Why don't nhs night staff want you to sleep?

[ICaughtTonsillitisFromAFriendsKid]

Sleep is a great healer.
So why is everything done to keep ward patients awake all night? (Well it feels that way)

In the day the wonderful staff are very kind, but overnight, why no whispering, at all? Not even stage whispering? I've just staggered out of bed trying not to rip out my cathetera and canula to pull the bible sheet curtain round a bit, but everyone else is left with curtains pushed back to the walls.

Everyone is so kind and happy to help, I don't even want to say anything, but I'm just exhausted, as are all of these very poorly ladies.

It seems the doctors are not too bad at whispering, I must concede.

Student nurses you mean?

How much does a nurse get paid, per hour, when she/he has worked for 5+ years?

Who do you think is there when a patient first detoritates ? I work on a site with no 24/7 cover from doctors in a emergency it's nurses who first attend a situation.

Well my DH is an IT contractor so I can afford a hotel because both of our earnings 🤣. I also work in the private sector who pay better. Newly qualified in the NHS are poorly paid considering there's huge staffing shortages so they have higher patient ratios.

@NancyJoan thank you, That’s really good to know. Everything you’ve said resonates. I hope to go in far better prepared if we are lucky enough to have a second. Hope things are going well for you now. It’s only very recently that I realised how severely I was affected. In the moment you are in survival mode.

It's not the obs, or attending to other patients. It's leaving the lights on and chatting about your holiday that makes it impossible to sleep.

As I said up the thread, I stayed in a hotel at night while in hospital for a week. It was an amazing experience.

@Dalint students get paid naff all lol. Get a £5k grant per year and student loans. No pay and work as hard as everyone else. Newly qualified is about to go up to £27k but currently £25.6k

Nurses don't really even take observations anymore. HCA's do.
I'm not really sure what nurses do, on a daily/nightly basis.

I've two family members in the medical profession.

currently, £31.5k going up to £33k for a band 5 ward nurse

How much do nurses get paid, after 5 years 'saving lives'?

What bands are there? So a nurse on Band 1? What do they get paid?

It’s not free.
We pay handsomely for it through our NI taxes.
That’s if you pay taxes, maybe you don’t? Then it would be free.
Could get much cheaper private insurance if I was able to opt out from NI.

Student nurses don't get paid anything apart from a meagre training grant of 5k and they pay a huge debt for their education. Top rate of band 5 is £16.12. . Some wards in the NHS a nurse might be responsible for the care of 15-30 patients. The pay isn't great considering the staffing ratios.

@neverbeenskiing Will you have an appointment for pre op assessment? Please speak to the staff about your concerns. If I was your nurse I would try hard to get you a side room. It may not be possible but it’s definitely worth asking.

I agree. Although I suffered similar in a private ward. I nearly lost the plot from sleep deprivation but was too new to it all and scared to say stop bloody coming in and waking me up all night. Then day ahift would start and the interruptions would tripple. I was nearly hysterical, and I think it contributed to delayed healing

There's no nurses on band 1 . Band 2 and 3 are HCAs , Band 4 is Nurse Associate and Band 5 is staff nurse.

33.5k per year is a decent salary.
They're not paupers.

They're not volunteers.

Kindness is free and a lot of them lack it.

Not true, depends on the ward/trust. In some areas HCA's can do obs once they have completed training, in a lot of wards HCA's don't do observations, the nurse does. Along with meds, IV's, cannulation and bloods, IV's, abx, endless amounts of paperwork, catheters and catheter management, drains, wound checks, daily dressings, trachy care that is hourly/2 hourly, sliding scales that are hourly checks, discharges and ensuring social needs upon discharge are met and follow up care, endless, and I mean endless amounts of CD drugs that require 2 nurses at a time, chasing reviews and drs for discharge letters, handing over of care, admissions, for often 13+ patients at a time.

Oh dear. This comment says it all. You clearly have no idea what nurses do. I’m a nurse. I have training in CRP, airway management and management of major haemorrhage. That’s about as “life and death” as it gets.

So very basic sort of nursing really?

There are none
do you actually understand how the pay system works?
of nurses are paid enough why are they being referred to food banks in many parts of the country.

I've done a few first aid courses myself.

Food banks on 33.5 k??????????????

Paramedics really are amazing! I have had to transfer patients via emergency ambulance many times and every single encounter with paramedics was extremely positive. Incredible people.

Yanbu. I don’t understand it either. I think medical training needs to focus more on the importance of sleep and nutrition, as well as drugs. Waking a sick child every hour through the night to check blood pressure or whatever is so cruel.

It's a very low wage for a graduate. I have a diploma, degree and masters all in nursing and my I would get the same wage if I worked as a barista in Costa! You wouldn't find another area where all the staff are so highly educated but get minimum money. Some of my colleagues are having to use food banks just to survive. When they are highly qualified professionals working a full time job! It's utterly ridiculous.

And to the poster who mentioned strike action - I whole heartedly agree. Our new recent "pay rise" still leaves us at least 11% below inflation and gives us 7p an hour pay rise! I am worth more than that and so are my colleagues.

I am voting to strike. And I really hope the public get behind us. A decent wage would encourage more people into the profession and reduce the diabolical and unsafe staffing levels that we currently face. And would stop people having to do extra shifts to afford to live. Which in turn would reduce tiredness/mistakes, stress, anxiety and improve patient care tenfold.