Nurses taking Strike Action

The general public don’t really see or understand what a nurse actually does. I’m a student nurse and it’s gruelling the pressure and expectations on nurses. As a student nurse I have to do four 12 hour shifts minimum a week (unpaid as I’m a student) most nurses will be on 12 hour night shift or day shift, usually back to back. Most wards should have a minimum of two nurses , usually as they are short staffed it’s one so a nurse typically does two nursing roles each shift. 12 hours is nothing for a nurse, there is an ridiculous amount to work that goes into it. A nurse signs of on all medications which typically a round is every 3-4 hours which takes between an hour to two to complete, between that they sit in on meetings for patient care with a multi disciplinary team which can take 2-3 hours, discharge patients which can take an hour a time with paper work, admit patients, one to one with patients, a nurse can not leave a ward without another nurse covering for them and if wards are short staffed most nurses don’t get proper breaks so usually some nurses eat whilst doing paper work just to keep on top of it all. They have to write reports at the start and end of each shift on each patient to hand over to the nurse on the next shift. Oh and if a patient dies don’t expect to be going home on time as you will have a ton of paper work and arrangements to be made which then cancels the rest of your day regardless.

most doctors or consultants only visit the ward two or three times a day. A nurse is the only one responsible for those patients and if your ward has 18 patients and you are the only nurse on that 12 hour shift , you already know it’s going to be a long day.

@shmiz Remember the idiots on here bleating "Use the nightingales!" on every covid thread without the remotest understanding of how they would be staffed (combined with zero understanding of how a hospital is way more than "Doctors and nurses")

WTF! It would seem that some people feel that Nurses should live on the memory of us clapping for them when they stayed in work and put their own lives on the line during the pandemic. How about we actually, as a society put our money where our 'clapping' is and pay them a decent wage which recognises their commitment to their vocation.

Having seen at first hand the bloody chaos that they have to cope with when I had my elderly mother in A&E last weekend I would not want to nurse if you paid me £million.

Why are you doing minimum 48 hours a week as a student? You know that’s not a requirement right? It’s 13 x 12 hr shifts a month, not 16

THIS!!

I genuinely don't understand the internal conflict nurses have over striking. By striking, you are doing something to improve the working conditions and pay for all which would hopefully result in a long term benefit to both the profession and NHS. By working yourself into the ground (on the premise you let your patients down by striking), subsequently getting ill and leaving, you leave the NHS with one less member of staff and an increased workload for the remainder that will in turn push someone else to leave. How does this help waiting lists or patient care?

This situation is the government's fault. They have shown they have lots of money trees but none of them are for their public sector employees who do the most vital of roles on a daily basis. Instead, they exist to piss money up the wall and give to their friends.

I support a nurses strike .

For me, the implications to patients of strike are nothing compared to the destruction of the NHS by the government (and I’m on a waiting list for ‘non-urgent care’ for chronic illness so, yes, a nursing strike could affect me). I think we need to put the blame for poor NHS services/eventual complete loss of the NHS firmly where it belongs…and it would not be with striking nurses who are trying to improve conditions for themselves and consequently improving services for their patients.

I get a bursary but it doesn’t cover near enough the cost of travel. A student nurse can be allocated within a four hour travel radius lol but it’s not about that. I chose to do nursing because I know what a nurse does and I want to make a difference to someone’s life like a nurse did to mine.

It's academic for me as I work in unscheduled care so we carry on but I absolutely support my colleagues striking and will support them at the picket line if I'm able to.

It's easy for me to support nurses as my family and I are in good health and not waiting for an operation. I think most people think that nurses should be paid more but I think that it is understandable if people were angry about delayed treatment too.

From reading a few of these threads, I just think people in general have no appreciation of what the role of a nurse is or the professional skill, clinical judgement and pressure involved. I find it really disheartening.

@Dotjones do you have a degree? Do you have people’s lives in your hands? Do you get up before 6am for work? Do you do nights, weekends and bank holiday at work? Instinct tells me no

they'll be even more annoyed when the list is longer because there's no nurses in the long term when everyone is fed up of being used and abused for the bare minimum.

Exactly @spacexdragon.

I work in a hospital, not a nurse, one of the other professions.
The stories I hear from the nurses are horrific! The abuse they receive is awful. They deserve so much more.
A nurse in my hospital was stabbed recently, on the ward! Where else are you at risk for getting stabbed for just doing your job?

@EL8888 I would say "DotJones" is a troll - on another thread this morning she wanted all young people aged 18-25 to spend three years in a military style labour camp!

If the public actually knew how bad things are, believe me, they would be more supportive. Try working three 12.5 hour shifts in a row WITH NO BREAKS. You don't even have time to stop and grab a drink of water or go to the loo. IT IS TORTURE. And when I say 12.5 hours, it's actually about 13.5 coz you NEVER get off work on time.
You don't get to do half the stuff you're supposed to and you go home angry at yourself for not giving the patients the best care.

There was an ex- nurse on TV this morning who worked in the 60's. She didn't have a clue. In those days you got your breaks. You got accommodation.You got fed and watered. You didn't have to give complex IV infusions and do tons of ridiculous paperwork. And the wards were better staffed.

I would not recommend nursing to anyone, it's absolutely awful.

i've been physically and verbally abused more times than i can count 🤣!!
i'm currently off on maternity leave but before i went off a charming gentleman threw piss in my face. a pregnant woman's face.

Without nurses and doctors, we might as well start dying on the streets. I fully support them.

Oh dear God😢

I support nurses in striking. I'm an ex NHS employee and saw first hand how this government has run the NHS into the ground. Something is needed to defend both your rights as workers, and the patients you care for. More power to your elbow.

I don't support the strike when they are asking for 15%, it's ridiculous.

Those who have been interviewed have always highlighted the overwork, and lack of nursing staff, both huge issues I agree. However, neither of those is down to pay. Most of the grievances are down to other issues. Equally important, and mostly down to the lack of staff. I think it is simplistic to say though, that more pay will lead to staff retention. I suspect if they get a good pay rise, many will go part-time, to mitigate the stress of work. More pay also means there is less to go round for new hires, so it is a vicious circle.

A point many are missing too, is though it is more expensive to hire agency nurses on an hourly rate, it is still less expensive than having an employee. The NHS saves money as they don't have to pay holiday pay, or sick pay, or National Insurance or pension payments. Another catch 22.

Nobody who works in a job providing a service to the public should ever take strike action. I left my public sector union many years ago because they wanted us to strike.