Nurses pay rise

[Greenfood]

I've seen today that the nurses have said their pay rise is not acceptable.

I just feel think they're being unreasonable. They have great sick pay, holiday pay, maternity pay etc.

Plus anecdotal evidence shows they are not caring, they sit at the desk not snowed under.

Am I being unreasonable to think the public are not behind them and they're wasting their time?

Having read through all the posts to make sure it hasn’t been mentioned, if anyone actually read what the RCN have said you would know that, whilst rejecting what was one of the lowest pay awards in the public sector, they have said they have no wish to strike, rather look at how agenda for change works and how it actually hinders many nurses who want to nurse, i.e.band 5, rather than spend much of there time doing paperwork and very much not hands on nursing. An incredibly experienced band 5 with many years experience cannot earn more than £38k due to the pay structure, the RCN feel this needs addressing with nurses automatically moving to a band 6 after a set amount of time( presumably with the assumption that they also reach minimum criteria re ability)

Nurses fought hard through their unions to secure this pay rise, it didn’t just get handed to them. If carers feel they're being left behind, they absolutely have the right to organise and campaign for better conditions too. This shouldn't about resenting one group’s progress, it's not a race to the bottom. Everyone deserves fair pay and recognition for the work they do.

Although nurses and carers work is not the same, as others have pointed out.

You are aware it’s all staff on agenda for change?

are you also aware not all nurses work in a hospital?

Did you do 3 years at university coming out with over £40k worth of debt to be a senior carer? Feel free to pop along to your local university to do your nursing degree then comment on how ‘similar’ your job is.

Bus drivers, train drivers, electricians, mechanics, builders (I could go on) all don’t need a degree but are paid more than a nurse

Are you aware that not all nurses work in hospitals??

Do your training maybe ?

no it’s not - you don’t make any decisions nor do you have the same level of responsibility or accountability

a nurse could do your job, but you could not do theirs.

like saying a train conductor is similar to a train driver - they’re both on the train

you also work in a care home - this pay rise is for nhs nurses - your employer has no link to the nhs at all

You’re wrong of course. And it’s not nurses standing on carers, it’s the OP embarking on a race to the bottom. What line of work are you in, just out of curiosity?

I know someone that’s a senior carer. Lovely person but no previous experience, worked in a newsagents for years. You’re telling me that person has acquired the same level of skills as a RN ?

When we are ill and in hospital we'd be fucked without nurses. They are angels and very overworked and they should get a pay rise over junior doctors that's for sure!

They get paid well enough. There are avenues for individuals to study further and earn more if desired, as with any occupation. Progression in any job isn't automatic. Its not an across the board profession its still largely just a job for most. It was a huge mistake making it a requirement to get a nursing degree to do the job. The attempt to professionalise the role via this degree requirement has failed, but nurses now think because they have a 'degree' they should be paid more. I think conditions need improving, i. e. more nurses on shift etc but no, they get decent pay for what they do, large pay rises aren't due.

Makes me so incredibly sad to see both nurse and carer bashing. We are likely to need the care of both types of people throughout our lives. I've been lucky enough to work with amazing, kind and compassionate people throughout my career. When you are unwell it'll be the nurse that draws up and administers your IV, administered your medicine, replaces your NG feed, places your cannula and catheters, changes your sheets and helps you wash when your to unwell to manage, supports the surgeons in theatre and cares for you in recovery or helps keep you alive and advocates for you in ITU, drops everything and runs when a crash bell sounds. None of this would be possible with out the supports of HCAs and many many people wouldn't be able to return to their own homes without the support of home carers.
So before people begin to bash a profession that ultimately go into a job to help care for and the sick and vulnerable remember you'll all likely to need us one day and the vast majority of us do the job because we love it and genuinely care for the people we look after. People are leaving the job in droves due to the disrespect and poor working conditions we face and therefore a think a pay rise in line with inflation is certainly not too much to ask when you consider other post grad wages.

But the degree was manufactured to try and professionalise nursing. Its not a role that really requires any great intelligence. Anyone gets accepted on the course and its still a fall back option for fairly bright people who aren't bright enough to do a real degree and don't know what else to do.

@Middlechild3 I don’t think you understand what nurses do. 80% of our job was a junior doctor’s job 30 years ago, so of course nurses need degrees. The nursing job gets more and more technical and ‘medical’ everyday. On top of that, in some areas of nursing there are no bloody doctors! As a mental health nurse, it’s not unusual for a band 6 nurse to be the most senior healthcare professional in the building, with a very junior doctor on the end of the phone. Surely, that at least deserves the title ‘professional’?

Blame the rcn for trying to professionalise the job of a nurse by creating nursing degrees what 10, 15 years ago. You don't need a degree level education/intelligence to be a nurse. Entirely manufactured situation.

I have a humanities degree from a Russell group university-so I think I count as “fairly bright”- and a nursing degree. The nursing degree was harder. My nursing dissertation was 55 pages long with a full on lit review and data collection. How is that not a “real degree”?

I understand VERY well what nurses do

They more than deserve every penny they can get. I couldn’t do their job.

Yeah not any more. It’s highly competitive course and whilst UCAS points aren’t terribly high most unis want BBC/BCC. So hardly “anyone gets accepted on the course”.

And evidence has shown that areas staffed with degree educated nurses have better patient outcomes and lower mortality rates. It wasn’t a manufactured degree, (whatever that is) it was driven by the change in modern nursing requiring nurses to be educated and trained to a higher standard.

Not sure if you’ve noticed but we’re not doctors handmaidens any more! We can assess, diagnose, treat, monitor and prescribe…

@Middlechild3 so what do you do? You’re either a disgruntled doctor with a chip on their shoulder that they’re not so important anymore or an old nurse who thinks new nurses should ‘know their place’ 😂

Prescribe what.

There are severe restrictions to what you can do and rightly so. It's disenous to suggest that your role is equivalent to that of a doctor.

How incredibly sad this thread is. Carers and nurses at loggerheads about money and responsibility. This was an eye opener for me.

FWIW I am a sister on critical care with 20 years experience, more courses/letters after my name than I care to remember. My DH runs a restaurant, has never stepped foot in a college or uni, has a reasonable amount of responsibility. Earns 20k a year more than me. Same pension and sick pay. Has private healthcare, substantial discounts and death in service.

It’s no secret what nurses earn- you can check before you train, if you’re in it for the cash forget it. I love my job, I honestly enjoy (almost!) every shift. I wish the responsibility and emotional/physical strain was recognised with monetary reward, but it’s not.

I would never strike, neither would the vast majority of my colleagues.

@OneNeatBlueOrca a nurse prescriber is able to prescribe anything without any oversight. They’re fully qualified prescribers with their own prescription pads. At my work there’s no difference between the NMPs and the doctors, lots of people don’t know who is what as they all do the same job so they’re all just called “prescribers”.

You’re very wrong. ACP’s can prescribe anything they like, they work the same as the doctors and answer to consultants. Essentially a ‘cheap’ doctor.

The public really have no idea how far nursing has come in 20 years.