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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not want to work unpaid this afternoon?

31 replies

TooManyBlossoms · 10/04/2011 12:13

Whinge whinge whine...

I am a student nurse. A large part of the course obviously involves working on a hospital ward. Although I get a small bursary, I don't technically get paid. And it means that I get "paid" exactly the same amount while sitting on my arse watching jeremy kyle studying as I do working full time on a very busy ward.

"Proper" staff get paid extra for working weekends. I don't. I worked yesterday too. And it's sunny. I don't want to go.

Sulk.

OP posts:
hairylights · 10/04/2011 12:16

Yabu. You signed up for the training course. You're lucky you get a bursary.

GiddyPickle · 10/04/2011 12:19

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TattyDevine · 10/04/2011 12:20

I don't know all the ins and outs of bursaries and such like but it does sound rough, doing unpaid work. Pity you can't get paid a little for it, but I presume a bursary means your course fees are being paid for or something, so it probably evens out...or do you have to pay for your course?

Original poster
TooManyBlossoms · 10/04/2011 12:21

No the course fees are paid too. Ok I know IABU. But I still don't want to go! Grin

OP posts:
atswimtwolengths · 10/04/2011 12:21

You're training and you knew that your training would take place out of 9-5 hours, didn't you?

I can see why you don't want to go to work, but you have to, sorry!

DaisySteiner · 10/04/2011 12:24

YANBU in not wanting to work, I sympathise. Hospitals rely on students a great deal and without them they would need more paid staff. But, it is part of the course and every student has to do it! At least as a student you (presumably) won't have to work Christmas, New Year etc.

mycatoscar · 10/04/2011 12:26

YANBU to not want to go to work on a nice sunny day

hell, I get paid and I dont like spending lovely sunny days stuck in my classroom, just like anyone else who's job takes place inside

but ... YABU because it is what you signed up for.

Make sure you go and sit in the sun on your lunch/tea break Wink and be grateful you get paid your bursary and your course fees are covered - I think nursing is about the only course that's like that.

Sassybeast · 10/04/2011 12:31

YABU. You are not 'working unpaid' You are there to work along qualified nurses, to learn and to develope your skills. You signed up for it and although I know your post is probably tongue in cheek if you REALLY have issues with the hours and the demands of the job then you need to think seriously about if this is the right career for you. Presumably your shifts are rostered so that you are working with your mentor - given how difficult it can be to co ordinate off duties, look on it as a positive. Weekends are 'sometimes' quieter and are a good opportunity to take your time to read, reflect and do the things that you or your mentor don't get time to do on busier weekday shifts. I can pretty much guarantee that the patients you are helping care for this aftenoon would prefer not to be in hospital.

Knackeredmother · 10/04/2011 12:37

Yanbu, I used to send student nurses home at weekends. Fair enough do a couple to get a feel of how things work at weekends but otherwise no need for you to be there. You learn more in the week, the nhs comes to a virtual standstill at weekends. You are just free labour.

lady007pink · 10/04/2011 12:41

I've been there OP, except I didn't get a bursary (though my fees were paid). I'm a radiographer, and I had to work on-call and weekends as a student - doing work that my supervising radiographer got paid for!

It was horrible, I hated it. But I loved the work, so getting paid on qualification was a bonus!

BTW it's not any easier working weekends when the weather is nice - whether you get paid or not!

Good luck to you on your course, OP - it will be worth it in the end!

JemimaMuddleFuck · 10/04/2011 12:49

YUABU. Get over it. Suck it up (to use my DSS expression).

You have a choice. Experience in any work that you persue is always valuable.

The Sun is very lovely and will last about a Day.; putting your back into a career will last longer.

adelaidegirl · 10/04/2011 14:36

YANBU- it is rubbish having to work weekends (I am leaving for work in an hour so I feel your pain) but it is worth it in the end. It is particularly rubbish as a student nurse I think because on some wards you end up as a bit of an unpaid skivvy! AND you have to do loads of out of hours stuff which is a bit crap.

But if it makes you feel any better have feelings for my medical students. They are doing 7x 10 hour night shifts in a row with us basically doing some of our work for us (clerking patients, taking bloods) and they are not even on a bursary!

Moan away- I have sympathy but it needs to be done!

Sassybeast · 10/04/2011 14:40

Knackered mother - if student nurses are being used as slave labour in your ward and their supernumery status isn't being protected, you need to do something about it.

Knackeredmother · 10/04/2011 14:46

Well I speak from experience having been that unpaid skivvy student nurse. I am now a doctor so have sympathy for the med students too. However, supernumerary or not any one who doesn't think students are exploited in some form are deluded.
We've all been there when a trained calls in sick and no one can be found to replace them "but it's ok cos there's a student on"

Emmanana · 10/04/2011 14:48

I can understand wanting to be outside in the sun, but what goes around comes around. It may feel a bit shitty at the moment with not much money, but tell yourself that it won't always be like this, and that you're lucky to be financially assisted whilst gaining qualifications that will be recognised worldwide and can take you anywhere.
A little slog now, and you'll be in the enviable position of finding work in public and private nursing wheh jobs are thin on the ground for everyone else!
Not having a go at you - just try looking at it from a different perspective Smile

bettydraperswardrobeelf · 10/04/2011 15:57

You are not being unreasonable to not want to go, but would be very very unreasonable if you didn't bother. I have been there and it is really hard work and students are totally used as extra labour for no extra money. I qualified in 2007 and for the previous three years I had been a student earning £5500 a year, which worked out at around £460 a week. To put this in perspective, the rent on my one bed flat was £330 per month. I had to work 40 hours a week as a student, either in uni lectures 9-5 or on a ward doing days, nights and weekends and to keep myself in food and bills I had to work bank shifts as a health care assistant. Placements were often an hours drrve away in the middle of nowhere and day shifts tended to start at 7am. Anyone who thinks nurse training is a doss or an easy life in any way is deluded. It is also difficult to be working that hard for that little to go into a profession which comes under so much public criticism so regularly. However, it is SO SO SO worth it when you do qualify. I absolutely love my job - I work as a scrub nurse and it is so much fun! It is bloody hard woirk - ten hour shifts on my feet all day with a half hour lunch break, but I wouldn't do anything else. Just keep your head down and get as much experience as you possibly can before you ahve to start applying for jobs....

agedknees · 10/04/2011 16:00

Emmanana - front line clinical staff (nurses) will be losing their jobs soon. A group of 3rd year students I have just mentored - none of them have got jobs. The local trust is not recruiting. It is deploying staff.

kaid100 · 10/04/2011 18:34

I think all of this "work unpaid to get into the industry" is a con. It happens in many industries, usually as an unpaid internship. If the company (or hospital in this case) gets benefit, you should at least get Minimum Wage. What the current system means is that those with rich parents end up with better jobs than those in less fortunate circumstances.

Original poster
TooManyBlossoms · 10/04/2011 21:05

Well, I did go, and had a very good shift (although whoever invented thick nylon uniforms needs shooting!)

Sassybeast yes my post was tongue in cheek - luckily this placement I have a really good mentor who is genuinely interested in teaching me - but being a 3rd year student I have had several placements where students are blatantly being used as free labour - and with things the way they are at the moment I can only see this getting worse Sad.

Hey ho, only a few months to go before I'm unemployed and on the dole a fully qualified (and paid!) nurse.

OP posts:
Emmanana · 10/04/2011 21:13

Good luck with your finals! Do you have DC? If not, have you thought about using your skills to travel a bit? Cruise ships, travel insurance companies, brit companies abroad are always looking for nursing staff!

lunar1 · 10/04/2011 21:14

sorry you are being unreasonable. I worked lots of unsocial shifts as a student nurse and its not unpaid labor, its the training you signed up for. the ward environment is completely different at the weekend and on nights. less doctors are around, less of everyone. you need to experience this and learn to plan your work in a different way.

It can be a great learning experience to see how different the work can be out of hours. the nursing staff may even have more time for teaching at the weekend depending on your ward. I often get the crash trolley out, go through seizure management, or anything else students want to learn when out of hours. In the week its difficult to find the time.

Maybe if you still dont want to work out of hours its not the vocation for you. I love being a nurse, now a sister after 7 years. I think you have to love the job to be a nurse, no patient can trust someone who obviously wants to be somewhere else.

lillibet1 · 10/04/2011 21:20

YABU and have you joined the right profession

Bearcat · 10/04/2011 21:21

Toomanyblossoms, things were always like this even when I trained as a radiographer 30 years ago.
We had 6 weeks holiday a year and we had to work weekends and evenings (9-5 or 5-midnight) in a busy A&E in the midlands. But with only a student and a qualified radiographer on duty you very quickly learnt how to do good basic skeletal work.
I think these days student nurses, because it is a university based course get university holidays (my friend who is in her 40's and qualified 18 months ago certainly did) so that is a bonus that we never had (although funnily enough the student physios did!)

Original poster
TooManyBlossoms · 10/04/2011 21:25

Lunar I was (half) joking - I don't have a problem with working unsocial shifts - it's just so much harder when it's hot and sunny!

Like I said above, my mentor is keen on doing lots of teaching when we have more time at the weekends. But a lot of wards aren't like that at all - I have spent several weekend shifts being used as an unpaid skivvy, I once spent a Sunday shift changing curtains throughout the entire ward. When I dared to question this, I was informed that it was vital to learning about infection control, and would fail my placement if I did not do as I was told... I complained to uni about students being used on the ward and was basically told to keep my head down and get on with it, just to get my placement book signed off.

And as for obviously wanting to be somewhere else - I can't imagine there was one member of staff in that hospital today that wouldn't rather have been out in the sun Grin!

OP posts:
Original poster
TooManyBlossoms · 10/04/2011 21:27

Bearcat university holidays? No!!! We get 7 weeks a year, luckily as I'm a January student we get 3 weeks off in the school summer holidays and 2 weeks off over Christmas. Hurrah!

OP posts: