To think that nurses do very well financially actually

[Nurseybigbucks]

Hear me out.
I know that people are always going on about shitty nurses salary and how hard they work etc and believe me, I get that the job is often shit and getting shitter and they have to work hard, but I can't get behind them being low paid.

My DP has recently qualified as a nurse, she was lucky in that NHS paid for her degree, now that's stopped it does make a difference but this low pay nurse thing has been spouted for longer than it's been stopped.

She's just started her first job out of Uni on a salary of £30,000 for the NHS. This is above national average salary but closer to average in our area (London). She gets paid extra for night shifts and weekends or bank holidays so the total she'd earn would be around £35k in year 1.

There are not many jobs paying £35k in year one out of Uni, certainly not from courses that are so easy to access in terms of what you need to be accepted onto the courses.

And that's just for a basic (band 5) nurse. If you have something about you then you'll move up to a higher pay band within a couple of years max really and there are lots of higher paid jobs for the right personnel and LOTs of opportunity to upskill and earn more and LOTs of opportunity to work extra should you choose, with private work being particularly lucrative.

I earn around £50k in finance but expect to be the lower earner within 5 years or so.

Again, I get how hard they might work, but lots of people work hard and hard work vs pay is not a linear graph in any career.

I think that nurses are pretty well and fairly paid and they enjoy a fantastic pension if working in the NHS. So Mumsnet, AIBU?

WTF does this need to come down to money? And why are people nit-picking over a discrepancy of just £1000 when people apparently get the exact figure wrong? [comfused].

Added to which, what kind of person comes on to the internet and complains about how much their partner is being paid because they think it’s too much even though they themselves earn considerably more than them? Or could it be that OP thinks that his DP should be earning less because she’s a woman perhaps? (And generally I hate those kinds of generalising sweeping statements but it seems to fit on this occasion).

In the summer I spent six weeks in hospital, two of which were spent on ICU. I watched the nurses working incredibly hard esp on ICU where while there was one nurse to patient they never stopped. And the nurses who stayed with me while I went through the most hideous traumas imaginable, the one who was assigned to me when I first came on to the unit, who came down with me for all my tests, attempted procedures, explained to me what they were attempting etc etc.

This isn’t about money. There are some things which money can’t buy.

@Bluerussian Practice nurses (& midwives) are quite well paid too.

I’m a practice nurse - have been for nearly 20 years (qualified as a registered nurse for 25 years.)

I have diplomas, degrees and certificates up the ying yang. I am currently doing another degree level course to become a nurse prescriber.

In primary care we are paid by the GPs and not to AfC. If my skills and experience were transcribed to a hospital role I’d be a band 7. I’m actually paid just over £14 per hour. This is average for my area. People pay their cleaners more per hour than I get paid. So no, not well paid at all.

@Nurseybigbucks if you think your partner is going to rocket from a newly qualified band 5 to a band 8 in 5 years you are absolutely deluded.

Please tell me what other job you could have with direct responsibility for the lives of multiple patients on a daily basis, for the “handsome” sum of £23k? Mistakes by nurses DO cost lives. One mistake - usually due to pressure of work load - can easily lead to a nurse losing their PIN and being unable to work again.

HCAs in hospitals are also NOT untrained & NOT unskilled. You will find untrained Carers in the community or private sector - but in NHS hospitals - no - far from it.

Both trained nurses and HCAs are vastly underpaid. Which is largelywhy the NHS has so much trouble recruiting enough suitable staff!

they want to stay as a band 5 I get that but then they are choosing the low salary

Yoy clearly know zero about Agenda for Change, Nursing and Nurse jobs.

'Very well'?
Don't think so. Enough to live a normal life. Every person on the NHS frontline is underpaid.

Your DP is such a lucky lady.

Nursing pay is still poor for the responsibility. I was on £40k working in an office in London with the benefits of normal office hours, working from home and I had nowhere near the stress or responsibility of a nurse.

Assueme we're talking about FT NHS pay.

Relative to the entry requirements & in-job demands, the pension is still very good, pay fairly middling.

I’m a nurse, have been for almost 11 years and I certainly didn’t start on £30,000, that’s what I’m on now.

I work in cardiac ICU, extremely difficult not only mentally but emotionally and physically.

Is my pay awful? No, I manage on what I have but considering what I do on a daily basis it’s not that great.

To people saying that I'm expecting my DP to progress to a band 8 in 5 years, I've never stated that. I've just stated that within 5 years I expect my DP to earn more than I do.
It's easy to jump to conclusions but not every conclusion everyone jumps to is correct.

I would expect my DP to be band 7 within 5 years, that is senior sister level but perhaps she'll head down the advanced nurse practitioner route which may take a bit longer, but as a 3rd or 4th year band 6 junior sister she would be on £39k basic. That would be closer to £45k after shift allowances. To earn an extra £6k and have a better salary than me she might need to do a weekend away working privately for a specialist for every other month. That's very common in London.

I'm getting the impression from various posters that the opportunities away from London are nothing like we have here in the capital. In that case I get that perhaps there isn't the same salary or progression expectations and that perhaps my view on nurses salaries and earning potential are slightly skewed with this bias.

For all those that have chosen to insult me or my knowledge of the subject, what's the point? You hold a different view or have had different experiences, I was interested in the views and experiences but not in the negativity.

Or could it be that OP thinks that his DP should be earning less because she’s a woman perhaps?
It's really important to highlight and fight sexism where it exists but unfortunately there are some people who like to see things where they don't exist. I do not think my DP earns too much money, I wish she earned more. I just don't/didn't think that compared to other jobs that people (often women) do that the pay is awfully low.
To suggest I have sexist motives behind this post is really clutching and frankly pretty unhelpful in the fight against everyday sexism. If I didn't want her earning money I would not have funded her through University and while I accept that nursing is largely a job carried out by women in the UK, I don't see it as a "female job". I personally know more male nurses and as mentioned in a previous post, my brother works in healthcare and it is a field I want to be in at some point. Fortunately I was raised by greatest mother who taught me what being a decent man was and like the majority of men I hold women in the highest regard.

I always thought that nurses were grossly underpaid, it is only after speaking with my DP and seeing what she can earn and then listening to her thoughts that I thought perhaps I had it wrong. I'm guessing from the replies that in 5 years time my view will have changed again, I can deal with that.

That's me for the day anyway. Interesting to hear all the different view points.

I'm not being goady, says NurseyBigBucks.🥴

I would expect my DP to be a band 7 within 5 years

You really have no idea do you?

Shouldn’t you be working and earning your money instead of being on Mumsnet?

I would expect my DP to be band 7 within 5 years, that is senior sister level but perhaps she'll head down the advanced nurse practitioner route which may take a bit longer, but as a 3rd or 4th year band 6 junior sister she would be on £39k basic. That would be closer to £45k after shift allowances.

so you think she’ll be qualified one year, get a band 6 and within 5 years be on 39k? A lot of band 6s don’t do out of hours, it’s even rarer for band 7s to do out of hours so her pay will likely go down.

ANPs need extensive clinical experience, most ANP trainee posts I’ve seen advertised ask for a minimum of 5 years experience in a variety of settings.

I was a band 6, after 15 months in the role my take home salary was £1420-£1500, my wage actually went down despite moving up and over a banding level. I changed jobs and went back to a band 5 where I earn more.

I'd love if you could come back in 5 years OP with an update on the reality if your situation!

To earn an extra £6k and have a better salary than me

But you said you expect to be the lower earner in five years - what are you planning to do while she's working hard to progress her career that means that your London finance salary will stay exactly the same?

Quite midsomermurderess

Goady AF.

What if your DP doesn’t want to be a band 7 in five years?

She may be quite happy being a 5 or 6 on the ward and do actual nursing rather than go into management.

You seem to be planning her career.

I would expect my DP to be band 7 within 5 years, that is senior sister level but perhaps she'll head down the advanced nurse practitioner route which may take a bit longer, but as a 3rd or 4th year band 6 junior sister she would be on £39k basic.

Does she have extensive prior experience in management or healthcare... because that is the only time I've ever seen any nurse get to band 7 within 5 years. My trust went through a phase where nurses qualified around a year were getting band 6 assistant ward manager roles because no one in their right mind would work on those wards all of them eventually dropped down to band 5 after a year or 2 due to complete lack of experience.

If either you or your dp thinks she can become a good, knowledgeable, skilled band 7 in 5 years of qualifying without previous experience then I think you're both dreaming. I have very little respect for nurses who's only focus is climing the ladder rather than becoming a well skilled nurse who then claims the ladder.

My sister is a senior midwife, I’m not sure the salary is a problem, it’s the working conditions. She does 12hr shifts, she can’t leave until the next mw arrives to take over. She gets so few toilet breaks she’s had to stop using tampons at work due to the risk of tss, it’s that bad. She often goes 12hrs without being able to use the loo once let alone eat anything or have a break. The hospital management leave them short staffed constantly. She’s been physically and verbally abused at work on many occasions. There’s often police on the unit due to abusive family members and domestic violence.

She has to pay a lot for her parking space but working shifts means public transport is too dangerous for a lone female as she’s going to and from work in a not very nice area in the dark.

Hospitals pick up where social services and the judiciary fail. They’re the frontline, they earn their pay and then some.

I climbed from band four to band seven in four years.

Well you are very much the exception.

For all those that have chosen to insult me or my knowledge of the subject, what's the point?

Saying you have zero knowledge of nursing jobs and salary isn't an insult. Its a fact. Otherwise you wouldn't be coming out with the rubbish you have. And the point is to challenge when people talk shit. It is an Internet forum after all.

I agree with you. As far as earnings go they do earn more than most.
I have a couple of nursing friends who are band 6 and one band 7. They earn really good salaries.

Most of the 'yuck' jobs are done by HCA on a very much lower wage.

So you’re planning your partners career? What happens if these goals aren’t achieved? I’d be mighty pissed off if my husband was planning my career!

I think they are well-paid compared to most people. I know lots and lot of graduates who earn half what nurses earn. I agree they probably work hard, but not harder than the rest of us. I know a nurse who is always talking about how well she's done for herself, considering she messed around at school and left with very few qualifications, she didn't do a degree, but she is earning really well.

It’s not about who does the ‘yuck’ jobs. It’s about level of professional skill, training, responsibility, autonomy, evidence based decision making and continued professional development. HCA’s play a vital role in healthcare and personal care is an important part of fundamental nursing care but it is not why nurses are paid a ‘professional’ wage.