'Nurses are well paid for the job'

[Letsallscreamatthesistene]

An MP said this today, in responce to the debate surrounding the 1% pay rise. Im a nurse, and I know what I think (that the pay is ok, not terrible but not fantastic), im really interested to know what others think?

@Snufkins

I think it’s ok. DH and I are both Band 5 nurses...we own a 4 bed house, 2 cars, fly long haul on holiday, don’t have to really scrimp and save. For the job I do i think it’s fine. The nurses using food banks, sorry but I don’t know what they’re spending their money on!

Where do you live? Here in the south east, thstcwould be very difficult to achieve. It's all relativevto cost of living and property prices

Only someone who has no clue what Nursing actually entails, or the huge responsibilities that go with the role would come out with utter bullshit like that.

@Cookiecrisps

I think the working conditions, high level of responsibility and stress levels mean the pay is not that great in my opinion.

Yeah this sums it up for me.

I also think we have a bit of an unpleasant race to the bottom. Because there are people doing jobs in worse conditions for worse pay we can argue nurses are doing alright.

I recently had a gastroscopy with no sedation, my partner couldn't come with me and I was really scared it was really hard to go through. What I don't want is the fantastic nurses to be underpaid, exhausted and treated badly by their employer. When yuur life and health are in their hands do we really want that?

Yes we can say that the NHS offers better job security, pay progression and pension. But we shouldn't be using this as a trade of to justify poor pay. All jobs should have these benefits.

@Savethewhales

"They want more nurses there is many hcas that would jump over to become a nurse but poor grades and having to go back to college for over a year before even stepping foot inside a university to train is what puts them off. They should go back to how nurses were trained years ago, rather than piddling about and getting those not even qualified into debt before they've even graduated"

They have gone back to how nurses were trained years ago; the current "nursing associate" system is pretty similar to the state enrolled nurse system. And you don't need to go back to college or get into debt to do it.

What I don't want is the fantastic nurses to be underpaid, exhausted and treated badly by their employer. When your life and health are in their hands do we really want that?

This is exactly it. Nurses are there for the vast majority of us when we are often at our lowest ebb or in severe pain.

I want any nurses caring for me to be well paid, not overworked and valued by their employers.

PAY NURSES THEIR WORTH.

20 years of experience and top of band 5 on 30k, little chance of progression beyond band six and to be a band six I would need to do Masters level training, be a prescriber etc, except I would rarely if ever get the opportunity to see any of the patients under my care as a band 6, band 7 never see a patient in our service. I rarely see the Band 8's, they do exist, as I get emails from them.
So the people doing the actual job, who are working as lone workers and making difficult decisions on their own, are seen as worth less than the 'nurses' who never see a patient. It always feels a bit topsy turvey if I am being honest.
I can get a call at 9pm from the concerned relative of a dying patient and need to go and assess them and work out ( on my own ) what the problem is, decide what they need, if they haven't got what they need, liase with out of hours doctors or out of hours oncology, go to out of hours doctors, get a prescription or a change to the medication chart, go to a pharmacy, collect the medication, go back to the patient and give them the required medication, if that is the issue, stay with them until the issue is resolved. The Band 6, 7 and 8 will be at home. The Band 6 might find out about it the next day, the Band 7 and 8 will likely never know it happened.

Practice Nurse here. I have the following specialist skills: asthma and COPD care including diagnosis and therapy management, travel health, cervical screening. Specialist skills in leg ulcer management and childhood immunisations. 'Bog standard' skills in phlebotomy, sexual health, dressings and tissue viability, all of the injections you can think of for various medical conditions, hypertension management, lymphoedema management, ear care and a few other thing. Oh and specialist skills in all contraception methods. All this for top band 6 pay. Approx 37k per year. So yes, pretty shit if you ask me

@mendandmakedo

They got rid of the diploma years ago. I don't think there will be any registered nurses now don't have a degree.

Most of us non degree nurses are pretty close to retiring now. However having qualified in 1983 I think I'm on par with a degree nurse, due to experience over the decades. Most nurses don't go past a band 5 ever. There are a finite number of position as a 6, less as a 7, and even less as an 8 (I only know one and he retired last month) I've ended up private for my last few years before retirement, It pays me more, I was a 5 in the NHS and am now paid middle 6 and no nights to contend with. The pension isn't as good as it used to be, the old pension scheme I was on in the 80's was much better.

There absolutely are nurses still who don't have degrees. I work in a large acute trust and approve educational spending and we regularly have applications from nurses to 'top up' to BSc.

A major pro of nursing is that we have incredible employability straight out of university. We have 100% which compares very well to many other courses. So...yes, it would be lovely to have more money but we have a great deal of job security which I appreciate very much.

I did the Diploma in 2005 simply because of the bursary was £6000 odd at the university of York they didn't offer the degree there but in the final year we could do the top up ad reduce our bursary to £2500, I could have done the degree else where but chose to the diploma as I moved away at the time the difference in the amount was considerable. Majority of the students topped up their diploma once they finished or in their final years due to this very reason.

They then got rid of the Diplomas and then the bursaries afew year later. Any transfer courses for 18 months from nursing to midwifery also stopped or were limited.

I'm now a swimming teacher, I teach school swimming and learn 2 swimming and my hourly rate is 15hr and my hours are more suited to my family.

@Jumpintothefire

For the responsibility and the years of study /continuing profession development, it is atrocious . You couldn't get aa mortgage for a house on a nurse's wage except maybe for a one bedroomed flat in the more disadvantaged areas of Scotland or North England . They should be given an immediate quality payrise .

Just not true. I think London focus blinds people to how different the cost of living is elsewhere. One of my DC is 24 and a teacher on roughly the same pay as a nurse after 2 years, he just bought a decent bedroom semi in a northern city. The thing with nurses or teachers is they are not tied to working in London and can work anywhere. Nurses aren't badly paid anywhere though the pay goes further if they don't choose to live in London. So many nurses move into management roles at band 7 or 8 and never use their nursing skills again.

I'm a senior band 7. Here lies the problem.. In other parts of the NHS the role I do is 8B.
I run a section of a large department.
I'm an autonomous practitioner, see, treat, diagnose, prescribe, admit, read XRays etc.
I teach all medical, nursing and AHP students.
I write and review our policies.
I've 9 years uni under my belt.
I get paid 36k.

Yes I get a pension etc but I also keep people alive, manage staff, do a lot of admin etc.

I'm not in this to get rich but I am very qualified, very motivated and do my very best for people. I do think my pay needs review. If this was the private sector I could ask. In the public sector you're tied to advertised roles and the roles are either never funded or the post or the posts are basically written for other people but your workload never gets lighter.
It is a bit soul destroying.

Those out of hours Doctors often don't know the patient, so have to rely on me as a band 5, to give them a quick handover of the person, their prognosis and my judgement of what is needed, they are not going to see the person themselves, they need to trust my judgement of the situation and believe in my skills to assess the situation correctly.
I don't know how much a locum out of hours Doctor is paid ? I imagine a touch over 30k ?

Interesting to read through all of the replies here, mostly from people who probably have no idea what being a nurse actually entails.

As a nurse, I would say I am happy with my current salary at the moment. I enjoy my job and my pay is much better than when I first qualified, I currently don't have to pay for parking (when I first qualified it was £8 to park per shift, so about £100 a month), and I now work part time in my NHS job and "top up" my income with agency work, as and when I want to.

I have worked in three other areas as a nurse since qualifying; one I would be happy to return to, one I would return to if I had really had to, and one that I would not to back to for any amount of money in the world. A lot of the problems with staff retention in nursing (which is a big problem) have little to do with the salary, and more to do with the poor working conditions, lack of support and focus from management on box ticking instead of actual patient care.

I don't think it's bad pay to be honest.

I've seen a band 5 clinic role advertised which requires absolutely none of my extra skills. I often wonder should i just take the less pressure and probably not massive pay drop to the top of band 5. I suspect many may do this.

For what we do, nope we aren’t paid enough. Especially when we are short staffed and you are expected to do the job of two (or more) nurses without breaks when you are the only qualified on.
We get abuse (physical and verbal) daily.
We supervise others while dangling by a thread ourselves.
We spend more time doing paperwork than with patients.

Ooh that felt good!

Would that be an NO who cheered when the pay rise was blocked 3(?) yrs ago? It's such a great job they can't recruit enough people and have poached overseas staff for years.

@frumpety locum docs in our department command 60quid an hour plus many of whom have little or no relevant experience.

Should be MP

Have you checked how much nurses are paid overseas in other developed countries? Certainly not £30k maximum for a nurse working on the floor. The UK had been underpaying their nurses for years.

There are 45,000 nursing vacancies in the uk. So no the pay is not reasonable. If the pay was reasonable for the work expected then those vacancies would be filled. No one will fill this vacancies because the pay is not enough and people with that level of skill can easily find better paid jobs. The government is very aware of this, but lack of nhs staff = poorer service = more dissatisfaction = more privatisation. Low nhs pay is a winner for a conservative gov't on all counts.

People who think nurses are well paid, but have no idea what nurses actually do in a working day, all need to spend a 12.5 hour shift shadowing a 'typical' ward nurse. Be interesting to see if your opinion changes or not.

@AlrightTreacle

People who think nurses are well paid, but have no idea what nurses actually do in a working day, all need to spend a 12.5 hour shift shadowing a 'typical' ward nurse. Be interesting to see if your opinion changes or not.

I don’t think they’re (you’re?)well paid but I don’t know how we will ever find the money to give nurses the 12% I fully believe they deserve. There never seems to be any money for anything worthwhile. Especially now, coming out of Covid.

I think MP's are paid far too much, their pensions are far too generous, they get fantastic redundancy pay offs, and they don't do anything useful. And how the hell do they keep getting payrises?

People who vote for their own payrises shouldn't comment on what other people get.