To think it's not worth it to become a nurse

[Emily786]

3 years of graft in university to only get paid £14 an hour m I had my heart sat on it till my father was like the NHS is going downhill and there will be no jobs by the time you go out into the world 😭 . So I don't know whether I should re-evaluate my choices

Career progression is not good now in the NHS.There is a push down to save money.
Apprentice nurses are increasing but a pathways onto degree level aren't very available and many don't want to go that far so band 4s will take the place of many band 5 degree nurses.
Band 6 used to be senior staff nurses,the call junior sisters,now sisters so more responsibility same pay.There are less band 7s and few band 8s.
If you want to have a family the hours are difficult so you will have to be able to go part time.
It used to be a worthwhile job but we are valued so little now and doing more with and for less.
I'm 60 and have another 7 years to go before retirement if my knackered back and arthritic fingers allow.
Given my time over I would not do nursing although I loved the first 20 years.
If you have your heart set on it OP do it but do it with eyes open and knowing that getting a job while you are on the degree course is not an option.

A friend has just qualified and starts work next month, treating herself to a decent break before she starts work for real. Personally, I was quite shocked to hear that she had to work nights unpaid as part of her training but realise it's essential preparation for the role.
She was offered a job in every placement and has opted for A&E, her favourite placement, so throwing herself in the deep end while she has no family responsibilities. She is quite ambitious so it will be interesting to see how her career progresses.

Just be clever about your career path and goals and £14 an hour won’t be the reality for long. Starting off in A&E usually gives you a good basis for applying for advanced practice training roles.

Don’t be afraid to look at jobs with not for profit companies that can still give you nhs pension/leave/sick pay, but aren’t restricted by AFC pay scales.

I’ve been qualified 6 years, my role is equivalent to a band 7, and I earn around £24 an hour, obviously more on evenings, weekends and nights.

Isn't there a shortage of nurses

Well if there is it could be because they made a load of older (40year +) redundant.

Friend was a nurse with the NHS and they made her redundant together with a load of other nurses on her grade

The issue you have with nursing as far as friend can see is nowadays you get into debt getting your qualification then work for a shitty salary (DD is a glorified waitress with no qualifications and out earns £14 per hour).

Then when you start to get on a bigger salary they make you redundant so they can take on younger and lesser paid nurses to take your place.

Dfriend is very bitter.

I am a band 6 qualified 14 years band 6 for a few months. There is not a great opportunity to progress as people tend to stay as 6/7 for years also In my trust specialist nurses tend to only be band 6.

That said, I love my job it is back breaking and emotionally draining but on the whole I make a difference to my patients. We are always understaffed and that gets scary as we struggle to provide safe care. I leave my 13 hour days absolutely exhausted.

I love my colleague's and the team work. For what we do we are underpaid it's literally life or death decision making. On the whole I have always managed to make my shifts work around children easier now they are older, it's difficult to progress with small children so I waited. I love having days off in the week but tend to work 4 out of 5 weekends.

You do need to be resilient, caring, tough and have good negotiating skills but it is a huge privilege to care for at the best and worst times of their life. I wouldn't do anything else.

Then when you start to get on a bigger salary they make you redundant so they can take on younger and lesser paid nurses to take your place.

With respect, this happens in all sectors, not just healthcare. This is not to say that I think it's right, the management team would justify it by saying it's time for new people with fresh ideas.

Does your friend still have her NMC pin? Has she managed to find another job?

Actually being a military nurse isn’t a bad idea but if you do the option where they pay you to train you do need to follow it through. If you join the Royal Navy as a rating you’ll do the 10 week basic training at HMS Raleigh and then go on to the University of Birmingham.

There is the opportunity to become a nursing officer or join as a nursing officer.

The pay for ratings and officers is much better than the NHS. As there are no military hospitals left you will be largely working in NHS hospitals though.

There is a nursing shortage - you can walk into a job anywhere.

NurseButtercup

Works as a receptionist in a place she can get to in 10 minutes for less annual salary but when she added up the commute time and cost the extra minutes that she worked each week that would add up to hours etc there isn't much in her hourly rate and it is less hassle and at 5pm her job is over for the day.

I'm a band 5 who has been qualified for nearly 2 years working in a day surgery unit and my hourly rate is £12.80. I used to earn more when I got the unsociable hours enhancements when working on a ward but money does not make up for the pressures of working usually understaffed and in high pressured situations. My current role is amazing and I love it but it's the exception rather than the rule in our local trust.

I’m surprised that the unsocial hours payments haven’t been cut!

Office admin roles often pay more than nursing with none of the responsibility and with flexitime!

😂

I never said I was in it for the money

Is that why every one of your posts talks about money?

The starting hourly rate at band 5 is £12.39. I am on £15.40 per hour after 15 years at band 5. It's a highly stressful job that I wouldn't recommend to anyone.

I think it’s very sensible to consider the wage of any future job/career. Doesn’t mean it’s all about the money at all.

The tradition of considering nursing to be a vocation helps to keep the wages down. It’s a symptom of our patriarchal society and wouldn’t happen if nursing wasn’t a female dominated profession.

OP, if you get a job as a hcsw you’d then be able to see about getting a nursing apprentice position. You do the degree over 4 years, come out with exactly the same qualification and are paid a wage while you’re doing it and no university fees. The apprentice courses are really taking off.

I wish people would stop calling nursing a vocation.It's a profession.We have degrees and are highly skilled.Calling it a vocation makes it sound like we would happily do it for nothing and legitimises poor wages. Nursing is a very good career.I get to progress,I get fantastic training and a huge amount of job satisfaction.You don't have to work long shifts and nights.I'm a paedeatric nurse,work 3.5 days a week 9-5 with no weekends in the community.The work is incredibly varied and I love my job.Having said that I got a bursary when j trained.They need to stop charging uni fees if they aren't going to raise wages.

@headinthedrawer when my ds was small nearly 25 years ago now, he was under the community paed nursing team. They seemed to have a pretty good life but I didn't see much professionalism. They provided broken nebulisers twice, told me they weren't broken but I was using them incorrectly, provided conflicting advice, answered every question with "I don't know, you'll have to ask the doctor". Funnily enough when they replaced the broken black nebs that came in bits with a modern unit there were no more problems with the machine. A month later and in desperation I had ds referred privately to the Royal Brompton The consultant took a thorough history and provided an accurate diagnosis and prognosis. He also arranged a session with an expert asthma nurse.
We were recommended to use a small spacer called a turbo-haler. It cost £25 and wasn't available on the NHS. The asthma nurse provided a thorough explanation and explained that previous instructions to puff, hold down and count to ten were wrong as ideally the baby needed to take ten breaths of the medicine although three or four got in 60% to 70% of the dose, so if there weren't 10 clear breaths give another puff and count two/three breaths to ensure the full dose was given. She also explained that a stressed baby would hold their breath under the mask so counting to 10 was fruitless, one needed to count the breaths. Much easier to handle a baby and the puffer when the giant spacer or noisy, steamy neb was replaced with a small, manageable and user friendly device. DS turned the corner in days after hospital admission after hospital admission and a downward spiral since bronchiolitos at 4 months. Never needed a nebuliser again. None of it was rocket science and it really brought the shoddy local services into focus. So much money wasted due to poor equipment and poor advice. No wonder the NHS is on its knees and it has nothing to do with resources and everything to do with competence and poor management. I have encountered similar things time and time again when dealing with the NHS. I have rarely encountered a nurse who behaves in a professional way and is able to answer questions in an informed way backed up by clear evidence based research.

The cherry on the cake came when we moved and I wrote and told them. We kept the same phone no and 9 months later they phoned to say they desperately needed the neb which I had already offered to return twice but heard nothing in response . The nurse went to the old house and later berated me for wasting her time yelling at me and telling me another baby was suffering because I hadn't returned essential equipment I hope things have moved on in paed community nursing because I saw very little professionalism nearly 25 years ago.

I'd love to be able to think of nursing as a profession rather than a vocation but I can't. The exception in my experience are the excellent nurse practitioners at the minor injuries unit at Queen Mary's Hospital which is part of St Georges. The paed nurses on the ward there were very good too but it was closed as a local district hospital in 1997.

Always ends with a nurse bashing thread, not really what the OP was after.I am sorry you had bad experiences but that is not the norm, you always get some that should not be in the job or are not very good at it.

Nursing is NOT a vocation it is a highly skilled degree profession, I do have to make life and death decisions sure we have Doctors around but not all the time. The current climate In the NHS is the worst I have seen it, not enough staff to patients and 6 hour wait in A&E as nurses we are often Theo es blamed for everything, the wait for drugs/discharge/Doctors any cleaning or meal related problems all this whisyt doing 15 minute one in a septic patient.

No we are not paid enough £15:15 as a band 6.

Apologies for the typos my phone loves an auto correct.

It's a job that is primarily done by women. Like teaching in primary schools. Why the pay is so shit.

YABU, it's a fantastic job and the world is your oyster once you are qualified. I've been a paediatric nurse for 15 years and wouldn't want to do anything else. There are loads of career opportunities of you want them.

It's definitely a vocation so don't do it if you don't love it.

I would love to retrain as a nurse. There is so much info about how difficult a job it is, how exhausting and hard and badly paid. But I would love to do it anyway because I want a job that actually makes a difference. I've been on the other end and have been under the care of some wonderful, professional and kind nurses who have inspired me and, cliched though it is, I want to give something back.
I think if you love what you want to do then do it. There is more to life than pay.

DS2 is a nurse. He graduated last Summer and works in A&E. He absolutely loves his job, it's what he's always wanted to do. Nursing is like teaching you can't do it halfheartedly

I wasn't nurse bashing I was noting, from experience, why I don't think nursing is a profession. I don't think graduate level or post graduate level professionals ever behave like jobsworths and they certainly don't client blame for their personal shortcomings:

Let me see now:

Labour ward. Midwife missed fact that baby was posterior and was being strangled by cord. Her predecessor laughed put loud when I was in agony "ha, ha if you are in this much pain at 1/2 cm, God know how you'll cope later". I'd just vomited post 90 mins of gas and air - her response "roll over, scratch, pethidine" my permission was not sought. I was on a public ward with male visitors and children next to me when this happened. Not busy, was Christmas day. Much hooting and squawking from midwives in the background who outnumbered patients 3:1. No doubt if they'd transferred me to a labour suite they'd have had to do some work.

On post-natal ward, again v quiet, got shouted at for rolling off bed pad and getting blood on the sheets.

Got home and first community midwife went on and on at first visit about sex. Was asked to refrain. Her response was to hold her elbow in her hand and wave the other hand about "dis is wot da man will say da sex is like if you don't start da pelvic floor exercises straight away.

Out patient infusion suite for bisphosphonates. Three nurses couldn't cannulate. I was the only patient when I arrived they were finishing their porridge. Complete disinterest and refused to respect my dignity and close curtain.

A&E when dd had mh problems - wardc sister screamed at me when I said we were leaving. After a mh nurse had cleared her as well to go but they hadn't got their act together to sort out discharge two hours later. I won't go into detail about the incompetence in relation to the mh act, capacity or DOLs, but it certainly wasn't a professional undetstanding.

The CAMHS nurse who was unable to provide accurate information re timeframes, thought a 17 year old couldn't have ADHD and wrote a report littered with inaccuracy overtyped over another reprt.

Yup. None of it made up - you couldn't make it up but one thing it isn't is representative of graduate educated professionalism.

On the basis of the above £15.15 is massive. People in shops and ofgices would be dismissed for far less.

But it's free innit so we must be eternally gratefully for sub standard NHS services.