I've got a question about nurses..

[Luckystar777]

I feel stupid even to be asking this but here goes.

So someone I know is dating someone who claims to be a nurse. But the thing is, this nurse gets an awful lot of time off - like she gets let out early if she ''can't focus'' and gets away with taking extended lunch breaks and things like skiving off work for an hour to see her partner. Is that even allowed if you're an NHS nurse? 'Cause I'm thinking no.. but I don't know any nurses so wanted to ask people who do know/are nurses.

Fwiw, this person does also sound kind of abusive and has been known to lie about other things in the past (including telling her partner she was working one night but wasn't and was actually at home) so this has just got me wondering.

A Bank Nurse is a nurse that does extra shifts or just bank shifts ,so say a staff Nurse e is off sick and the ward needs a staff Nurse to cover their shift they will have a list of "bank staff " to choose from to ring up.and fill the shift , health care assistant,s can also be bank staff but obviously qualified nurses can only cover for a qualified nurse shift and a Health care assistant shift ( I guess the if they want) and health care assistants cover for just a Health care assistant shift, some staff just work bank.shifts ( there's usually loads of shifts available ime) I suppose it's like a zero hour contract as you can pick and choose which shifts you want to work if somebody phone s.ask f you want the shift ,when it works well for some people if they have child care commitments etc as they are of tied to a ward o r the ward roster , some staff will have a permanent job on a ward but also do extra bank shifts in their days off etc.

Not tied to a ward or ward roster

Agency nurses are a bit different ,sometimes even with regular staff and bank staff there might still.be shifts not covered so there are outside agencies that employ nurses and bank staff to fill shifts so whilst regular staff and bank staff are employed by the hospital trust agency staff are employed by an agency who will secure shifts for them the hospital will.pay the agency who.will.in turn pay the nurse/ health care assistants.The agency might supply staff to lots of different hospital trusts and or nursing home,s etc .

I m an NHS nurse and most of what she’s saying is a load of BS. Where does she work if she was a MH nurse might be different but 5 days off for a funeral !!!

Thanks for the explanations everyone. Well I thought more about it and I suppose it could be that she does work as a nurse but that there are parts that she isn't being entirely honest about? Which I don't know what the reasons for that would be. I'm baffled. I am going to stop wondering about it now though as it is defo a waste of time.

Learning about nurses has not been a waste though and I am grateful to all of you for your input, thank you :)

All the stuff about shifts being changed about is pretty normal to me.

The 5 days for a funeral might be feasible if she had worked a lot of shifts in a row beforehand. Probably more of a favour in shifting the rota to suit her needs than 5 days compassionate leave though.

I've had jobs where I've been able to take a few hours off here and there (those hours evening time I'd accrued by working over my hours on other occasions).

Having to stay at work because someone else didn't show up definitely happens.

The only bit that doesn't sit right to me is being sent home because she couldn't focus. Nurses are generally the profession of "suck it up and get on with things".