£10.60 for qualified nurse-stay or walkout

[user1471462428]

I’ve been in my new job for a couple of weeks, I had asked the company to clarify my wages when I first started but the manager was unable to. She did state the generally paid around £14 an hour (this is low for nursing but I was willing to accept it). I’ve just got my first wage slip and it’s £10.60 an hour, it feels like an insult I have to pay a registration fee to be a nurse and once that is deducted I won’t be far off the minimum wage. I have over a decade nursing experience and I will only be paid a pound more than their health care assistant. I’m wondering whether I should walk out? I haven’t been given a contract and feel I’ve been deceived.

[quote TreeLeaf4]@Hobnobsandbroomstick

I think a lot of nurses looking for a less stressful career option may well accept lower pay to work in a care home. There is significantly less work and responsibility than in the NHS.

Circa £22k a year is a decent salary for someone who is not the main earner for example.[/quote]
Around us, the care homes pay more than the NHS, otherwise they'd have no staff.
There isn't less work or responsibility. We are still fully trained and continue to take on more training for our revalidation.

TreeLeaf4 just needs to pipe down tbh. You're not a nurse so we don't care about your opinion, you plainly have no knowledge of our sector. The overconfidence though, bravo.

Yeah I wouldn’t work for that. I’ve been qualified 8 years and am mid band 6 rates working in a GP surgery, so not directly employed by the NHS.
I used to work in a nursing home on nights and earned slightly less.
I get that I didn’t get into nursing for the money, but the money is rather bloody useful.

IME it's harder for an nurse to work in a carehome than in the NHS. You are often the only qualified nurse on duty, drug rounds take hours, you have no senior support, no doctor to bleep, you are responsible for all the usual paperwork, safety of residents and staff and the pay is slightly more but no sick pay, no unsocial hours at nights or bank holidays, if the next shift nurse doesnt turn up you have to stay on site, no site manager ro bleep. I feel the NHS is a far safer working environment.

[quote TreeLeaf4]@RickiTarr

£10.60 an hour may simply be the absolute maximum that the organisation can afford to pay. If the rest of the staff are on minimum wage, £10.60 is actually significantly more than that.

As I say, a care home near me has has to reduce all staff wages by 30% over the pandemic period in order to stay open. Staff have simply accepted the necessity of this and got on with their jobs.[/quote]
Because their residents numbers have been reduced massively!

And why is that? I say that as someone whose dad died from Covid in the “care” of such a home.

@DogsSausages I once did a 18 hour shift in a care home, started at 7pm, supposed to finish at 7am but two of the three day shift RN’s rang in sick so I stayed for the morning to help out, went home, slept, came back that night. Fucking hated that job. Well to company. The residents were brilliant and the responsibility of being the only RN for 25 people with real nursing needs made me.

If they can't afford to pay you fairly then they can't afford to employ you and it's not your problem. If there were more nurses than jobs then they would have the upper hand but the reverse is true. The manager wasn't honest because she/he knows they are taking the piss.

MonkeyPuddle, I wonder if we worked for the same organisation 🌝 The residents suffer too, you need a very clear head if someone becomes unwell, no resuscitation equipment, no oxygen, no staff able to help with obs, I found it very stressful.

I'd walk. No written contract; no obligation, no notice; just go.

I learned the hard way, very young, to insist on every job offer being In writing , naming me, the job, the pay, and signed.

@TreeLeaf4

You are chatting absolute s**t

That is all

[quote gindreams]**@TreeLeaf4

You are chatting absolute s**t

That is all[/quote]
@gindreams
Don't be shy @TreeLeaf4 has chatted shit throughout this thread.
Bloody cheek coming on here spewing out her management dogma. She wouldn't last one day as a nurse.

It's not a professional wage. A qualified nurse starts on band 5 in the NHS with a salary of £24,907 so divided by 52 weeks then 37.5 hours that gives an hourly rate of £12.77.

Working for less than that devalues your professional qualifications and those of other nurses.

Hand in your notice immediately and let them know why! How insulting and demeaning.

I'm also a nurse (with a lot less experience than you) and I wouldn't accept that wage in a million years.

@Thedogscollar

I know I just felt angry on behalf of all the nurses who work do bloody hard, and her irrelevant comments irritated me

I’m a nurse with 40 years experience working at a vaccine centre. I’m vaccine trained. I’m earning £12.77 per hour (bottom band 5). NHS. I am currently fighting with HR to get my pay increased to top band 5 which was what I was on before I retired. According to NHS Employers policy that’s what they are supposed to pay us retirees who have come back.
OP walk away. Find another job. There are plenty of nurse vacancies around.

@gindreams
I think she has realised her comments were ill judged, irrelevant and not from a background of knowledge.
As nurses and midwives we all work bloody hard for our money constantly updating, training and revalidation every 3 years.
We deserve more than £10.60 per hour. We are a professional body how dare anybody think £10.60 is a fair and reasonable rate.

Bloody cheek coming on here spewing out her management dogma. She wouldn't last one day as a nurse. I don't believe @TreeLeaf4 would last more than a week in a management post (more time for everyone to hear the bullshit) with their overly simplistic 1980s views on employment and recruitment...there's a reason why we moved on!

I’ve found a job advert for my current job and it says £14 an hour. Which either means they have made a mistake or they have just decided to pay me lower.

@user1471462428

I’ve found a job advert for my current job and it says £14 an hour. Which either means they have made a mistake or they have just decided to pay me lower.

It must be a mistake. Hopefully they will correct it, but even £14 seems quite low to be honest. I got £14ph when I started my first nursing job in 2019, if I was triaging I'd want a lot more! If it's a really good job with good progression opportunities and a nice team and reasonable working hours, I'd consider it

I'd walk. Babysitters and cleaners get paid more than that in most parts of the UK these days. You deserve more. There's a massive shortage of nurses

Walk. They are desperate for nurses you will easily get another job where you will be appreciated. The nursing home where my friend works pays pays care assistants more than that. The catering staff are on £10.50 per hour. North West England.

Why didn’t they say what your rate was before you accepted?

Go, you’ll get over twice that on agency tomorrow

I’m a carer and earn £9.87 and hour. Once I have my NVQ I’ll be on £10.40.

They must have made a mistake and put you on a care workers hourly rate? Surely?

If this is correct you absolutely should walk.

It sounds like an error. Do you have a union? I would be getting advice from them.