'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?

@Morethanjustanurse doesn't suprise me ! Is that daytime rate or nightime ?

@RickiTarr

I meant that most people commenting on this thread probably have no clue what being a nurse actually entails, and so their opinion about whether it is a well paid job or not is irrelevant.

I couldn't comment on whether a teacher, accountant etc is well paid or not, because I have no insight into how they spend their days at work.

Definitely not ok. The pay is OK but think about the long hours nurses have to do to get £24k a year.
I work in the private sector and as a thank you for all the hard work we did during the pandemic and despite a section of our business not performing well at all (closed for almost a year), our company gave us a 1.5% pay increase. For which I am very grateful.
I worked hard but nothing compared to a nurse covered in bruises from wearing layers of masking for 12hrs a day, putting their own health at risk, having to tell families over the phone that their loved ones are about to pass but you can't come and say goodbye. 1% doesn't seem reasonable at all when you consider all of that.

I’ll just put my experience here...
I’m a diploma qualified children’s nurse, I qualified in 2010.
I have always worked as a neonatal nurse and therefore I am very experienced at my job.
I am band 5 and earn £30600 before tax. I could apply for a band 6 role but as I don’t have a degree my application is less favourable. My trust won’t finance my top up degree, so I’m essentially stuck at this level unless I pay myself for the top-up (around £5500) but of course I can’t afford it on my salary!! I can give a run through of my average day if anyone is interested? I promise it’s more interesting than just doing what the Doctor tells me to do

[quote AlrightTreacle]@RickiTarr

I meant that most people commenting on this thread probably have no clue what being a nurse actually entails, and so their opinion about whether it is a well paid job or not is irrelevant.

I couldn't comment on whether a teacher, accountant etc is well paid or not, because I have no insight into how they spend their days at work.[/quote]
Yes ISWYM.

Starting salary is decent.
As with many public sector jobs there isn't always that much room to move up pay scales, it seems to take years and move very slowly.

They should be given better working conditions but generally the pay is ok and in line with other public sector jobs.

I do think Covid is also a bit of a economic smokescreen, the national debt was up to 85% prior to Covid, it shot up after the banking crisis, but some will tell you it isn't related, in the last 10 years of austerity it has remained fairly static. Furlough and everything else Covid related ( possibly some Brexit consequences too ) have only bumped it up by about another 15 % . Yes that is rubbish, yes it will take a while to get back on an even keel or back to the 85% which we have lived with for the last ten years.
When I qualified 20 years ago, my wage could easily have bought a little cottage in Lancashire and at a stretch a little terrace where I am in Yorkshire, more fool me for not buying at that time, even as a single parent, it was still doable. My newly qualified colleagues could never contemplate doing the same.

I think nurses are underpaid for the huge amount that they do. Disclaimer: I’m not a nurse so no vested interest.
Thank you for everything you do OP!

@frumpety

I do think Covid is also a bit of a economic smokescreen, the national debt was up to 85% prior to Covid, it shot up after the banking crisis, but some will tell you it isn't related, in the last 10 years of austerity it has remained fairly static. Furlough and everything else Covid related ( possibly some Brexit consequences too ) have only bumped it up by about another 15 % . Yes that is rubbish, yes it will take a while to get back on an even keel or back to the 85% which we have lived with for the last ten years. When I qualified 20 years ago, my wage could easily have bought a little cottage in Lancashire and at a stretch a little terrace where I am in Yorkshire, more fool me for not buying at that time, even as a single parent, it was still doable. My newly qualified colleagues could never contemplate doing the same.

Problem is all that messing about with Corbyn made Labour unelectable when they were most needed.

I’m not too sure about Keir Starmer either, depressingly.

Oh and applications for nursing are up by 20% this year in my local university...so plenty of people wanting to join the profession.

I think its the house prices etc thy are the biggest issue over last 18 -20 years or so they have gone up in many areas and wages havent
My nans little 2 bed flat was £60000 about 20 years ago , its now worth £330,000
A nurse 20 years ago may of got £18000 say , now gets £24000 thats the issue

@ “well paid”
My 1% pay rise works out as £1.50 extra per working day (or 72p per day of the year) - I am a band 6 nurse, working just below full time hours.

Year after year nurses are less well off due to the last recession’s austerity measures and no pay rises for 10 years between 2008-2018. I’m not greedy, it would just be nice to have a yearly pay rise linked to inflation. I don’t expect to be wealthy, I just don’t want to be less well off every year.
I think thats the same with many jobs even in private sector , it used to be a given that you got a small payrise yearly but thats disappearing , so your other bills all go up but wages are static , so you become worse off every year

With unsocial hour payments it can add up.
Time +30% for nights & Saturdays, and +60% for Sundays.
I previously worked a job only unsocial hours and yes, it was decent pay.

Not decent without extras though.

@frumpety that is day time, week day rate.

@SeaWitchly

Where on earth in London can you buy a house on $24k?

In London its 24k plus London weighting so prob 27-28k.

Ok for the job? I suppose they are trying to explain their own rather grander pay rise last year. Hypocrites.

No, they're not. If they were there would be fewer vacancies and fewer nurses leaving for overseas where pay is higher (including other countries with public healthcare programmes like Canada and Australia--not USA or the Gulf).

It is cheaper to live outside the SE--but the SE still needs nurses! The pay weighting doesn't reflect that.

People also don't realise how nursing has changed as a profession. Wards have fewer nurses doing more intensive, higher skilled work and care work has been put on to cheaper HCAs (and not enough of either one). Over their careers many acquire new specialist skills and the progress up the pay scale doesn't really reflect that.

I'm not a nurse , I'm a fairly senior AHP and my 2 of my 21 year old sons friends earn more than me already .
I have been volunteering doing shift on ITU during the pandemic and I'm in mid fifties - I can't believe how physically exhausting it is. It's not a job you could do until your 68.
They are definitely not paid enough

Nurses and most NHS staff need to be paid more. Our lives can be in their hands and the care they provide justifies that along with the skills and knowledge they bring with them and continuously build on,

A big question that should be asked is how we would have got through the last year without the NHS.

I'm not a nurse, but I do have a fair idea of what their job entails.
I think the pay, on the face of it, is fair for what they're supposed to be doing.
It's not like that though in reality, not enough staff, not enough time, not enough resources to name a few of the issues I've seen nurses face. Obviously they're not the only ones that face this, but I do think that they're largely ignored when they do speak up, and guilted into doing it because it should be a job you do for the love of it, not the money.
I suspect if the job were better supported in other ways, so the work wasn't so soul destroying at times, the wages would seem fairer.

Dreadfully low for the level of skill and training that's now required in the U.K.; the level of understaffing and mostly shitty working conditions and hours.

nurse.org/articles/highest-paying-countries-for-nurses/
In dollars but you see the context.

It’s really not a question that can be answered by those that are unaware of a day in the life of a nurse.

If you look at the job description of a nurse then maybe it’s a fair/ish wage, but the reality is far from what is on paper.

With job shortages on top of the dismal staff to patient ratio (deemed fit by people who do not do the job) it is crippling. The demands are just insane, the responsibility is incredible.

You give away so much of yourself to the job, you have no time for yourself or others by then end of the day. The job is emotionally draining because you honestly just feel pushed to the limit constantly.

When I went into nursing, I had no idea of the reality of what I was getting into and once you’re in it, it’s just sort of a ‘we are all in it together’ type thing.

I wish nursing was what I thought I was signing up for but quite honestly it is more of a way of life, almost like becoming a nun, you give too much of yourself away.

In that respect, no, I do not believe nurses are paid enough, they are on their knees and it is being covered up left, right and centre.

Would anyone who employs a cleaner care to say how much they pay them per hour, we could compare that with the average nurse’s pay. I would LOVE to know this figure from MPs!

I'm top band five. With unsocial hours on top. I think it's reasonable to be honest.

Oh and applications for nursing are up by 20% this year in my local university...so plenty of people wanting to join the profession.

The nursing shortage has never been connected to a shortage of people commencing training, it is due to failing to retain staff after the first two years.