The irony of a Great Ormand Street charity worker coming to my door....

[MulledWineAndMingePies]

... asking for money when I'm a full time nurse with paediatric background that just today was accepted for an RCN hardship fund because we are so painfully broke.

I can't give 30p to a charity.

We don't have debt, we don't have habits like smoking or drinking, we don't even have a massive mortgage.

We are just utterly and painfully broke.

These strikes can't come quick enough.

I’m so sorry. Fellow Paeds nurse here. I agree re the strikes, how long can we carry on. Take care.

Sending hugs.

Given the size of GOSH investment funds I think you did exceptionally well to keep your cool.

i’d have felt compelled to dish out a little in the way of home truths in response to their hypocrisy.

Hi OP I didn't want to read and run but are you entitled to any help? Can you look at universal credits etc? It's an awful situation for NHS nurses to be struggling to survive. I am genuinely appalled at the fight NHS and teaching staff have had to go through to try get a pay rise they deserve.

I used to be a nurse, and my sympathies lie with all of you working in the NHS now - 100%!

The bloody Tories we’re starting their destruction of the NHS when I was training, back in the last century, and even then, we felt that they were betting on the fact that nurses and other NHS workers wouldn’t strike, so they could get away with whatever they wanted. But they were wrong - they have pushed you all too far.

As Kier Starmer said today, the nurses’ strikes are a badge of shame for the Conservatives. If I was still working, I’d be there with you all.

Who will you vote for in the next generally election?

This has been playing on my mind more than ever in my whole adult life.
Its always been imperative, but it feels more like life or death of both people and the NHS than ever.

I support all the strikes and am appalled that the PM is trying to remove people's ability to do so.
I hope things improve for everyone forced to strike.

Thank you.

We get a small amount of UC, but no cost of living help in November because of a mistake I made when inputting the childcare.
I have journaled and called UC approx 20 times (if not more) since I made my error back in September and they tell me they will fix the mistake and don't.

I don't understand how this will work.

Whats the point of unions if we can't rely on them to support us in striking?

Whats the point of the human rights act and more?

I cannot fathom it being made illegal. I couldn't bare being made to feel so small and insignificant.

I get cross with GOSH fundraising so far out of area. There are children's hospitals all over the UK many of whom don't have massive endowments that could really do with financial support and don't get a look in as the GOSH fundraisers are so aggressive.

I finally managed to get the school to stop collecting for GOSH and to collect instead for the local children's hospital. This is the hospital that provides the majority of secondary/ tertiary care for the pupils and is where they go if they have a playground accident. It's also a newish children's hospital and doesn't have a tonne of funds.

i work in the NHS I know how useful charity money is. It basically pays for all the good stuff - art work, improved parental information, support nurses, staff psychology (essential post COVID), financial advice for staff (also currently essential). so huge thanks to those who do donate.

Not useful but just wanted to show a bit of solidarity, shameful how little our nurses are paid! In what job would you underpay the talent, then never even match inflation year on year, and expect any retention? And this is a job that balance life and death and provides a lot of comfort to patients at our most vulnerable! What was the point in us hitting pans 😡

At my trust, we didn't meet the ballot numbers required for strike action. It's a shame. It's sickening that staff are not paid a decent wage. Especially because the procurement system is rigged. The nhs could save millions by changing this system and stopping companies from charging triple prices for items.
I work in the lab, I'm not a nurse, but I've seen the state of things.
Understaffed, overworked and so busy that I can't get hold of anyone to pass on abnormal results over the phone. I really dread to think of the effects on staff and patients using services. It's really at breaking point, which is what I believe the Tories want. They want public opinion of the NHS to be so low that the nation will practically be begging them to sell it all off and privatise.
It's absolutely diabolical.
I really hope your situation improves. I really feel for you.

Tbh the poor charity doorknocker is probably just trying to earn some money like the rest of us

I wasn't begrudging a person earning their living.

How would they know that? YABU

I'm with you but you still earn more than I do.

And on a lot less than the struggling nurse too

It is irrelevant how much the nurse is paid in relation to someone else - the fact is for degree educated individuals who are quite literally dealing with life and death and who work insanely hard, we shouldn't be struggling! I'm a student nurse. That is a scary thing to be!

Right- so she may earn more than you do.

Do you have to work 12 hour shifts...and then stay on duty because the person who was due to come in for handover has a family emergency and you have to stay on, until cover is found
Do you have to work on your feet for those 12 hours, trying to decide whether it is worthwhile having a drink, as you won't get time to go to the loo during your shift?
At work, have you in the last 18months, had to hold an iPad up at the bedside of a dying patient, so that they can say goodbye to their families...knowing that the family cant get it, due to Covid restrictions?
Have you had to nurse colleagues who've contracted Covid in the workplace?
Are you working in a registered profession where errors or complaints mean that you can be struck off, depriving you of your livelihood?

There are many people who earn far more than nurses do, who dont have any of this level of responsibility. Just shuffling money around the world to maximise return for shareholders.
On a moral scale alone, I know who I feel should earn far more.

*I'm not a nurse BTW

I wasn't saying they had any idea at all.
My title was pointing out the irony of the situation. I was assuming persons psychic abilities.

I bet I do.

When I earned less, I was in less financial hardship.
When I qualified as a nurse, I instantly noticed how little I help I had with UC, childcare etc etc.

I have been a single mother, a single mother as a student, a married student mother working a married student mother on maternity leave, a married student mother with three children and a qualified nurse as well as a dual qualified nurse.

I am at my most broke as a dual qualified nurse.

As I said in my original post I have no debts, my mortgage has remained the same and we have no habits.

Yet we are the most financially fucked we have ever been.

In other words I have worked my fucking tits off to get to a band 6, and all I have to pay for it is utter panic about how I'm going to feed my kids.

What's an average nurses salary...30k? Often more, sometimes less if recently qualified etc. I'm not saying that's exceptional to live on this day and age, but it's not bad?? I do think nurses deserve more, there's no doubt but I don't understand where this whole nurses living in poverty or going to food banks thing comes from.

If someone could provide an explanation that would be great, cause I don't see how the current salary is causing poverty. Most of the country are struggling hugely due to inflation, and not everyone can or wants to go on a strike. Earning 30k+ should not warrant going to food banks etc unless you are living far beyond your means.

Sending solidarity for your strike tomorrow.

If someone could provide an explanation that would be great, cause I don't see how the current salary is causing poverty.

Why do you care? Nurses should earn more. They do a hard job in difficult conditions and are degree (and beyond) educated professionals. They don't have to justify their personal finances to you. The government has plenty of money to pay nurses more, they simply choose not to. And now nurses, like everyone else, are fucked off. People shouldn't have to be struggling to get a decent wage.