Nurses Strike

[TartanGirl1]

Do you agree with the nurses strike?

Absolutely yes

Oh yes how selfish to worry if you and your baby will survive childbirth 🙄

No issues with being worried about it but saying nurses shouldn't strike because of it is unreasonable.

I don't recall saying I was a nurse?

Well if midwives don't strike and get a better pay deal soon everyone's babies will be at risk that's the crux of it. Midwives are leaving in droves it's unsafe and moral js horrendous. A strike is not going to make conditions any more unsafe

@torquewench I know a nurse like that too. Drives a jaguar to patients visits. Has several Birkins . This is because her husband is a director in a multi billion pound company - not because she's a nurse 😂
Myself in contrast have had to sell my very average car to get a complete shit one. Haven't been abroad since 2014. Have had to cancel my prime membership. I could go on . Nobody else from my schooo year who went to uni is struggling like this that's for sure

Sorry but isn’t that exactly what my post says?

Apparently for better paid hospitality and retail jobs? ...

Yes

100% yes. I've also been a nurse for 24 years.

@dreamingbohemian the problem is patient care is already being compromised. DH no longer feels happy because nothing is good enough. It isn’t just about their wages, they are left in pressurised departments and no one from the government is acknowledging that. DH has already had a breakdown in part because of working conditions but refuses to leave because it is one less nurse. One of his colleagues was left with one additional nurse to care for 30 patients. A ratio of 2:30, it’s not ok and on top of that they haven’t had a proper pay increase for a long time. It’s time the government listened.

Whether people think nurses are well paid is irrelevant, trotting out stats on pay is irrelevant. Nurses don't think they are well paid and so they are leaving, the stats are there for all to see. Unless it is made more attractive to be a nurse there won't be any healthcare full stop?!

The Government is solely responsible for the mess the NHS is in, the public should be livid with them not nurses.

Of course. I support all workers striking. I'm in academia and the other day I learned (from Facebook) that there are adults out there who think we get paid whilst striking. Do they think we're doing this for fun? A nice little holiday? I'm so angry.

Yes 100%

Im just shy of 40 years as a a nurse I never thought Id vote to strike but I have. I have never seen it this bad, little or no staff causing poor patient care and appalling working conditions; everyone is totally demoralised. This has been coming for ages Covid tipped many over the edge.

It is about pay but also our very poor working conditions from unbelievable shortages of staff, through to paying to park our cars at work totally unsupportive target driven management pushing us onto even more dangerous situations ignoring repeated incident forms about shortages of staff effecting patient care or being disciplined for taking some milk from the kitchen for a hastily grabbed cup of tea. Then combine this with patients/relatives many who never stop complaining about situations that are beyond our control, we don't want you to wait in ED 35 hours anymore than you do or complain about ridiculous things like not having a bed by a window or being offered white bread instead of brown for toast, and then aggressive patients/relatives. I could go on.....

I'm a nurse. If you know me you know of this. Please don't out me.

Here is a shift I had in the last 6 months.The reason I quit the hospital.Well one in a long list. I'm keeping this broad so I can't get hauled in they will likely try. This isn't an isolated case this is becoming normal.

I was working in a different hospital to my usual. I was floated to a ward due to shortages.I had a newly qualified nurse with me and 2 nursing assistants.

2 of my rooms were cohort rooms. Which means 1 member of staff at all times due to risk of falls or fights.

My newly qualified nurse couldn't do IV meds. I had iv antibiotics to make up and hang for at least 20 out of the 35 patients. She couldn't help.

1 patient had a heart attack mid making up said iv medicine.I had to care for that patient and continue to make up iv meds whilst waiting for a medic to come and triage.

There were no other spare Nurses in other wards to help me.So I was on my own.

I needed to ensure the 3 members of staff had breaks.15 mins then a 30 min break.No sleeping allowed... The breaks are unpaid... We cant leave the ward.We cant not take the break and get paid for it.... They just don't pay us whether we get it or not.

I called bed manager in tears was told that they couldn't give me anyone. So I had to suck it up.

Call bells, toileting, skin checks, fresh bedding, notes for 35, type up the handover for the next shift, IVs, meds rounds, observations, fluid balance, resiting catheters that get dislodged. Taking bloods to get to labs for results that are important.Resettling confused, frightened and anxious people who need more than 2 mins of your time. The rare patient will sleep on nightshift.

You can guess how much of a break I had.
That's not an isolated incident.I have had alot.
I have been on wards with one nurse and 2 nursing assistants for 35.

Life is brutal just now.It's not nice being a nurse and for £14 an hour it's an inner circle of hell. We are striking because it's not safe. It's our registration on the line. If I was reported for anything I was fully in charge and would have had to go to the NMC panel and explain myself risking suspension or loss of my right to practice.

I have name changed for this. But im a long time poster. Please let my name change have worked...

They don't hold themselves up as paragons of virtue. That's some shit the government made up to try to get out paying them. They are humans and workers. How much they sell their labour for is their call.

Being kicked across the room by a patient while working on my day off due to severe staff shortages, after paying to park my car in order to come to work, 12 hours in and still no drink, then getting off 2 hours late as no…NO nurse has turned up for the night shift to hand over to and I can’t leave a ward of 32 patients without a qualified nurse.
Oh and only 2 of us on that day as our 3rd qualified was moved to another ward as they had only one qualified for their 32 patients that day.

That was a small fraction of my working day that day.
So yeah, the pay in no way reflects the shit show I/we put up with each day.

I’m leaving. 33 years of nhs service and I’m gone. Also voted YES to strike action.

@Justanothernurse Fantastic post.
I think that illustrates the exactly why the nurses are striking.

I don’t think 17% so £16.50 an hour will help. You aren’t going to get more nurses and keep them if the conditions you work in aren’t sorted. It would take the pay of a doctor to make the shift you describe bearable. Then what happens to doctors pay.

Maybe shift bonuses or something so extra money for busy wards or something but really the whole system needs a revamp. Keeping staff anywhere is about good management especially when clearly people do the job because they care about it.

12% posts vacant- 47,000 nurses needed.

Demand and supply would dictate the pay needs to drastically improve.

17% would put us on lower real terms pay than we had in 2010.

Justanothernurse I can relate to your post completely, it's happening all the time in every bloody hospital. I'm amazed that some of the general public can't look past their own jealousy towards public sector workers and realise that it's their own health at stake here.

It does sound diabolical working conditions but giving a big pay rise surely is just sticking a plaster on the problem? Do we need to get to the root of the issues poor management, wastage, etc and maybe increasing the percentage of national insurance rates to support the NHS. We don’t want to lose the NHS but something needs to be done as it’s at breaking point.

I too could tell horrendous stories, times when patient care is severely compromised, when rapidly deteriorating patients are not picked up because no one has noticed because we’re too busy looking after other rapidly deteriorating patients. Colleagues talk about elderly patients falling and fracturing hips, having significant head injuries due to lack of staff to supervise them, patients waiting hours for IV fluids/IV antibiotics because insufficient staff, patients waiting hours for analgesia for the same reason, I could go on. I’ve had to buy my own basic equipment stuff I use all the time like tape because our budget doesn’t extend to buying it. I’ve “stolen” dressings from a friend who works in the community because we can’t afford them. Our high dependency patients are meant to be on a ratio of 1 nurse to 2 but it’s often 1 nurse for 4, we regularly go over our allocated bed numbers by 8 but staffing numbers stay the same, and we hot bed 2 patients in the same bed one in the day room/theatre hoping 1 will have gone home before their other needs the bed. None if this acceptable. It’s effects the quality of the care we deliver and leaves staff totally demoralised and exhausted.

Yes and no. A pay rise is needed as we have lost earnings over the last decade, a huge amount. A pay rise would hopefully attract more people to the profession, so long term could help. But yes it's certainly not a solution for the immediate problem which needs so many factors reviewing and changing. From government policy, funding of the NHS as well as crucially social care, a reassessment of how efficient the NHS a good look at wastage, improve systems so things join up and work together, as well as improve health education to the public...It needs a total overall! But pay and working conditions for all NHS staff is part of that and really the only part that staff on the ground can influence.