Do you agree with the nurses strike?

[borderterrierr]

Guardian reporting that the rcn strike has resulted in a yes vote and we'll be striking before Christmas.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/nov/05/nurses-across-uk-vote-to-strike-in-first-ever-national-action?CMP=ShareiOSAppp_Other

Patient's emergency care will be protected but it's a strike vote

@TheForests

Why are you sorry?

Trained in the 1960’s, yes pay was appalling and yes we worked many more hours, however the respect and love we got from patients was amazing!
I am not sure I could work for the NHS today, (and we were paid whilst training).
Go for it nurses, HCPs I will be on the picket line with you❤️

Sorry because I feel like I'm usually behind strikes, I go on marches, I believe in social justice.
But I earn 27k. I work with rough sleepers and substance misusers who often have complex mental health issues. It's a hard job, funding has been cut by half since I started the role.
I do it because I believe in it, I want to make a difference, more fool me perhaps.
It just sounds like they get quite a good deal.

Ok, so what’s your solution to fix the current staff crisis and poor working conditions nurses are facing?

@TheForests thst sounds like a really tough and difficult job, I’m sure I couldn’t do it. I don’t think it’s comparable to nursing issues highlighted.
I do think you should be paid more though.

@ TheForests you too need a pay rise, thanks for all you do for unfortunate people.

@TheForests

Rather than being pissed off at nurses trying to improve their wages to what they should be, you should be doing the same.

My sister works in community mental health and addiction services and I 100% couldn't do her job for all the money in the world. Its impossible, but she loves it and the people she works with.

Nursing absolutely is underpaid and undervalued. But its not alone in that, there's many services within the UK that need to be looked at both funding wise and the pay given to essential staff. Nurses are just the ones who currently have been given a platform to shout from. I hope one day soon MH services get their chance too.

Yew the current retired nurses do have an excellent pension (alot of which retired @ 55). Which younger nurses have no chance of getting now. Total age discrimination, born in a different year and have totally different retirement opportunities in the NHS.

🙄 and?

@Cherryblossoms85 Bankers are probably for another thread?

But on a funding model, as an EU comparison, UK scores well BUT we are then comparing ourselves with Latvia and other small states too, when comparisons made with Germany France Italy and Spain, we do not do anything like as well, consistently 1 to 3% of GDP less than these larger economies.

Personally (and you might be surprised) we have to spend more and as much as i don't like Sunak, i'd be happy to see charges for all NHS appointments & charges for missed appointments, with money ring fenced for the NHS and GP practices - detail would need to be looked at and exemptions as we do for prescriptions.

Many other EU countries do this and i think it would help people value the NHS a bit more and stop taking it and the staff for granted.

The caveat is that services would have to improve first.

Yes and I’d like to see police, fire etc services go too. They are treated badly!

I was reading that 1 in 9 nurses quit this year so I don't think many of them are lasting 40 years, despite the pension

Misleading statistic - that includes nurses on maternity leave and career breaks.

So what does that make it, 1 in 10?

No cut and paste @Clavinova? You’re slipping.

The UK pays nurses and midwives atrociously. I’m an Australian equivalent band 5, qualified five years and I earn just under £25 per hour for a day shift during the week. If I was to work a Saturday it is £37.50/hr and Sunday is £43.75/hr. During the week a night shift is £30/hr. Pension (or super as we call it) is paid by the employer on top of your wage.

I have never, ever had to care for the type of patient loads described on here. On a ward the most unacceptable situation I have ever been put in is 12 patients to two nurses on a morning shift. Generally on a morning shift the ratio is one nurse to four patients.

@Scandiscrepancy I'm totally fascinated how different you nurse in Aus! I work with an Austrialian nurse and the things the HCA do in UK are unheard of.. even obs! So so different.

It’s about the pay for the relative level of skill and education required. In the UK health professionals are not well paid compared to the average wage. In other countries with similar wages they are paid better. That needs to change. That is why we need a big pay rise. Maybe the NHS needs to fail for that to happen. There is no competition forcing them to put up the wages.

Ok, To clarify a few points. It’s not all out strike.It’s an RCN strike, a ballot of RCN members. Not all nurse are RCN, many nurses are Unison Members. Only RCN members can strike on RCN strike day.

The union and hospital managers meet and mutually agree critical cover eg what will remain staffed. This is called derogation. RCN members in identified critical cover areas are authorised to attend work,by mutual agreement.
There will be nurse cover from the Unison staff

2016 Junior Doctor strike we had consultants covering the Workload, providing cover. Junior Doctors are being balloted again regard industrial action. Unison members eg Nurses, HCA, OT, SALT, Physio, porters etc are all currently being balloted regard industrial action.

Staff are exhausted,demoralised, and no one strikes without a lot of emotional turmoil

I am not a nurse but I wholeheartedly support the RCN and I anticipate Unison and probably will strike too

@TheForests you are in a stressful social care role,I get that
Do you have professional registration? Are you expected to make high end decisions regard treatment?

You as a support worker get to escalate and ask trained staff to intervene
eg Commence medication
Undertake an MHA Assessment
Undertake care act assessment

fact is you’re not professionally accountable and can’t be struck off a register
if the needs are complex you get to escalate it. Escalate and or refer to a nurse for example.

I’m a midwife. I don’t have a pension as I couldn’t afford to pay it. It was pay the pension or pay the bills. It’s naive to assume that everyone benefits from the pension scheme.

We rely on the NHS monthly just now but it’s failing. So yes, even with the danger to our relative’s life, yes, I support strike. It’s inhumane it’s even come to this.

A lot of older nurses also don't have a pension. It's not automatic. Superannuation (which it used to be called) was only available to nurses in full-time hours. Night shifts used to be 10 hours when nurses worked early and late, so many nurses with children did 3 nights a week which made them part-time and they were disbarred from joining the pension, it was common for nurses to come back after mat leave, and work nights to fit around child care.
When the pension changes happened in the 90's and superannuation was no longer compulsory many stopped paying or cashed them in because of bad advice.
The assumption that all nurses have a superb pension is false.

Unison have balloted too. I voted a few days back.

Unison are historically always more militant than RCN anx as they've voted strike, I expect they will too.

@Spidey66 I agree unison is way stronger as a union than the rcn but the rcn has got the media at the moment because they have never done a strike