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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be pissed off at being 'just' a nurse?

613 replies

bottleofwater · 18/12/2017 22:45

Three times in the last week Ive had different family members making sarky comments regarding some recent achievements & promotion at work.

Usually comments along the lines of "Oh Florence Nightingale you will be telling the Doctors what to do now" " You will be a surgeon in no time" & " What do nurses know about blood pressures, they are not doctors".

Im so fed up of how its like being a nurse is rubbish & that only Doctors are of any value Angry

Also comments regarding how I dont make the same amount of money as other family members but thats probably another thread!

Not sure what they think nurses actually do but aibu to be pissed off at the constant sneering at me?

OP posts:
FruitCider · 19/12/2017 19:07

a sister can earn what around £50k?

I’m pretty sure most sisters are band 6/7 and are paid £26565 to £41787? Adding on an average of 15% for enhancements that means a ward sister with at least 7 years experience at band 7 has their pay capped at £48050.

Most nurses will never progress beyond a band 5 so your argument is futile anyway.

NeilPetark · 19/12/2017 19:12

a sister can earn what around £50k?

I’m looking around for my £50k! Where is it? In fact band 7s often earn less than band 6s due to the lack of unsocial hours pay.

I'm very well informed
No you aren’t. HTH.

AmeliaFlashtart · 19/12/2017 19:25

You live in your own little NHS bubble and don't seem to realise those pay bands aren't poorly paid. Whats the national average wage 25K?

Capped at £48050? that's actually a good salary. What do you feel you should earn? the same as a doctor?

Nurses aren't angels, they aren't god, they aren't superhuman, (nor are doctors) they are an important part of a team that includes many roles but as a doctor posted a page or so ago, ultimate responsibility lies with her.

As I've said before OPs relatives comments don't seem like an attack on the nursing profession at all but an attempt to deflate an overdeveloped sense of self-importance in OP.

One that is coming through loud and clear from others on this thread. you are acting like entitled special snowflakes and not doing perception of the nursing profession any favours.
In OPs case 3 different relatives made comments - bit of a coincidence? No.

Headofthehive55 · 19/12/2017 19:27

So amelia how do nurses manage to educate medical students if, as you suggest they somehow have less knowledge?

not all nurses want the extra responsibility and so, no, the capable ones do not all rise up the grades.

AmeliaFlashtart · 19/12/2017 19:29

Most nurses will never progress beyond a band 5 so your argument is futile anyway

If they studied for further qualifications, took on more responsibility, led teams, managed people they could earn more. This is how it works in any profession! You don't just automatically get given more and more money for coasting at one grade your entire career.!!! why do nurses think they are different to anyone else?

Viviennemary · 19/12/2017 19:32

Unless you're a fully paid up member of the Society of Nurse Worshippers you're a troll according to this thread. Nurses aren't angels and aren't any different from any other person doing a job. In spite of the constant brainwashing to tell us otherwise. No other professions carries on in this silly needy way.

Headofthehive55 · 19/12/2017 19:34

Yes I think when a nurse and dr does the same job they should get the same pay. As I explained sometimes they do exactly the same role. For example public health consultant.
would you not agree?

It is not correct that the ultimate responsibility lies with the dr, each are responsibly for their own decisions. A dr cannot be ultimately responsible for deficiencies in care when they may never have seen the patient.

Headofthehive55 · 19/12/2017 19:36

But amelia, not everyone wants that!
But then, I know a GP friend who doesn't work as a gp but is admin /receptionist.

SleightOfMind · 19/12/2017 19:37

It was a nurse that saved me of my DTs life as a very sick newborn.
Doctor got it wrong.
YANBU and I’m sorry your family are being such arses.
Are they threatened by your achievement? I can’t really believe they’d be coming out with this nasty nonsense otherwise.
No one else thinks this way.

SleightOfMind · 19/12/2017 19:38

one of my DTs lives!

SheffUK · 19/12/2017 19:41

That's a falshood, Amelia - band 5 nurses already do lead teams, evidence continual professional development, and many do undertake additional qualifications.

There's a certain amount of role creep stifling progression which is partly why there has been an issue with retention and recruitment within the UK; just like teaching, many nurses are no longer recommending the vocation to their family and friends.

AmeliaFlashtart · 19/12/2017 19:45

Unless you're a fully paid up member of the Society of Nurse Worshippers you're a troll according to this thread. Nurses aren't angels and aren't any different from any other person doing a job. In spite of the constant brainwashing to tell us otherwise. No other professions carries onin this silly needy way

Agreed, Doctors, retired and current commenting on this thread are measured and balanced. The nurses are coming across as entitled and deluded.

You won't ever get paid the same as a doctor. Medicine attracts a far higher calibre of person than nursing, Entry requirements are higher, knowledge is greater, get over it. This isn't an attack on nursing, It's the same in any profession that requires a whole team of roles to operate, there are different levels of knowledge and responsibility requiring different qualifications and they will be paid accordingly.

Sadly my previously actually quite positive perception of the nursing profession has only been lowered reading this thread. Your arguments for more pay don't make sense and you seem totally out of touch with the real world.

FruitCider · 19/12/2017 19:46

If they studied for further qualifications, took on more responsibility, led teams, managed people they could earn more.

Newsflash - band 5 nurses ARE managers. They do lead times. They have a massive amount of accountability.

Do you actually understand what the different bands mean?

Polarbearflavour · 19/12/2017 19:48

AmeliaFlashtart - most nurses stay as band 5s due to the downgrading of roles. There simply aren’t many band 6 and 7 jobs to apply for.

VivienneMary - at least you acknowledge that nursing is a profession! Grin so what do you have against nurses?

Nobody is saying nurses are angels. It was the media who coined that term.

Polarbearflavour · 19/12/2017 19:51

AmeliaFlashtart - oh nooooo your opinion of nurses has been lowered!!! How will we live?

I’m sure you’ll sit there meekly when being seen by a nurse at your GP practice/walk in centre/A&E/outpatient appointment or in bed in your local hospital as the nurse prepares your IV.

FruitCider · 19/12/2017 19:51

Yeah I’m definitely not an angel, angels are perfect and I’m far from it. I swear too much and drink too much gin Grin

BiglyBadgers · 19/12/2017 19:52

I don't live in a nursing bubble. I have worked in a number of different sectors and nursing is not particularly well paid compared to other jobs with equivalent qualifications and responsibilities (as has been pointed out band 5 nurses do manage teams). That is even if you don't take into account the fact that a nurse is responsible for lives. If an IT programmer has a bad day you're software goes a bit dodgy for a while, if a nurse has a bad day somebody dies. Jobs with this added factor or responsibility should be paid more in my view. I also think doctors should be paid more, and police and fireman.

I think it is pretty shocking at as a middle manager responsible for a small IT development team I would easily earn more than most nurses managing larger teams of people in far more stressful conditions could ever hope to earn.

Grumpbum · 19/12/2017 19:54

Not read the whole thread, I will do now. I’m a specialist nurse, also a non medical prescriber. I respect my profession but just as much as I respect my Sons teacher, and my other Sons nursery workers.

I spend probably at least an hour a week unpicking poor prescribing by Drs and I take a lot of work off their shoulders except I get paid a fraction of what they do,
I don’t get paid enough for the responsibility I have but I love my job and I am good at it plus half the time I protect my patients from crap decisions

BiglyBadgers · 19/12/2017 19:56

You won't ever get paid the same as a doctor.

And nobody has said nurses should be paid the same as a doctor unless they are doing the same job. They have merely asked that they are respected an important part of a team with specialist skills and knowledge. You really can't get your head around this can you?

BillywigSting · 19/12/2017 20:02

Yanbu at all!

My mum is a nurse prescriber in a wic and knows more than half the bloody GPs do. (she's worked on a&e, icu and hdu too as well as a couple of post surgical wards for less serious stuff).

She's got about eleventy billion letters after her name and is one of the most intelligent and hard working people I've ever known .

She also does a lot of picking apart poor prescribing by doctors (and then rants to me about how they don't follow 'the bloody NICE guidelines, especially with antibiotics!')

She also gets paid as much as a nq Dr, but that's after 30 years of experience

Headofthehive55 · 19/12/2017 20:02

I'm afraid some nurses already do get paid more than some Drs.

Headofthehive55 · 19/12/2017 20:08

Can you not see, amelia that nurses have a different skill set to medics, but equally have a lot of knowledge that isn't covered by a medical degree.

Consider a chemist in a chemical factory. She has got the technical knowledge of the product and process, but isn't necessarily equipped to run a section, or factory.

AmeliaFlashtart · 19/12/2017 20:12

You do live in a nursing bubble - you all talk about band 5s and 6s, no-one gives a toss. In any job, any profession there will always be a layer of people who stay at one level, there will be those who rise a bit and those who rise a lot. If the ones at the lower level don't want to rise then they need to accept that they aren't going to get paid more!

Qualifications, experience and knowledge come into it but also supply and demand,

You mention the example of the IT manager getting more pay for managing a small team?
a cock-up in the IT systems may cost the company millions of pounds, cause untold chaos. Loss od data? peoples details leaked? systems down? passengers stranded? orders delayed? The knock on effect could be huge and cause lasting damage to the reputation of the company. You might not like it or get it but it's business and its all about profit which is why they command a higher salary.

oh dear god no, another one has surfaced who saves us from idiot doctors on a weekly basis.

AmeliaFlashtart · 19/12/2017 20:15

Make your fucking minds up - nurses get paid nothing, nurses get paid £48 max, nurses stay on the low band but expect to get paid the same as doctors without bothering to get more qualifications and now someone pops up saying her nurse mum gets paid the same as the doctors................

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