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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:
NorahDentressangle · 17/05/2015 15:38

of course Bus drivers are responsible for their passengers but the degree of skill involved is not the same. As a ward nurse you are constantly making decisions, multitasking, monitoring pts condition, deciding the priority in which you give care

But it's the volume of work that nurses do that is the problem and that is due to understaffing. It wouldn't be so pressured if there was 1nurse to 4 patients for example.

girliefriend · 17/05/2015 15:56

WhereI work (community) they are rolling out a scheme similar to the enrolled nurse role for HCAs. Imo although its a great opportunity for some fantastic HCAs to progress it is also about getting nurses on the cheap.

Sallystyle · 17/05/2015 16:18

I just started a job in a care home and my plan was to become a HCA for the NHS and then go to uni to do my nurse training as I have just completed an access course.

I actually got an interview to be a HCA on bank just after I accepted my new job after months and months of applying and being turned down which is just typical. I couldn't take two weeks off my new job to so the HCA training so I had to decline the interview.

Reading this I am thinking of scrapping my idea of going to uni completely and just apply to become a HCA in a year or two.

namechangefortoday543 · 17/05/2015 17:01

U2 there are lots of trusts which allow you to do 2 days HCA 3 days as a student - I think it might be the OU.
I think it takes 4 years but is good as you still earn something

Daimgirl · 17/05/2015 18:08

Quick question to all of throes who say study harder become a doctor or whatnot. If we all did this…

Where will the Nurses that are needed come from???

Ps: my grades were more than good enough to get in to medicine, he'll I could have even gone to vet collage, even higher grades needed, so ner ner

Daimgirl · 17/05/2015 18:09

I realise I have lose all credibility with my horrible spelling mistake and my childish ner ner, but I stand by it.

Diamond23 · 17/05/2015 18:38

I'm surprised at this thread. I have never heard nurse bashing. I thought everyone appreciated nurses Shock

My BF is a nurse. Never wanted anything else- well before academic ability would be recognised, she was bandaging her teddy Grin did St. John's etc to get experience. Nursing degree whilst working. Now, she's no angel. Unless you present with your leg hanging off you aren't getting sympathy. God forbid if you're a bit of a wimp, hypocondriac or drug addict Grin but she does an amazing fascinating job and she loves it. She's brilliant at it. It's so
Important. I've never heard such dismissive ness. Nurses in this thread please know that it's not usual to bash you! I'll reserve my bashing for this lazy sods sending letters about parking at the town hall, or the middle managers who managed to procure your wards bedding at 50% more than it should've cost Wink

Diamond23 · 17/05/2015 18:40

Also- had Bf have wanted to be a doctor, or had the intelligence to (she doesn't- let's face it the vast majority of people don't) she wouldn't have been able to because her parents couldn't afford all that tuition. So that's the end of that.

LotusLight · 17/05/2015 18:41

People pick a career knowing the likely pay scales. So that's that.

I don't think any time soon nurse pay will double so if a woman does want to make as much money as many other mumsnetters make change careers.

UncertainSmile · 17/05/2015 18:43

I'd never discourage anyone who wanted to become a nurse, there are so many areas to specialise in.

timeforabrewnow · 17/05/2015 18:50

I don't think any time soon nurse pay will double so if a woman does want to make as much money as many other mumsnetters make change careers.

Men are also allowed to be nurses. And no, that is not that. Why shouldn't nurses be paid a decent wage???

Actually, have a read through the last 14 pages of this thread and you might see that.

GraysAnalogy · 17/05/2015 18:57

For fucks sake have we actually come to the nurses are just people who couldn't become doctors rhetoric?

Are you for real?

Medicine and Nursing are two very different schools of thought. Nursing is much more holistic, much more person centred and IMO takes a lot more emotion. My role is similar to a Physicians Associate, different name though, and whilst I care for my patients I concentrate on their condition, not them as a person although I do obviously try. Nurses have to encompass everything in the care they deliver. It's both incredibly stupid and insulting to compare the two. Although over the years nurses have been expected to take on more and more roles that were once done by doctors.

Diamond23 · 17/05/2015 18:57

I'll be honest I thought nurses were paid a decent wage- I thought, like teachers, that had been rectified by new labour. I can now see that whilst at some points in your career the pay is decent (even good) after about 10 years it tips to pretty poor and you can't progress the way many roles allow you to.

For example it seems as though mentioned above would be on 28-35k At a guess which I consider pretty poor in my mid 30s

GraysAnalogy · 17/05/2015 19:00

The enrolled nurse thing is a step back in my opinion. Changes the playing field again and completely changes the skill set of nurses. If the enrolled nurse thing does come back we need much more stringent ways of defining who is who. If I need a registered nurse quickly I want to be able to spot one rather than wade through.

frikadela01 · 17/05/2015 19:17

diamond the 28-35k isn't even reachable by your everyday staff nurse most nurses are band 5 which currently tops out at 27k. Once you reach that you either stay there and just get the yearly 1% rise (if it hasn't been frozen) or get a job as a band 6. I work with nurses who are massively experience have lots of extra qualifications and are still band 5 because either the band 6 jobs aren't there or they're in management which takes you away from patient caRe.

LotusLight · 17/05/2015 19:38

So if you want a lot more pay you change careers and don't encourage your teenage children into it presumably?

UncertainSmile · 17/05/2015 19:53

ODFO Lotus. I haven't seen a meaningful or useful post by you yet.

mappemonde · 17/05/2015 20:43

Lotus - you never seem to get the point - what do we do if there are no nurses? If every nurse goes and does something else who performs the role of the nurse? And does society value nursing so little that it is not important to have good, qualified, intelligent and hard working candidates for the role? By approaching this purely from the point of view of 'how can one earn more' you are missing the ramifications and wider concerns about nursing in general.

ItsADinosaur · 17/05/2015 20:48

FFS Lotus, men are nurses too. I wonder if you're even reading any replies.

AyeAmarok · 17/05/2015 20:51

I wonder if the average pay of male nurses is exactly the same as the average pay of female nurses.

That would be an interesting study, has it been done, does anyone know?

girliefriend · 17/05/2015 21:11

I think male nurses are paid the same as their female colleagues however ime male nurses can normally move up the bands a bit quicker. Imo this is because they don't tend to work part time like many women nurses do and don't take time out to have babies!!

However I am massively over generalising, in my dept it is all female managers and within the whole district for every 10 -15 female nurses I would say there is 1 male (educated guess.)

Nursing is a vocation, I certainly did not go in to it for the money however I do feel that we should be paid in line with the other public services esp teachers.

I love being a nurse, I have cared for many people in their final hours and sat with family members as they have wept. I have helped heal leg ulcers that patients have suffered with for years. I have supported people through gruelling treatment and shock diagnosis's. My job is complex and can be emotionally draining but I would never want to do anything else.

LotusLight · 17/05/2015 21:18

Well when the state cannot get the nurses it needs at current pay levels the pay will go up. I am sure it helps nurses on here to talk to other nurses about who they feel underpaid.

I am usually regarded as very helpful, role model to women and all that kind of stuff actually but anyone who doesn't like what I post (which is encouragement to women to achieve what they want to achieve) is free not to read or comment upon it.

I suspect we are not about to see large increases in pay for nurses.
I know Carney at the Bank of England is concerned the UK has such low productivity at present (in the private sector we're not working hard enough and working too many short hours) and that pay is not rising particularly in the private sector but whether things will change remains to be seen.

girliefriend · 17/05/2015 21:25

The problem is Lotus that you equate achievement with earning pots of money Hmm

When there is a short full of nurses they don't pay us any more they just bring lots more nurses in from abroad.

Lookingforadvice123 · 17/05/2015 21:26

I'm not a nurse but in the civil service where we have very similar pay bands to NHS. Don't forget you will probably be paying a large chunk into your pension, depending on the scheme, so bottom of band 5 you will more likely be taking home £1200-1300 after tax and other deductions (including pension).

Lookingforadvice123 · 17/05/2015 21:27

And it doesn't go up very much the higher you climb! I'm on the second from bottom level of your equivalent band 6 - pension/student loan contributions just continue to go up and up so I still only take home about £1650 despite earning almost £28k...

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