To Think That Nurses Shouldn't HAVE To Go On Strike

[TheShellBeach]

They should have had a decent pay rise without having to resort to strike action.
Successive governments have relied on nurses' goodwill and reluctance to strike.

They worked so hard throughout the pandemic. They worked hard before it.

They're still working hard. It's a kick in the teeth to make them choose between putting patient safety at risk and getting a living wage.

STOP voting for wealth, privileged people who live off family money and connections - they have NO idea of what it’s like to try to live, work and support a family off a normal U.K. wage.

I can’t personally strike, I work in an area that is exempt. But, I wholeheartedly support the strike.

The pay is absolutely awful and does not match the skills and knowledge required.
I’m paid £16.84 an hour. I have post graduate qualifications.
I care for very sick and premature babies, I attend crash calls to emergencies where babies are born in distress or not breathing, I look after babies that you wouldn’t believe can survive they are so tiny, I provide end of life care to those that don’t make it, I support Mum’s and Dad’s through the most difficult days of their lives.
All for £16.84 an hour.

I absolutely agree. It's awful, they have such terrible pay and conditions.

And this is why we have to strike. You are amazing!

I never once banged a pot. I wasn’t aware of the first couple of times as we were so busy and the continuing it I was rather cynical about. I have however sent £50 to the fund for striking nurses and will likely send more in the new year. If you can afford it and you want to support nurses you can make a donation here.

action.rcn.org.uk/page/117402/donate/1?ea.tracking.id=internal

Striking is disruptive and must be awful for individuals waiting on treatments or surgery that will now be postponed or cancelled but I personally lay the blame far more at the door of the government than the unions or those striking. Many areas of the NHS do need review and doubtless better ways of doing things can be found but most people would agree having good frontline staff is really important so why wouldn’t you support them demanding reasonable pay rises and reasonable working conditions?

I never banged pots or clapped on the doorstep either.
It seemed trite and insulting to me.

I used to be a nurse but quit last year after 13 years. I withdrew my labour permanently due to the poor pay, accessing and availability of to training and development. Absorbing personal risk such as receiving abuse Joe Public. This is also not well supported from management. Probably because it's a seen as a virtuous female dominated profession with sole purpose to serve the need of others. Establishing boundaries seen as 'unkind' and 'uncaring'. nThe final verdict. Sunk cost fallacy. 30 years left of work and 'ain't got no time for that'.

What about carers working thier tripe off in nursing homes for minimum pay can they go on strike. Sorry but it's not a job where you can go on strike.

@Anotherproblem

If your answer to a strike is “what about.. such and such job” no one could ever strike as in someone’s opinion there’s always someone worse off. If no one could ever strike we would all be treated like slaves.

@Anotherproblem it's a job where it has come to the point that we HAVE to strike to try and draw attention to just how bad things have got for patients in the nhs.

Completely agree that care home staff should also be paid much more than they are. I worked as a carer in a nursing home before doing my nurse training so know how hard it is and how important.

My point is that these lune of carers are the forgotten ones the ones that have to pick up care of patients discharged from hospitals because there are no nurses to care for them.

That’s not entirely true, if anything people are kept in hospital “bed blocking” because care homes don’t have the capacity to take them.

And even so, how is the solution, to carers having to pick up the slack, not having a nursing strike?

@Anotherproblem I'm not sure why that means that nurses shouldn't be able to go on strike to hopefully improve pay and therefore conditions and staff retention? And hopefully more nurses would train and some of those would chose to go into nursing homes.
Surely that would benefit any carers who work in nursing homes and are having to cover nursing shortages (I think this is what you're saying is happening?)

Carers also deserve a fair wage that doesn't mean they have to rely on UC or food banks, and means they can heat their homes.

What's your point here?

No they shouldn't the government are quick enough to give themselves a pay rise. Nurses shouldn't have to rely on foodbanks to feed they're children. They are overworked and under appreciated by our government.

My own son's life has been saved a few times by our local hospital. The last time he was in a couple of weeks ago on HDU they were short staffed. A few had to come in on they're day off.

True that government give themselves big pay rises all the time.

But 19%??!!!

I often wonder if the answer to this kind of dilemma is to give a percentage of the average wage to all; so those on less money get a bigger percentage, and those on above average get a smaller percentage, I haven't done the maths to work out if, overall, it would lower the actual cost, but without numbers it's just a thought.

19% would bring them in line with other workers.
Nurses and midwives have been very poorly paid forever, so 19% would hopefully stop them having to use foodbanks.

You should stand as Leader of the Labour Party.

It's a brilliant idea.

Wheneve you go in for a pay rise, regardless of industry, you always go in higher. This allows for something that isn’t happening from the government’s side - negotiations

I did not participate in the clap for carers, unlike the serial killer by neglect Boris Johnson and his then next door neighbour. I supported them by reasonable behaviour to reduce the chance of catching Covid and if I had, spreading it to vulnerable people.

Nurses and many other parts of our health care system are underpaid.

I think there's some seriously rotten management issues that allow such wastage etc and leave the service so poorly staffed at the bottom end.

I suppprt the nurses. I'm a carer and would strike if there was a way to do so without it affecting the residents. However it was awful yesterday when I was unable to get a nurse for a lovely lady who is unfortunately receiving end of life care. It took 10 hours for someone to come. I am medication trained but this particular medication has to be administered by a nurse. It was for pain and agitation.

We tried every avenue available to get someone as soon as possible. I got in my car after a 14 hour shift and burst into tears as I felt so utterly useless. All I could do was comfort her, care for her and give regular doses of paracetamol and codeine which didn't touch the poor lady.

I don't blame the strike or the nurses for this. I blame the government for letting it get to this point and refusing to even negotiate.

I don't understand why care companies pf the NHS can afford regular extortionate agency fees but not afford an increase in carers wages. This would be cheaper than paying agency rates and would reduce the amount of agency needed as higher rates for regular staff would help to recruit and retain.

I agree that carers should get far better pay and conditions of work.

The country would grind to a sad halt without them and a lot of people are so dismissive about them.