Nurses eating on shift...

[PatsyAndEddy]

Just back from hospital visiting a friend who had her tonsils out today. She had to fast from 10 pm last night and didn't get taken for her op until 2pm, that's a long time without food for anyone!

She missed dinner on the ward but they got her a sandwich but she's really sore and hungry!

On the ward her bed is right next to the nurses station. She said they were sitting munching on a large bag of kettle chips in front of her between the three of them. She commented on how she thought that was a but mean, they snapped back saying 'well we have to eat' at which point my friend reminded them that's what they're breaks were for.

I don't think she's flavour of the month in the ward! She can be a bit of a grump at the best of times but starving, sore and groggy I think she reached her limit!

We're the nurses being unreasonable, eating on shift?

If she was too sore to eat why did she want food??
Especially crisps?!
She sounds entitled. To begrudge a nurse sitting down for a few minutes on a quiet ward and eating some crisps is pathetic. What would you have liked them to be doing?

Then the working patterns need to be raised by managers and the nursing unions and professional bodies. Why don't we see that in the papers and on the radio? I'm not hearing kit but I do have a midwife friend who used to work two double shifts over weekends and bank holidays while her DH looked after the children thus getting overtime and paying no childcare. Never heard her complain. Also I do think care standards in london are poor for the general every day illnesses and are not a reflection of standards in the best of the country.

It's tolerated because its seen as menial work . Because the vast majority also work for the public sector , they must , according to the DM type attitude , be workshy jobsworths , barely deserving of pay , let alone anything like a break . The taxpayer does pay your wages you know ....... !

I predict that all this bashing will come round to bite us in the bum hugely in years to come . When no one wants to be a nurse , a firefighter , ambulance paramedic , or policeman . When all the existing staff have left , and there's no one replacing them for any length of time . When these jobs ( and for a lot of us , these careers are so much more) become short term stop gaps , whilst people find something easier and better paid to do .

As well as m

You are very naive, MIW

Why don't we see complaints about Nhs working patterns in in the media? Have a little think about that.

Oops, random half sentence. I hate the MN app

I think it's only a shame those nurses had to eat crisps instead of being fed grapes and strawberries!

nurses and MW and DRs are amazing in general and I take all my hats off to them.
I could not the jobs they do.

Nursing is a degree course, hardly going to spend 4 years for a stop gap. Pay isn't exactly minimal either, especially with the shift allowances. Nurses I know won't come off nights because of the money!

Well Patsy where I live we've just taken a 20% pay cut for the privilege of covering 24/7 365 days a year in poor working conditions. So maybe that's why it stings to be criticised for doing a job which frequently leaves us totally exhausted for our time off.

PatsyAndEddy Sat 13-Jul-13 11:36:43
Every nurse I know only does 3 of these 12 hour days a week as well. Come on people!

Only? Are you serious? Try working three 12 hour shifts in a row without so much as a toilet break.

Actually some weeks we do four. Don't forget all the unpaid overtime and staying late we do. We can't claim time owing.

You're just pissed off OP as no-one is agreeing with you.

Nurses you know patsy CANT come of the nightshifts because they probably couldn't afford to AND it's in their contract.

A basic nursing salary is passed the threshold to be entitled to any tax credits etc, But not a great deal in today's terms, considering the cost of housing, childcare, fuel etc. Their ain't alot left over after bills are paid!!

married I think you are incredibly out of touch. 3 twleve hour shifts??! When they are organised in a way that the nurse ends up working 70 hours over a 7 day period, has no routine and gets one weekend of a month if they are lucky? There are also the additional 'short shifts' that get added on because of the paid breaks being taken away. Basically, some hospitals do not entitle their staff to paid breaks so they deduct 45 minutes from every shift the nurse works. This has to be made up in time on the ward. Usually a couple of extra short shifts a month.

It's ridiculous as most of those staff don't even get to take a break anyway.

Nurses can't complain, they get out managed. Unions are not as powerful and have very little influence.

I love the head in sand self righteous comments I really do. I'd love those people to be rounded up and spend a week in the shoes of a nurse.

off jesus, grammer police slap me..

Patsy - Pay is hardly minimal?! Yeah a starting salary of £16K a year (as it was when I qualified) is a huge amount of money isn't it?
To get that you need to work bloody hard to qualify, doing long placements, full working hours (we did 37.5 hours on wards a week whilst on placement) and have assignments to complete at the same time.
You have to really know you're stuff to get offered a job in the first place. Then on top of the working hours you do once qualified you have to do study days in your own time (mandatory training in fire safety, Life Support, manual handling, pump training.. etc). Then as you progress you are expected to do specialist training to become IV competent, Epidural competent, plus any other speciality you need for your area - such as High Dependency or Intensive Care (all the monitoring equipment is different and more high tech so more training). All in your own time.
Then attend ward meetings on your days off.

Do you still think £16K a year before tax is great money?

Plomino It will bite us in a few years time, there is a predicted trained nursing shortage of 46,000 for 2016, and that was the lowest estimate.
most care will be carried out by HCA's with no or little training , supervised by 1 or maybe 2 nurses, who have to do all the paperwork and technical jobs the hca's cant do. You will barely get to see the trained nurse,(this is currently happening on a lot of wards already)

Either that or they will have to mass recruit from overseas again.

many of my colleagues, who are nurses with 25+ years service and represent a lot of vital experience are actively applying for voluntary redundancy, because they have had enough and can't wait to go. I am saving like a demon to allow me to go as soon as possible too. I love my job, but hate what is happening in the NHS and the total media blackout on whats really happening, as opposed to the constant bashing which is designed to get public support for the private health care agenda.

Oh and by the way nurses shifts are soon to be managed by a faceless computer system (or they were at my last place of work) which does not care what your preference for night shifts are. Nor does it allow you to work set days around childcare issues. Nor does it allow for family friendly hours. Oh and it only allows up to 2 requested days off a month. So if you need to attend anything important 3 times in a month it is tough titties to you!

Nurses do not get 16k a year.

Nurses start at band5,minimum is 21,388.not including shift allowance.from rcn website. 16k is a band 3 hca

Point 16 21,388
Point 17 22,016
Point 18 22,903
Point 19 23,825
Point 20 24,799
Point 21 25,783
Point 22 26,822
Point 23 27,901

starting salary is 21k rising to 27k (aftern 8 years). most nurses are band 5

Nurses do not get 16k a year. - read what I wrote. That was my starting salary in 2005, so yes I did get £16K a year.
I will agree that the amount will have increased.
Google says it is now £21K. But that is still less than a new Police officer new in to post.
BUT we have had pay freezes in the NHS.
I didn't say the pay was really poor, I was highlighting how much work is done on top of what we are paid for.

IMO,for the responsibility,and training it's not a fair pay structure

Nurses need that level of renumeration to keep them in all those kettle chips.

Oh and you only get that yearly rise if your ward manager thinks you have done enough career development to get through the "gateway" to the next pay level. It is not a definite increase unless you have done all the training courses and hours required.

I predict that all this bashing will come round to bite us in the bum hugely in years to come . When no one wants to be a nurse , a firefighter , ambulance paramedic , or policeman . When all the existing staff have left , and there's no one replacing them for any length of time . When these jobs ( and for a lot of us , these careers are so much more) become short term stop gaps , whilst people find something easier and better paid to do .

^^

I actually sort of hope so. And I hope it happens soon. Just so sick of the sneering sexism that is placed of women who do an enormous job for minimum wage because they care, and are then further sneered for not being perfect and being human

The vicious misogyny in many workplaces won't be addressed till other public sectors suffer to such an extreme, like fireworkersthat aren't almost all exclusively female professions. That makes me extremely sad for women :( But also hopeful that positions that are virtual slave labour will be forced to treat the nurses (and other occupations, of course!) as human.

Frankly, money aside, I'm fucking sick of this attitude society has to women. Wipe your FIL's ass and don't dare complain while you do it. It's your job as a wife and a woman. Love doing it, wet your tampn with pain to wee (as another nurse mentioned,) don't need food as you ARE DOING YOUR JOB and don't DARE complain, lest everyone remind you what a cushy job you have wiping FIL's ass.

It seems much nastier when it's family as I've just exampled, but sadly this is basically everyone's view of nursing.

Of course nurses don't rob dignity on purpose (another thread whining about nurses using the term sweetheart, evil bitches.)
Of course nurses get hungry (Yeah, they're still human. Shocker.)
Of course no one should be forced to wet themselves due to demand they wipe and shush. (Mentioned above. Shocker and horrible.)
Of course no one should faint at work, have a chocolate bar shoved at them and demanded they be back on the ward in 20 mins. (Shocker and horrible, mentioned above.)

Change the word woman to immigrant... No, male immigrant and there would've ALREADY BEEN a HUUUUUGE uproar about this sort of treatment.

But we're women right? And what sort of woman would we be to put our need to survive above the needs of someone else?

It's exactly like the Madonna/Whore reaction to women and sex. I mean, she's a NURSE she should be giving her entire SELF to every patients being.

She needs to pee? Sleep? EAT? Whore.

This thread depresses me so much. I fear so much for DD when I see this venomous BS. Even if all the nurses had been men in the exact same position, being horribly treated, I bet OP's nasty cunt of a friend wouldn't have told them off for eating.

I mean, strong men need to eat, right?

I didn't realise having an opinion on something that is a fact (AKA more female nurses than male) Made me mentally ill? It is a political issue and you brought it up, so welcome the crazies!

But as you said, one of the chip eaters was male, that makes my opinion null and void.

How wrong was I! :) Your mate can be a cunt no matter who is the gender. Thank you for correcting me. :)

SpecialAgentTattooedQueen