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

I 100% support them.

I was recently admitted to hospital and got to see for myself the amazing work nurses do and unfortunately the terrible way that some are treated by members of the public.

These people are literally involved in saving peoples lives on a daily basis, working in stressful situation for long periods of time often as I saw without what I felt was a decent break, if those people that are saving you or me or a member of your family ask to be paid fairly then why are we not all behind them?

Why should they even have to strike - They should already be paid appropriately for the incredible work they do! You can do a job for the love of it but people still have to pay bills and it’s terrible that they have to resort to this and then be made to feel guilty for doing so.

@BrianWankum

But not whilst having to make up hours due to being pulled from placement fur to covid? Or schools closing unexpectedly and having to miss placement, or catching covid myself 4 times and having to miss placement.

I now have to do the 48 hour weeks in order to have any chance of qualifying on time. Our standard is 40 hours placement weeks. But that won't get me to the 2300 due to circumstances beyond my control

Which is not what you said in your previous post about placement hours. That’s not a universal experience.

There needs to be a complete review of shift work, salary and training opportunities. My 26yr old niece is a highly trained specialised nurse in the NHS. She's currently pregnant and there hasn't even been a risk assessment carried out on her work. She was put in a v dangerous situation early in her pregnancy re a patient with a highly infectious and dangerous condition. When she queried it she was told there was no one else so she had to nurse them. Arranging childcare for shifts is going to be next to impossible. Salary is an issue but not the primary reason why people are leaving.

Yes I hear you, but part of what's gone wrong for your neice is probably to do with staffing, which goes back again to nursing not being an attractive enough proposition. Higher wages may make it more attractive for recrutiment and retention purposes.

Genuine question here, what do you mean review of shift work as a hospital is a 24 hour facility so those hours would always need to be staffed even if shift lengths or patterns were revised? I'm interested to know what you propose they should be/do?

@funtycucker its not a case of dropping shift work as obviously it’s needed! But many places have no flexibility in allowing set shift patterns etc which makes it impossible with children. Even if people offer to do set ‘bad’ shifts (eg weekends or nights) it’s still declined on principle when in fact many many nurses having caring responsibilities and this makes it almost impossible for them.
Also the ‘extra’ pay you get for nights and weekends etc has been eroded away over time which is really unfair.

Absolutely support them. People go on about how teachers deserve more and they get to strike(which they do and I also agree with) but it would be unfair if teachers get to strike and nurses didn't. Quite similar salaries really.

It feels like there should be joint action now, with different professions joining up for strike action. We need to support each other.

Given how many nurses are parents it would certainly be convenient to coordinate school and nursing strikes so we don’t have to worry about childcare 😂

I didn't say anything about dropping the shifts, I was just genuinely interested in what the poster thought would be an ideal outcome of reviewing them. I totally understand why people with children need set shifts as paid childcare is only available in office hours but would giving all 'the bad' shifts to those who don't have children not worsen the retention crisis? I'm not trying to be argumentative here, I'm just trying to look at all perspectives.

Pre ballot will be 27th Oct for Unison. If she works in the NHS she should be aware of this. If not unison will have sent an email this week.

Nurses like myself in unison will be receiving ballot papers for 27th October. UNISON are fully supporting the nurses strike as well as the RCN.

The only fair way to solve the argument here would be to have 3 shifts. The nurses do it like that in Australia. Days, afternoons and nights. Apart from ICU nurses and A&E. It would prevent burn out also from being so high.

@Realityloom

No thanks

We got rid of that shift pattern 20 years ago for a reason

@Topgub what were the actual shift patterns?? I'm too young to know about them.

In my trust we used to do a 7am to 1pm shift but we don't have it any longer. We do have twilight shifts though.

Haven't RTFT, but after only a few dozen posts we have the repeated myth that the NHS is short staffed - could the issue be more that too many are on part time shifts rather than full time? In 2010 when Labour left government the clinical headcount was just under 600,000; in 2021 it was just under 700,000 - nearly 100,000 more clinical staff by headcount, but overstretched services and nurses not being paid "enough" (despite most not actually ever earning their basic pay due to shift allowance uplifts). How do we resolve the issue of having more staff but not enough staff?

Isn’t that the exact shift pattern that the police currently still do work ?

Given that the NHS now has nearly 100,00p more clinical staff than in 2010, how has this government run the NHS in to the ground?

@usernamealreadytaken

I'd imagine the needs of the service could have changed in nearly 13 years

Also clinical staff is made up of more than just nurses

The nursing staff recruitment and retention crisis isn't a myth

Nurses and HV April 2010 - 318,731
Nurses and HV June 2022 - 356,346
In twelve years demands will have changed, but headcount has increased by nearly 40,000 - how is that a staff shortage unless all the staff in 2010 were f/t and many of the staff now are p/t?

@AuntSalli I'm not sure about police officers shift patterns. But I don't think 13hour shifts should be scrapped just mixed up and an afternoon shift should be available. Sometimes I want to go out on a weekend and work but by the time I get out of work, home and then changed the afternoon has GONE. I think people forget an early shift in the NHS finishes at 3/3.30pm but that is a FULL day's work for most.

Some people won't even consider nursing due to the poor shift pattern I can see why.

@Realityloom

7 -3 2 - 10 10 -8.

Which sounds fine in principle.

Until you were on a back shift on to am early and didn't finish until 1130. Or a run of 10 shifts in a row

The introduction of the EWTD meant you need 12 hours in between shifts so that's why they introduced 12 hour shifts

@usernamealreadytaken Where have those numbers come from please?

files.digital.nhs.uk/46/CDA207/NHS%20Workforce%20Statistics%2C%20June%202022%20England%20and%20Organisation.xlsx