To think the glamorisation of the NHS isn't helpful

[YeahWhatevver]

My DH is a nurse and I'm getting really fed up with the glamorization of the NHS and Doctors and Nurses.

He's watching the TV, seeing the clapping, the endless stories of NHS saving the nation, the grit and determination of the staff, doubling down to fight off this virus and said last night how he wishes it was like that and him and his friends felt like that.

The truth couldn't be further, my DH and his colleagues are exhausted, under equipped, scared, and in their hearts of hearts don't want to be in a hospital. Who in their right mind would want to go into a virus infected ITU for hours per day and then come back to you wife and kids?

The public need to know how scared and overwhelmed these people are, not how Stacy, 21 from Newcastle has ended her nurse training early to go and join the fight and is one of the thousands of "heroes" grateful to be able to play their part.

I've already seen a marked change in DH's mood, he dreads going to a job that he used to love, I've got no idea what him and his colleagues will be like in another 8 weeks.

triedandtested, I understand some salaried NHS nurses's named beneficiary may be entitled to the princely death benefit sum of 2 x pensionable pay (less than most Civil Servants). The situation for Drs is a little more complicated depending on whether they are GPs, locum and so on. Better than many (I'm aware many in other caring jobs don't get anything and are paid less generally) but it doesn't quite compare to some private sector schemes. My friends in 'the City' thought I was joking when they asked about this.

I worked for the NHS for years and I dont think this is "glamorising" it at all- Ive seen the photos with nursing staff and doctors with facial bruises from wearing masks all day. Nothing glamorous about that at all.
Yes, of course they need PPE but what can the bloody general public do about that?- nothing. The only way they can express appreciation is to clap. Which is awesome. Of course its not enough but thats for the government to sort out, not sandra down the road is it?
What else do you suggest the public do? (bearing in mind we arent allowed to leave our houses)

I'm a nurse in an acute hospital, now off work as am pregnant so 'working from home' supporting my colleagues however I can with admin stuff etc.

I feel guilty and sad for not being alongside them at this time, but I'm also incredibly relieved. I would be terrified working with what they are working with every day, and the risks I (and my family) would potentially be exposed to. Every time I hear about the death of a healthcare worker I feel sick to my stomach, and am reminded this could be any one of my friends or colleagues.

Triedandtested, I think it's worse than that. It shapes the narrative that dead HCPs are heroic casualties of war rather than victims of deliberate government decisions and Civil Service/NHS administrators' incompetence. It will be interesting whether any corporate manslaughter prosecutions are assessed. I think acute will be too close, politically, to government (I know NHS Trusts are, in theory, legally separate) but some GPs practices may be in the firing line - I'm surprised more GP Partners aren't worried.

The NHS death in service benefits are the same as the armed forces’. Given that they’re funded by the tax payer, can you imagine the outcry if they were at “City” levels?

The clapping is done to make people feel better, not to benefit the nurses etc. i actually think it will be damaging for them, as their working conditions won’t improve (after all, people have already clapped their bad conscience away).
most hospitals have gift lists available where you can donate even a small amount of money or specific things that actually help the people working there

Both me and DH are frontline NHS. The clapping to us signified the fact that for the first time in a long time someone realised how difficult and pressurised it is working for the NHS. It was a boost to hear the support, the public can only do so much and at no point did we perceive it to be glamorisation of our role. For the first time in years, there has been a reduction in numbers attending A&E with rubbish, this change in use to the service and the clapping from the public has actually given some of us a little boost. Knowing people care can help just a little.

Yes and I've not come across many drs or nurses who expect senior City-level pay, benefits and bonuses. I'm also aware most Civil Servants are eligible for four times pensionable pay which is an interesting anomaly. Perhaps it feels a little more gritty given the HCPs who've died and will die from COVID and the inadequate PPE and government PR spin about PPE. I've always thought the squaddies were underpaid for headline pay given the risks and conditions they face though I've no awareness of armed services allowances.

The same City friends who PTSL when they got told what 'junior' drs and nurses earned and their death benefits were also the City friends who keep saying how there's no such thing as a magic money tree (I understand the economics somewhat) though smile given Schrodinger's Magic money tree is needed by someone to fund an extra £1bn to Northern Ireland, that is, after an election (these City Friends are all party political). Or bail out financial institutions - Generally privatising profits and socialising losses seems to have an amnesiac effect on those people. I think COVID and the deaths of HCPs (and others, I can see everyone who comes through the door) have crystallised some bitterness here.

And I've just seen one of today's HCPs in the news -
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-52242516

I think death in service payments from Covid should be looked at (across the sectors - NHS, Carers, Police, Teachers and other school staff, Police). This is not the same as getting cancer or having a heart attack while employed - it is actually being killed by the fact of going to work and it is not something these people expected to sign up for.

Yanbu by any stretch op but it's not the 21 year old Stacey's fault either. Remember when you first started out in life, we all don't expect the landslide of crap we face years down the line. Your DH is doing a tough job and I hope all these clapping people remember this at the polling station. The government need to answer for this mess.

I don't see the clapping and thanks as glamourising the NHS.

When you're in the NHS, it's just your job. But maybe the people clapping appreciate that your DH is still going out to work and helping patients. They may also be clapping for their colleagues, other key workers, also their neighbours for staying at home.

I work on the front line but I'm not a Dr or Nurse. I do worry for my life most days and sometimes I don't because I'll catch it somewhere eventually. I don't know what to think anymore.

But when I hear the clapping or see the posts on social media or the rainbows in windows, it makes me feel gratitude because our communities are pulling together. Everyone feels scared to some degree and the NHS are saving lives, however unglamorously.

I am an NHS 2nd year student and got sent home...good job too as we had no PPE and no training on Covid. I will not be going back until September even if asked to go back sooner ( its optional )and that is only on condition I get tested first. Otherwise i'm going to find work in a related field but NOT the frontline.

The clapping is not my sort of thing at all, but having had HCP friends say it boosts their morale, I would find it hard not to do it. It's really easy to sneer at it and assume everyone doing it is a hypocrite who thinks that's all they have to do, but I know that that's not actually true for many people who do it. Some will be, but lots won't. I already vote and campaign to support the NHS and make donations including to the PPE fund. Clapping doesn't take anything away from that.

People who aren't HCPs being cynical and sneery can themselves come across as doing a type of virtue signalling - "look how much cleverer and more worthy I am, not being drawn into something as shallow and hypocritical as the clapping, I bet they all vote Tory, I bet they all panic bought and visit second homes, I bet none of them really care for the NHS the way I do, etc etc".

HCPs themselves who say they don't like it give me much more of a dilemma, because other HCPs including friends say they do like it. So which ones to listen to?

I've been out clapping it probably does boost more people than it irritates but fgs some people put no thought into anything, do more than clap, back the NHS the next time they need us, remember the junior doctors strike? Lots of sniping from the tabloids.

I'm really sorry NHS staff feel frightened and unhappy.

The everyday experience of the NHS, before the virus, would not probably have made people clap.

But I would just say that I and many others owe the fact that we are still alive to the NHS.

I wish they had the safety equipment they needed and could do the daunting job they now face without fear.

And I do thank them.

Oh I feel the same - I work for an NHS mental health team and constantly in and out of acute settings. The nhs is run on goodwill and the blitz spirit distracts from how utterly underfunded and undervalued it is by the government.
Makes me sick to see all the Torys clapping like they haven’t deliberately underfunded public services for 10 years.