Just a rant from a nurse

[Bestkindaparty]

I know there's a 101 threads about the nursing strike. But I just need an anonymous forum to rant.
I left home at 6am this morning and I'm only just getting home. I need a shower because someone threw their hot coffee over me because I didn't answer their buzzer fast enough and they needed a pillow. I didn't answer it quick enough because I was performing cpr on a child with suspected strep A. 12 hours into my shift without a break because we just don't have the staff.
All week on Facebook tiktok and other social media all I've seen is how disgusting us nurses are. How people will die because of the strikes all because we want more money.
Yes we want to paid fairly. We do not get paid enough for the training we do. 2300 hours of unpaid work and then other 3000 hours of uni. Plus all the responsibilities we have. Some people think we're just doctors assistants but its not like that anymore. But the main reason is we're tired of fearing for our pins (that we pay a yearly fee for) we're tired of not being able to care for people the way we want because there's not enough staff. The ratio is supposed to be 1 to 3. I can't remember when I've had less than 8 patients. We want to protect the NHS. We need people to join and to retain current staff who are leaving in droves due to burnout. What happens when there's none of us left?
We had no option but to strike. Nothing else has worked. We want to protect ours and everyone's future. Personally I don't want to cry on every drive to and from work because I'm scared someone will die due to me not being able to give the care they need.
If you've got this far thanks for reading

Most of the opinions I have seen online have been supportive of the strike. A small minority I have seen have just been plain nasty. You deserve decent pay for the work you do. If the super rich paid more tax, MP's cut back on they're expenses and didn't give themselves a payrise whenever the fancy takes them the nurses could get the much deserved pay rise.

They shouldn't have to rely on foodbanks as some have been. It's disgusting fingers crossed you get the rise as well as encouraging more to go into nursing so they're not so short staffed and patients get better care.

It was the nurses that saved my son's life yet again two weeks ago when he was rushed to hospital with uncontrolled siezures.

It was the nurses which pestered the doctors to prescribe the medication to put in his drip that prevented possible iriverversible brain damage.

It was the nurses that put him in an induced coma and watched over him in intensive care.

It was the nurses who gave him oxygen and suction when he was struggling to vomit.

It was the nurses who cleaned him when they realised he had wet his bed and expertly put a fresh gown on him without disturbing his sleep.

It was the nurses who checked on me when I left his room before I broke down. Because I couldn't watch my child fighting for his life. But they do this every day.💙💙💙

I am receiving a lot of medical care at the moment, and I still support the strikes 100%. I’ve done a similar job with long hours, tons of abuse and insulting pay rises and I hope you get a pay award that recognises what you all go through.

Exactly
Going for a break means your patient could suffer harm or their care/ treatment is missed and you will be blamed.
Also with staying late, it's either no one has come to relieve you and therefore you cannot go safely as no one to handover to or you're completing essential documentation of care which you couldn't do earlier as too busy.
Honestly yeah just go for a break! 🙄
People are clueless!

Here’s the link for Jonathan Pie:

I think it's obvious that paying people a decent wage for this vital job would help massively with retention and recruitment - having proper staffing levels sounds like it would definitely address a lot of the issues.

I don't work in this industry, but in another underpaid area. When people start to vote with their feet, the ones left behind have to deal with more and more until it becomes untenable. At least in my industry all it means is that projects take longer, rather than patients lives being at risk - that's the bottom line! If we can't staff to adequate levels, then it impacts us all.

Can you really not see that?

willthatbeall · Today 22:35
Not one thing you've put in your OP will be solved by a massively above inflation pay rise. The strike is not the way to solve the problems in nursing. It's appalling that nurses are striking for pay. Same for paramedics.

You really have no clue, do you?

Recruitment and retention is at the heart of the conditions. Payment is key. All public sector workers should be striking for fair pay- we’ve all had massive pay erosion under this grasping, thieving, corrupt government

I suspect you do very little yourself to make such clueless, insightless statements

Op, you and all nurses have my support 110%.
Thank you for all you do ❤️

Are you on crack?
Literally do you have any idea at all?!
Come and work on bottom of band 5 (newly qualified RN) for a week and see how you fair. You utter knob.

Ah, and you’ve worked on the wards have you? Have any idea at all what it is like? Would love to know. If you have and do, I apologise in advance and hats off to you.
If you haven’t, piss off. Go and get yourself on the bank as a nursing auxiliary and come back and say this.

Support the strike 10000% Claps don't pay bills.

You haven't contributed any ideas there. I'm all ears.......

I'm a nurse too, my daughter is a newly qualified children's nurse and is finding it really hard. I'm so fed up with the government villanising us. They were happy enough to clap for us in 2020.

We shouldn't have to strike, but the government seems to think we can live on thin air.

Gentle hugs @Bestkindaparty

"I suspect you do very little yourself to make such clueless, insightless statements" Lapland - LOL!

Just giving my opinion which is that nurses striking YABU

BTW, I'm a teacher and am not supporting my union striking. I don't believe it's right to punish my students and screw with their futures for government fuckery. I didn't vote conservative in the last election either unlike the majority of the country.

I gave my opinion and don't plan to revisit this thread.

Look at Norway

September 2022
Norway's government has ended the teachers' strike and forced unions and The Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities (KS) to a compulsory wage board.

www.newsinenglish.no/2022/09/27/teachers-ordered-back-to-work/
www.thelocal.no/20220928/norwegian-government-forces-teachers-strike-to-an-end

June 2021
Norwegian nurses working at state-run hospitals remained on strike heading into the weekend, even after their colleagues at the local level were ordered back to work. The state nurses may also wind up being forced into compulsory arbitration, if their strike is deemed to pose a threat to life and health.
“We really don’t have an authentic right to strike,” the leader of the Norwegian nurses’ union, Lill Sverresdatter Larsen, told newspaper Aftenposten, noting how 11 of 12 nursing strikes over the past 60 years have ended in compulsory arbitration.

www.newsinenglish.no/2021/06/11/hospital-nurses-remain-on-strike/

This is a case of saving money by all politicians of all political colours over the years and ignoring the root cause of the problem

Hospitals built under PFI, I dread to think what the interest is and when the final payment is made, the building will need replacing as they are worn out 😳

A case of you cut things to the bone and there is nothing else left to cut and then wonder why things keep failing 😳

I have a member of my family in the NHS and the stories I hear of waste is horrifying

The NHS of today is not the same as the NHS when it was born. It does need a serious look at and by a non medical person with no axe to grind

We either pay more in taxes, cut down on the waste within the NHS system or what is available at no charge

If you are getting nurses using food banks, something is drastically wrong with the system

I support the nurses and yes, the strikes will impact me but until that happens to all people, then nothing will happen

The Govt works for me, I pay their wages and I do have a say in what happens as it is my money, not theirs that is being spent

A stubby pencil and putting an X on a bit of paper does work if enough people put their mark in the right box

The money is there, just needs a pet project or projects to be cancelled or even the next pay rise for MP’s to be diverted to the nurses

There is so much waste in Government Departments, that is scary as well

Again, sort the waste out and lo and behold, money is available

I see both sides but if the 17% wage rise is accepted, everybody else will then jump on the bandwagon and if you think things are bad now, if that happens, it is a can of worms

Could I do better? Probably but the system would wail and gnash teeth with the associated hand wringing as I would mandate not using agency staff but to invest in staff already in situ

Train nurses but pay for their training, registration but put put golden handcuffs with that

Free car parking would help

I remember the Winter of Discontent 78 / 79 and being put on standby to dig graves, clear rubbish etc 😳

That was an interesting time

Aircraft Engineer to grave digger in one easy lesson 😳

My Dsis is also a nurse and now considering moving into office work for same money but working 9-5. She’s been a nurse for 23 years and has had enough. She had 10 patients last week. Supposed to be 3 HCAs and 4 nurses. Only had 2 HCAs and her. Unfortunately meant people had accidents as they can’t take the elderly patients to the toilet all at the same time then they have to clean them up which takes longer. All the HCAs and nurses she speaks to feel the same. Sadly, holding a placard in a freezing car park won’t do anything to change the situation.

The thing is that, if everyone who is currently taking industrial action gets the wage rise they want, where is the money going to come from? The Government is going to increase Income Tax, NI, VAT, Local Governments are going to raise Council Tax and cut back on services. They will need to claw back the money needed for the wage raises! Then, the poor buggers workers in Care Homes, Hospitality and Retail etc., who are on minimum wage are going to end up even worse off. I just can’t see a way out of this, that will be fair to everybody.

I have 3 children, dd1 works in hospitality, ds works in retail, dd2 followed in my footsteps and became a nhs nurse. I have had to help both dd1 and ds financially, as their employers only want to pay minimum wage (with no unsocial hours or extra BH payments) and cut back on staff, not replacing those that leave, but expecting the same amount of work to be done by fewer staff for less money!

Yes, I think that I deserve a decent wage rise for the work I do (often the only qualified nurse in the 22 bedded Community Hospital / MIU I work in, with no backup if patients get violent). I’ve been kicked, punched, spat at, groped and threatened. I’ve looked after patients, who have tried to kill themselves (and other patients). I’ve had to turn patients away from the MIU as I can’t physically be in 2 places at once. I’ve had to leave palliative patients in pain, as I’ve been trying to resuscitate another patient. Then, at the end of my shift, I’ve had to stay on to complete the paperwork I haven’t had time to do, or (in more cases than I care to count) I’ve sat with dying patients who haven’t got anyone else who cares.

Despite all this, I’m sorry, I can’t in all consciousness strike, as it goes against my ethos of putting my patient first, which is probably what the government hopes a lot of staff members will do!

Be prepared for the NHS to fail then and having to pay privately for healthcare. Nursing wages in the UK are very poor compared to most other western countries.

The nurses and other hospital staff do a marvellous job and they deserve every penny they can get out of the government; I fully support their strike action.

I don’t get your point. You can’t see the impact of having such real terms pay cuts? Even within this thread nurses have cited leaving the profession. Nurses have been left with no choice. People like yourself allows Tory’s to continue to treat nurses with contempt. Nurses don’t want to strike. They have been left with no choice. Surely you can understand why their hand has been forced?

Pay does help in keeping experienced people in jobs and those people are leaving the NHS

At what point will staff retention become an even bigger problem than it is now?

I need a shower because someone threw their hot coffee over me because I didn't answer their buzzer fast enough and they needed a pillow. I didn't answer it quick enough because I was performing cpr on a child with suspected strep A.

Is this a representative example in the op or an actual event today? CPR on a child with suspected Strep A does slightly hint at emotional blackmail.

Sadly I think the government want the NHS to fail so that it becomes privately owned (most likely by newly formed companies that their mates have set up).

Thank you for your work. The pay needs to retain and attract more staff otherwise staffing levels will be even less safe!! Most people are behind you!