Nurses taking Strike Action

[shmiz]

AIBU to believe the public will be supportive of Nurses taking Strike Action ?
Nurses are being asked to vote YES to strike action by the biggest nurses union RCN
www.rcn.org.uk/Get-Involved/Campaign-with-us/Fair-Pay-for-Nursing/Latest-updates

What about when there is no one left to nurse you or your loved ones?

Can | add that its no use the govt claimimg x number of nurses and doctors are being trained? Not withstanding the
years before they are fully trained the hospitals can't afford to employ them.

Thanks to all those who answered my question re Unison, I’ll make sure she looks out for the ballot. I know she is very torn, striking goes against her instinct as she is all about patient care. But there is nowhere left to go.

As someone who does not have the right to strike (police officer) I fully support nurses and any other workers who vote to strike. So much damage has been done, there needs to be a fight back.

Will your DH accept the pay rise his colleagues have fought for?

I support nurses striking 100%
I think Drs should strike too. Working conditions in the NHS are the worst they’ve ever been. Pay is stagnant and has reduced 20-30% in real terms for GPs since I started working. Pensions are constantly being eroded. I’ve worked for nhs for more than 20 years and have never felt less valued than I do now

Then join a union and take action to show you deserve it (while you still can)

As I understand it, this has been a crisis in the making for years, but the govt has NOT lifted the cap on the number of places on medical degrees (not to mention Brexit and the "hostile environment")

I support them 100%. There’s a direct correlation between pay and conditions and retention. I’d support carers and social care sectors striking too.

My family is in the unfortunate position of requiring quite a lot of NHS support which is how I know that things are already dire. Ambulances called in July and September for chest pain and low oxygen (50-70). July was a four hour wait, September eighteen hours. It’s pure luck whether you can survive your symptoms long enough to get in front of a HCP with access to the right equipment to treat/save you right now.

These idiots will always be the first to complain when they can't get an Ambulance or wait at AE for 14hrs, then will demand the HCA's and Staff nurses attend to their every need, even though they are more than capable of doing things for themselves.

Of course I support them.

So your preference would be for them to leave the job and do something suuuuuper important in the private sector like you do rather than strike? Then, rather than strike level nursing cover, the public will have... Oh no wait... Bugger all nursing cover. This is a spiralling situation. The more intolerable conditions for nurses become, the more of them will leave the job because they only have one life, the worse conditions will get for the ones still in post as the vacancies cannot be filled, more leave. As there is zero chance the Tories will do anything to ameliorate the situation unforced (because the collapse of the NHS isn't a bug in their policies, it's a feature) the only break on this catastrophe is strike action to force the government's hand to improve conditions, OR to force the public's hand to vote in a less shit govt that will.

I mean what do you think they should do to improve things for themselves? Their only options are industrial action or leave the profession. Or go private, and when all the nurses are private agency the NHS will have to pay them a proper wage and unless there is a concomitant increase in their funding, Trusts will go bankrupt and fail. Which is of course exactly what's intended.

You say the NHS is no longer fit for purpose - you're right. Because that has been the deliberately pursued end game of the government this last 12 years.

And as is evident from this thread public sympathy and support is HUGE. The tide is FINALLY turning, people can see the Tories for what they are thanks to Boris, Liz and her cronies.

Why do you work private then? They're crying out for nurses in the NHS.

Is it because your basic pay is better than theirs and you have flexibility to choose the shifts you fancy?

Sorry @SleeplessInEngland that was aimed at @KangarooKenny

And not give a shiny shit about the people who can't afford private healthcare I'm sure. No such thing as society.

Thank you for going into this bloody thankless profession at such a critical and difficult time. People have no bloody idea. But we need you, desperately, every single one of you. Nurses aren't just striking for themselves, but for all of us who need safe, properly staffed care from professionals who are not being run into the ground with overwork.

I think they are very well paid

@isadoradancing123 compared to?

I can't work out whether posters like this are ignorant or just plain stupid.

A HUGE portion of the nursing workforce has left for other jobs and, surprisingly enough, no one wants to replace them. Perhaps try engage your tiny brain to work out what happens when there aren't enough nurses to staff a hospital ward/clinic

@shmiz DH is a nurse. He stresses going into work so much he barely sleeps the night before. He’s always in at least 40 mins early because he knows it’s going to be overflowing (A&E). In a 12.5 hr shift he doesn’t eat and never leaves on time. He has been assaulted on many occasions. He is expected to look after far more patients than he should and feels it’s unsafe for him and his patients. I’m not sure the public really understands how bad it has become. I work alongside nurses and I don’t know how they do it. We have more leaving than we can replace and retention is near non existent. They deserve a pay rise, particularly the junior nurses. It’s awful. DH comes in and just looks broken. Someone needs to listen and I think this is the only way to achieve that because no one cares.

15% is reflective of the real terms pay cut they have had for the last 12 years. It's not ridiculous, it is remedial.

A substantial pay increase and the return of bursaries actually would deal with the issues of terrible conditions brought about by inadequate staffing. It would make nursing a desirable and achievable profession again.

So funny you think nurses, if handed a decent wage, would all go part time. The reason they are literally about to STRIKE for a decent wage (something they could do at any time, any time they felt like holding us all hostage because we DESPERATELY need them, but haven't because they are by and large fucking dedicated professionals) is because they cannot afford to live on what they're making at the moment, never mind in the economic car crash that we are now entering. Nurses are already having to use food banks to make ends meet. Imagine the childcare bills of a family with two full time nurse parents, working shifts. Consider the cost of maintaining their registration.

More pay also means less to go around for new hires - only in the batshit Tory world that starves the NHS of funds. If you want people to have healthcare free at point of use, you pay the bloody professionals delivering it enough to want to keep doing so and you give the Trust's enough money to pay enough of them to keep the system working. If you don't do this, the whole thing breaks down. Which is exactly what the Tories want.

Funny how when discussing higher rate tax payers or bankers, ceos etc then its an irrefutable truth that we have to pay them their ridiculous wages lest they take their ball home and say games a bogey

Yet when discussing highly skilled medical professionals then all of a sudden pay has no link to recruitment or retention?

They just need better working conditions (always stated by people who don't have the first clue how to achieve that)

They dont need to be fairly renumerated for their skills.

No one quite connecting the dots on the 'oversubscribed ' nursing courses and huge vacancies

No one quite connecting the dots on the failing nhs and the huge number of vacancies

I support nurses striking. They deserve a payrise, and without better conditions there will be no staff to run the hospitals.

I've heard exactly nurses day that nursing these days is a form of self harm. It's shockingly bad.

I am a nurse and duly support the strike. The pay compared to nurses pay in almost all over developed countries are pain considerably more. It’s an embarrassment to be honest.

I am hugely supportive of the strike. Nurses do a difficult, demanding and stressful job, many work unsocial hours, they pay a fortune to train to do it and start work with shedloads of debt.

I work in welfare rights and if I went to work f/t for a local authority I'd get a salary equivalent to a Band 6 nurse for sitting at a desk and having minimal hassle.

The NHS is in a recruitment crisis and it's in the interests of all of us that nurses get a decent salary for the work they do. And anyone who clapped for them during the pandemic and doesn't agree is an utter hypocrite.