her cancer treatment because the NHS doesn't fund the medication she needs.
Make it make sense.

The NHS definitely needs an overhaul and I think we need to be looking at the many other countries that offer free health care and do something similar

Wow. The system is so backwards.

 

[Former_Antelopee]

Yeah we get paid more for unsociable hours!

Do any nurses do full time nights? I know in my local hospital they don’t but wondered if this was just in certain hospitals? If so how much more do nurses get paid a year to do full time nights if you know? I’m just wondering as I do full time nights and want to see if the difference in my job is similar