To ask if you approve of the pay rise for nurses and doctors?

[Retiremental]

Blown away by some of the negativity on a ‘Health care professionals’ facebook group which seems to be populated by anything BUT HCP’s

Physios in full PPE throughout the course of the day, every day on the intensive care unit, treating the sickest COVID patients shoulder to shoulder with the intensive care Drs & nurses.

SALT staff in full PPE throughout the course of every day in the intensive care unit assessing the sickest recovering COVID patients.
Without this assessment these patients cannot begin to eat or drink for the first time in weeks sometimes months. The SALT assessment is often the first glimmer of hope for these patients and allow for a huge step forward to be moved out of ICU and to get home.
They too are shoulder to shoulder with the intensive care Drs & nurses.

Admin ward clerks day in day out in the midst of the intensive care unit, shoulder to shoulder with the intensive care Drs & nurses, without these people time to care clinically for these sick patients is hugely reduced.
Dieticians likewise, shoulder to shoulder with every nurse & Dr in the hospital treating sick patients.

To comment and diminish the worth of these wonderful people is nothing short of offensive. It is uninformed, uneducated and damaging.

But surely physios aren't working on covid wards?

Are you having a laugh? Read the thread and educate yourself on what physios do. They clear chests on ventilated patients. They mobilise patients, they do rehab. They listen to chests, teach breathing techniques. They order x-rays. They treat patients in theatre. They wear PPE and treat COVID patients like anyone else.

@GurpsAgain of course they do! Respiratory physio is essential for covid patients!

If this thread has shown one thing it shows how little the general public knows about healthcare workers other than "doctors & nurses" and its perpetuated throughout the media.

I include myself in this, when I was at school I only thought doctors and nurses worked in hospitals, had no idea about all the other allied health professionals until I heard about radiography from someone I was working with and applied. I absolutely love my job but actually now I know about them I think I'd have loved to be a SALT or an OT, did a stint in pathology during training, that was fascinating, if I had the talents arts/drama/music therapy must be amazing to do with people who benefit from it. So many fascinating careers.

I wish recruitment and awareness were pushed more in schools but there is another sector overworked, underpaid and suffering a great deal themselves during this time with no pay rise, a lot of negativity directed at them when like HCPs most of them just want the best for the students they teach.

Times are tough for everyone at the moment, a pay rise would be nice but it won't be life changing and I'm glad that I currently don't have the stress of worrying about losing my job anytime soon.

I’m a physiotherapist and trainee advanced clinical practitioner. I work in the community in a hospital at home team. I regularly see patients with Covid. Indeed I’m often the HCP that does the initial swab. I am part of a team that is working very hard to manage sick patients in their own homes so they don’t have to be admitted into hospital.
I am often the first HCP who sees the patient. I complete the full assessment: taking the history, performing a respiratory, cardiovascular, neurological, GI assessment . I take bloods and interpret their results. I can order X-rays and scans. I’m a non medical prescriber. I diagnose, discuss and agree treatment management plans with my patients. I set up urgent care plans. I order equipment. I refer my patients on to other health care professionals. I have a complicated job but at the root of what I do remains my physiotherapist training and commitment to rehabilitation.

I know that lots of roles within the NHS are misunderstood, but it’s disappointing to see clinical staff on this thread who are ignorant and dismissive of their colleagues’ jobs. Put your patient in the middle of your focus, not yourself, and then engage brain as to everyone who is involved in supporting them. We do this job as a team, we can’t support our patients effectively without it. Placing HCPs within a hierarchy of worth is misunderstanding the needs of the population we now serve.

While I'm here I'll stick my twopenneth in for radiographers who also wear full ppe when imaging covid patients. We often do the equivalent of giving our patients a big cuddle whilst trying to position them for xray or ultrasound and yet during the ppe crisis there was some talk in our trust that we didnt need the same full ppe as the doctors and nurses!

I have put my arms around more strangers this year than members of my own family

I’m a paediatric nurse and we are a complete team, I think because we are in a general ward not a specific children’s hospital and paediatrics is different.

We are acute receiving so we are a ‘covid’ ward also. Every single day we have dieticians, SALT, feeding advisors, physio - both respiratory and ortho on our ward as well as our community children’s nurses, pharmacists, ward clerks, domestic staff, clinical support workers, nursery nursery nurses & catering, porters & all of our nursing and medical students, it’s a massive team. Myself (nurse) & the doctors couldn’t do my job without all of those people, so we all need to be included in any pay rise that’s offered. my job is NOT more important than any other in our team and some people forget that it seems

@malhurst excellent points. The patient should be the main focus, what is best for them?

I hate this back biting amongst professionals who are all in the same boat. I can only hope its because we're all exhausted that the compassion seems to have dipped!

I work in an amazing team, services open throughout. We need everyone and very much work as a MDT (well apart from the PA off sick for any old reason, but we need improved HR systems).

In regards to covid Who do you think gets the patients out of bed for the first time? Gets their chair - possibly a specialist one depending if they have premorbiditis or have spent a long time.e ventilated? Possibly upper limb rehab if they've been turned so many times in icu? Assesses their ability to do the most basic tasks like getting to the bathroom and have they the exercise tolerance to wash and dress? Can they swallow their food after being tubed? Do they need inpatient rehab? Equipment for home,care for home? Funny enough full ppe is needed for these tasks...people tend to cough a lot, in your face when they are struggling with breathing etc. Physios,OTs and SALT are a massive part of the patients journey

Nurses and doctors are amazing but they don't have the time to do everything and without the other health professionals the NHS would never survive.

Really depressing how many people want to split hairs about "who saves the most lives" when the reality is that we need all these people and these jobs aren't paid enough to begin with.

It's exactly what the government want. Keep us distracted by arguing about who deserves an extra £250 a year while they continue handing out massive contracts to their mates and wasting money on PPE that's unusable. But heaven forfend a physio gets a tiny payrise...

I assume it is all NHS that get s payrise and Doctors and Nurses were mentioned as that is what a lot of people automatically think when NHS is mentioned ( at school I felt other HCP were not mentioned as much-so maybe from there?). I think they deserve a payrise and lots others not mentioned eg shop workers ( but that is not under government remit).

@LemonPeonies

Drs and nurses are the ones who literally save lives so yes, more so than physios etc PP

Physios can make a huge difference to quality of life though, without one my child would have ended up in a wheelchair.

Yes, nurses have been underpaid for donkeys

Why are people still arguing about who is more 'worthy' within the NHS? We know any pay rise will be 1) crap and 2) for all NHS staff. So can we please stop this now?

‘ I have put my arms around more strangers this year than members of my own family’

So much power in that one sentence