NHS Pay award

[Thedogscollar]

So this is what they have come back with from the insulting 1% offer by increasing it to a paltry 3%.
Workers are leaving in their droves we have a massive deficit in nursing and midwifery which is worsening daily.

I work in the South East of England, we are hugely affected with shortages in staffing, virtually every 12.5 hrs shift I do we cannot have a break due to work acuity and lack of staff. We have junior staff in tears with the pressure put upon them.
We aren't paid for our break and we are hard pushed to get it back as time owing. We cover empty shifts on the bank over and above our contracted hours as we know how hard it is for our colleagues in there.
We are all reaching breaking point some are there now and gone off sick. It is exhausting physically but more so mentally as you know before you even get to work what it's going to be like.

I have payslips going back 10 plus years and in that time my salary has barely changed and I am at the top of my band.

Our management team held an urgent meeting the other day to discuss the crisis going on within our trust with staffing and work acuity. Nothing was really dealt with just more management speak.

This government has to look after the NHS staff that have given so much and still are. Staff retention is in crisis and by offering this paltry pay rise they are doing nothing to stop this disaster becoming a momentous catastrophe resulting in even worsening patient safety levels being eroded even more.

How on earth can this government justify 30 plus billions for track n trace and HSS yet not offer a decent pay rise to NHS workers and in that I include care workers too.

Boris and co should hang their heads in shame but as per they think they are doing so well in offering us anything.

I'm sure I will have people coming on now to say they have lost jobs and taken paycuts and for that I am truly sorry but this cannot be used as an arguement for a huge group of essential workers being financially and emotionally abused by their employer which is exactly what this government are doing.

I think she must be winding us up. My most highest nursing manager is an 8a too and she doesn’t step foot on the ward. I’m a nurse to look after people, I’m a band 6 now and have no desire whatsoever to be anything above a 6. The band 7s are all managers and I don’t wish to be one. Not because I have no ‘ambition’ and don’t want to ‘push myself’ but because I have no desire whatsoever to be a band 7 nurse manager.

DD really struggled initially with the reduction in staffing at her cafe. But she is now really enjoying the additional responsibility and fast paced environment.

Fuck me......🙄

When was the last time your DD gave out a controlled drug which could result in someone's death if a mistake is made, because they are rushed and disturbed constantly while trying to administer? not just someone getting a coffee they didn't order?!
Or noticed tiny changes in condition or OBS and saved the person's life by acting upon that information?

Additional responsibilities and fast paced environments can kill people if medics don't have the time to assess people properly. You're being ridiculous.

Oh and btw @GreenLakes I don’t live in a fantasy world, I don’t expect any employer to have perfect staffing 100% of the time, but when you’re dealing with people’s LIVES it would be nice to at least aim for enough staff if a couple of patients need resuscitation or immediate lifesaving treatment.

'And if you can go on nhs jobs and find me a band 9 nursing position lemme know'

Well not sure about 9s Specialist nurses are often band 8s, with a starting salary of 45k. Chief nurses and nurse consultants will be band 9s, and while chief nurses will be management/admin roles, nurse consultants and specialist nurses are of course clinical.

Hcps need to start at ward level then do further training and become sisters at band 6 or 7 then do further training to become specialists. The nhs is full of opportunities and support, you don't have to stay at ward level doing dressings and bed baths unless you want to.

How many chief nurses are there in an organisation? One, two? I have no desire to be off the ward thanks - I’m happy taking care of people. I’d like to be able to do it safely, to know that I have enough time to think things through and be able to assess patients properly and detect a deterioration which would save their life. I don’t think anyone goes ‘yes I’ll be a student nurse because I want to be a chief nurse!!’ The nhs is full of training and support eh 15 years I’ve dedicated my career time to looking after people’s relatives and loved ones, but damn it I must’ve made the wrong choice there, if only I’d been ambitious and pushed myself enough I’d be ROLLING in it now 🤣

And every single specialist nurse I know is either a band 6 or 7, do you work for the nhs @JaniieJones as you seem blissfully ignorant?

@GreenLakes you need to stop, you are just embarrassing yourself with your staggering levels of ignorance. I'm inclined to think you are a troll actually. No one could be so thick as to compare serving coffee in a cafe with frontline split second lifesaving work.

I also don't know any specialise nurses over a 7. Maybe in some of the huge teaching hospitals in London there may be but not in the district generals. There are no clinical AHPs in my trust over an 8a and they are very few and far between. Non clinical management are the only 8bs or above and they are trying to down and all the clinical staff.

I work for the nhs - front line. People are mainly retiring and like previously said, going on sick for stress. They’re not leaving in droves for other jobs because the private sector is in worse shape.

The problem is that we’ve all got this attitude of how hard work it is, and it’s an echo chamber. People are stood around chatting about how hard work is and how badly they’re treated. It is hard but as a PP said we need to datix every missed break or if a patient falls because we couldn’t see them, or if our staffing puts patients at risk. Start doing something about it, rather than expecting to be given a pay rise on a plate. We don’t need more money, we need more staff and better conditions, and complaining about it won’t help the higher ups make the decisions we need. Numbers do - datixes, risk registers and whistle blowing. Stop moaning, and start taking action! If we want to be treated like private sector staff, we need to start acting like it.

'How many chief nurses are there in an organisation? One, two? '

Yes you're right sorry. Bad example There are though loads of matrons, specialist nurses, advanced nurses practitioners, nurse consultants.

You just need to aim higher. Do basic ward work then do some training and specialise. It is perfectly possible to do clinical work at a much higher band. For example.

@JaniieJones

'And if you can go on nhs jobs and find me a band 9 nursing position lemme know'

Well not sure about 9s Specialist nurses are often band 8s, with a starting salary of 45k. Chief nurses and nurse consultants will be band 9s, and while chief nurses will be management/admin roles, nurse consultants and specialist nurses are of course clinical.

Hcps need to start at ward level then do further training and become sisters at band 6 or 7 then do further training to become specialists. The nhs is full of opportunities and support, you don't have to stay at ward level doing dressings and bed baths unless you want to.

There are no specialist nurses above a band 7 in our trust. They just refuse to give band 8s. The vast majority of the specialist nurses are band 6.

@Thedogscollar

Agree with everything you say, exactly like me. Are people so stupid they don't realise nursing is a bit more than "doing dressings and bed baths"? And that the higher up jobs dont have any patient contact.Words fail me.

I need to aim higher?! I am a specialist nurse and paid a band 6. How much higher would you like to me to go? Are you for real? Are you taking the piss?

Sorry that was for

@Kittyswhiskers

I'm a top band 6 and have no desire to be a manager either.

@JaniieJones

'How many chief nurses are there in an organisation? One, two? '

Yes you're right sorry. Bad example There are though loads of matrons, specialist nurses, advanced nurses practitioners, nurse consultants.

You just need to aim higher. Do basic ward work then do some training and specialise. It is perfectly possible to do clinical work at a much higher band. For example.

This post has fucked me off no end. You think I’m paid a band 6 specialist nurse because I need to aim higher? 😳 are you taking the piss? I have 15 years experience and could 99% save your life if you were admitted to hospital and I had the right meds and equipment but obviously I’m in this position because I’m not pushing myself enough. You are so, so rude.

@GreenLakes how many fields where you think people should "adapt and thrive" to work pressures will require people to literally die if there aren't enough staff present to run things safely? It's lovely that your daughter is enjoying her additional responsibilities, but if there aren't sufficiently skilled and trained staff on a ward, people will die, not have to wait longer for their coffee. For example, if I'm resuscitating Patient A, someone else is going to have to resuscitate Patient B; it's not something where multi-tasking can cover multiple patients because if you stop treating them, they'll die.

And that pay-scale doesn't show you how many jobs at each band there are, or explain how that translates to actual posts. Someone at band 8 on that scale is probably running a service. Not a ward, a service. Someone at band 9 will probably be senior management in a health board or trust. That's very few posts across the country, in comparison to bands 4 - 7.

The government and management in the NHS need to make it more attractive for people to enter healthcare and to stay. Realistically, paying people a fair wage is a key part of that.

@JaniieJones

'How many chief nurses are there in an organisation? One, two? '

Yes you're right sorry. Bad example There are though loads of matrons, specialist nurses, advanced nurses practitioners, nurse consultants.

You just need to aim higher. Do basic ward work then do some training and specialise. It is perfectly possible to do clinical work at a much higher band. For example.

That's all you need to do, all of you aim higher.

It's not like "bed baths and dressings" (🙄 and the hundreds of other clinical things nurses do) need doing anyway, by someone, and not like they're important or anything, and would be better done by someone with experience and enough time.
If all nurses go off and specialise - who's going to do those things, and why wouldn't they deserve a decent wage for it?
That attitude is so short sighted.

If all I did was bed baths and dressings I’d be laughing tbh. Those things are given to HCAs and students while band 6s deal with complaints, review sick patients, chase drs, chase blood results, sort beds, discharges, incoming patients, chase pharmacy, chase social work, do the drug round, do any drugs/chemotherapy/tpn that junior staff can’t do, cleaning bed spaces, juggle patients for infection control purposes, try to sort staffing for the next shift, the list goes on..

You know what’s annoying? Sometimes I’m so tired I don’t know how I drive home, sometimes I feel my eyes shutting at the traffic lights. And I’m starving but too tired to eat and my feet hurt so much I can hardly walk. But it’s still not enough. The fact I’m not a band 9 by now is because of my own lack of ambition.

'That's all you need to do, all of you aim higher.'

No, I'm not saying that's 'all you need to do'. I am pointing out clinical roles at higher levels are not only available but actually common.

Specialist nurses are not band 6s. Palliative care consultants, breast care specialists all band 7 and 8s. As are ANPs (please see my previous link).

There is nothing wrong with being a band 5 staff nurse or band 6 junior sister but there are opportunities to develop much further in the nhs and still have a clinical role.

Even if everyone aims higher, eurgh, there will still be thousands of roles that are underpaid. Encouraging people to promote themselves into a role because the current one doesn't pay enough for the level of responsibility and workload is shite advice.

Are you accusing e of lying?
I’m a specialist nurse. I’m a band 6.

To be honest, I would be happy with 3% or even 1%, in the current climate, if my role hadn't been down graded a few years back, with only a slight change to job description, but finding our selves still doing what we were before, plus a lot more. We work for nothing on evenings and weekends, writing up patient notes. Work life balance is a joke. Saying that, I know council staff who have experienced similar.

I am also a band 6 specialist nurse.