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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask band 5 nurses (at lower end of pay scale) how much you earn?

410 replies

Llbarls81 · 14/05/2015 14:16

I've just done a calculation as I'm due to qualify in September and I'm shocked at how little the pay is!! I've just worked out that a band 5 entry level nurse takes home around £1400 a month?? Surely this isn't right?

OP posts:
ItsADinosaur · 16/05/2015 18:11

So I because a nurse either because I'm too stupid or because I didn't work hard enough at school, to become a doctor.

Oh my days.....

Or maybe, I didn't want to be a doctor? I'm guessing Lotus has some old fashioned view of the hierarchy of doctors and has no idea of what we actually do. Else it's just a goady response, as I can't believe someone is stupid enough to actually think that.

TheBlackRider · 16/05/2015 18:20

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BettyBitesBums · 16/05/2015 18:21

I'm not sure being a doctor is the answer either. I've been one for 8 years in a high risk specialty, now work PT at 24hrs a week and with my out of hours banding take home £1700pcm. I love my job but you'd be a bloody fool to do it for the money!

googlenut · 16/05/2015 19:17

Now I think that is rubbish money for a doctor - loads of responsibility and studying and worry when you go home about patients.

UncertainSmile · 16/05/2015 19:18

You might like being a lawyer, Lotus, but some of us have important jobs to do.

Libitina · 16/05/2015 19:32

Not that it matters but I switched disciplines during my training and had a placementer in hdu... I fully understand the level of competence and care required... I just think there's been a general theme in this thread that a bit martyr esque and I don't think it does nurses any favours.

I'm no martyr but when my patient is on the operating table still at the end of my shift and with no relief, what am I supposed to do? Latest I have finished is 7 hours after the end of my 13 hour shift. I regularly work at least an hour over.Yes, I get paid for it, but I definitely don't do it for the hourly pittance money. I'd much rather spend the time with my family.

I know dozens of nurses, HCA's, Dr's and ODP's who do this.

Yes, I earn a good wage compared to the national average, but for the skills, knowledge and, most of all, the responsibility I have, it is poor.

namechangefortoday543 · 16/05/2015 19:53

Lib this happening on a daily basis- do people think we have a choice and do because we are martyrs Hmm
Im in awe of someone who has done one placement in HDU and knows everything about the pressures and responsibilities of general nursing - kicks my 28 years into touch Wink

Pippa12 · 16/05/2015 20:11

4 hour sleep breaks then the rest of the night to do uni work! yeah right Smile no wonder the alaris was bleeping there was nobody there!

LotusLight · 16/05/2015 20:16

My only point is that teenagers need to research very hard what particular jobs pay but also which ones they will personally enjoy. I gave the example of Souter who went from nurse 20 years to richest woman in Scotland. There are lots of possibilities for women. Go for it. Seize your future and shape it. It is all to play for.

frikadela01 · 16/05/2015 20:19

28 years of life and death every single day.... well hats off to you.

Like I've said multiple times I am not dismissing the effort stress etc everyone goes through I thoroughly understand the pressures and requirements of working in these environments your initial response to my post namechange was quite frankly insulting but whatever. I too usually stay for about an hour after each shift to catch up on everything I haven't done. of course you stay behind when your patients are ill or there's something major happening. Clearly people are missing what I'm saying... There have been posts on here that make out that every single day is life and death and have what I feel is a woe is me I'm such a martyr tone. but I'm clearly wrong because I don't have 28 year of experience and my opinion counts as nothing.

Tiredemma · 16/05/2015 20:19

If I wanted to be a high earner I would never have become a nurse.

I wanted to be a nurse- recognising that it was largely a shit paid job (for the role) and a thankless task. That didnt remove my desire to be a nurse.

Anyone who goes into nursing expecting to make ££££ is deluded - (unless of course you join one of those agencies that are charging extortionate fees to fill NHS shifts)

namechangefortoday543 · 16/05/2015 20:19

I am completely sceptical about the 4 hour breaks claim - it would be fast track to a disciplinary to admit this.
It is negligence and unprofessional behaviour.

TheBlackRider · 16/05/2015 20:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

UncertainSmile · 16/05/2015 20:25

Ann Souter has had to sacrifice far too much for her money.

Pippa12 · 16/05/2015 20:26

I think you'll never understand if you aren't a nurse. It's a vocation- I have so much empathy and passion for it. Never actually done anything else and can never see myself in any other profession. I'm nicer to my patients than I am to my own sometimes Grin I suppose it's disheartening when you give your all and then collectively get a bashing in the daily mail/GMTV. Eg: they sleep for hours??? If you look on NMC website you will see exactly what happens to those that sleep for hours and chat all through shifts, and let me tell you, it ain't pretty!

girliefriend · 16/05/2015 20:27

I personally feel nurses were pretty screwed over by Agenda for Change, in my area of nursing (community nursing) the opportunity for professional development is next to none.

They stopped the District Nursing training years ago and have now implemented a developmental role which is non transferable and means you will be working a band above your pay band for at least 18 months Hmm

I am top of Band 5 now but don't see myself progressing much further, its frustrating.

Also I don't know whether to laugh or cry at the accusation that I didn't become a Dr due to not working hard enough or being too thick. Fwiw I achieved my degree in Nursing post qualifying whilst working and raising my dd single handedly. I am absolutely no better off financially for having the degree but feel proud of my achievement non the less.

Libitina · 16/05/2015 20:28

^I am completely sceptical about the 4 hour breaks claim - it would be fast track to a disciplinary to admit this.
It is negligence and unprofessional behaviour.^

I have an hour per shift that I am not paid for. This is for my 'break'. I am still on call and cannot leave the premises. I still don't get paid for it.

namechangefortoday543 · 16/05/2015 20:28

Have you actually read the Francis report ?
I am talking about the small but vital things experienced nurses recognise and act on that save lives > Im not saying that we all run around resuscitating patients everyday and that its like Casualty

Good, basic, hands on nursing care is vital
Until you recognise that this is what Im discussing then you will keep on telling us we are all over dramatic martyrs .
Observations taken on time and analysed carefully ,fluid balance, small changes in a patients condition, their skin colour, that they are not eating, that x factor , the sense of "not right" the gut feeling that experienced nurses have and all nurses need time with patients to see - this is VITAL in saving lives.

Libitina · 16/05/2015 20:28

*Italics fail. D'oh!

UncertainSmile · 16/05/2015 20:36

I'm a band 7 nurse, autonomous, making crucial decisions every day. If I fuck up, people can die. I make sure I don't fuck up.

AyeAmarok · 16/05/2015 20:43

I am completely sceptical about the 4 hour breaks claim - it would be fast track to a disciplinary to admit this

Believe me, don't believe me, whatever. Doesn't make it untrue.

She wouldn't be disciplined because her boss said that that is what they did most nights, as nights were very quiet, she was one of 3 (I think, might have been 4) nurses. It obviously wasn't on an acute ward, but there are more facets to nursing than that, you know.

And Pippin, the drip machine beeping wasn't a story from a nurse, it was an experience that was unfortunately a lot closer to home.

frikadela01 · 16/05/2015 20:52

Yes I have read the Francis report thank you.

I feel like you think I'm personally attacking you... as I said earlier the martyr thing is something I've seen from some nurses not all and unfrotuantly I think this is the side that the general public daily mail readers see And does us, all of us, as a profession no favours.

UncertainSmile · 16/05/2015 20:54

And in 25 years as a nurse, I have never encountered a four hour break. That's just bollocks.

namechangefortoday543 · 16/05/2015 21:09

I don't feel personally attacked - you are outdated/inexperienced in the views you hold .
The "Martyr" side of nursing is pretty much gone - it went out a few years ago - nurses are professionals and report poor staffing and conditions - The Francis report taught us that this is our duty - to report poor staffing and difficulty in providing adequate care.
if there is an area where 4 hour breaks are the norm then it is being poorly managed and I would question the integrity of staff.

AyeAmarok · 16/05/2015 21:11

It wasn't a "break" FFS. It was a manager who acknowledged that if there was no actual nursing that needed to be done, the staff may as well have a sleep, as there was nothing else to do. And if a patient woke/got up, there were two others to deal with it, and if if three were needed the third would be woken.

This will blow your mind too; the other nurses who were there were told to make sure they had a book to read for the other 8 hours.

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