Nurses? over-worked and underpaid? Your opinions please?

Question

I am bias..lots of family who work in medicine..what's YOUR opinion?

Answer 1

After having a spell in intensive care a few years ago and having a nurse never leave my side the whole time i'd say most definately yes. The standard of care that i received was way beyond what you'd expect to get in the NHS, when you've had your life saved as i did you'd put no upper limit on the salary paid to nurses, how can you put a price on saving lives?

I'd be more than happy to pay out a little more in income tax to fund decent salaries for nurses.

Answer 2

I was a health care worker until an accident a few years ago, and all people in the health care sector are shockingly underpaid.
The things that a carer/nurse has to do and the money they earn does not tally up. This kind of work is not a career it is a vocation, and an invaluable service and the employees are not paid their worth by a long shot. However if I could still do the job I would be, as I loved the people and experiences that came with the territory.

Answer 3

The pay is extremely spotty. Nurses make twice as much in some cities as they do in others. The overwork is universal. It doesn't matter much if you're making good money if you have no time to spend it. Lots of nurses up here are required to work a 12 hour day 5 or 6 days a week and of course they must stay longer if relief doesn't show on time or there is an real emergency. Most have the sense to be off shore out of cell phone range on their day off. How much pay could possibly compensate for rarely seeing your kids or eating a home-cooked meal? The employers always say that the mandatory overtime is a temporary situation but it goes on for months at a stretch.

Answer 4

yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes!!

I'm a nurse, my Mum's a nurse and lots of my friends are nurses and we ALL should earn more money, at least enough to enable us to buy our own homes.

The hours are long, we are over worked, we have too many patients to look after, we don't have enough vital equipment such as the correct size gloves or BP machines.

Everyone suffers under Blair, the nurses, HCA's, ward clarks, domestic staff, the patients and the relatives.

Nursing is brilliant, and you can work any where your heart desires. Things are better than they were 10-15 yrs ago. But we need more money, more nurses, more HCA's, more equipment, more doctors, more food, more money, more money, more money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BUT having said all of that, I never went into nursing for the money (and certainly not the glamour) I did it to make a small change in a big system. I'm proud to be a British nurse, shame a about the cheap shoes......

Answer 5

Most nurses didn't go into nursing for the pay and they won't strike for higher wages,this is well known by management and the Government who seem to take full advantage of it

I only work 4 days a week but that can be 4 to 8 days in a row if the ward needs me to. I rarely leave on time eg 2115 finish often leave at 2145 and begin work again at 0715. or finish at 1500 and am still on the ward at 1600, most nurses do extra time to finish notes or don't have lunch breaks.

Many of our nurses work full time and do additional shifts to gain extra money.We have a very heavy ward though and we rarely stop to breath let alone take a break.

My daughter is a student nurse who works full time on her placement ( on a ward or in the community)she also has to do assignments and then does another job as well to pay her rent. This is common for many student nurses.

Nursing is rewarding in many cases, but nowadays patients swear at you, attack people trying to help them, they are demanding ( we had a group of 4 younger patients who thought it was fun to ask if they could have a tissue or could their pillow be moved a little or could the Tv be turned over then be turned back again, and they rang for the nurses every 2 minutes, we timed them! In the meanwhile we were trying to nurse a dying patient and another 19 elderly and very infirm patients with 5 nurses)

Not so much over worked as misused? I could carry on.......

Answer 6

Yes, nurses are overworked and underpaid. That is definitely my opinion. Nurses now usually do the job a doctor should be doing anyway, amd get paid a lot less. Good nurses are hard to find and they are worth their weight in gold or platinum. I am biased as well.

Answer 7

Medical facility are always trying to save money by understaffing so the staff is overworked. Its a dangerous practice but here in Indiana its a common practice. Underpaid yes when you are to be at work 8 hours but can't get home to your family till you work 15 hours.

Answer 8

they are over-worked and underpaid. My Mum was a Nurse and she always worked 12 hours shifts with not many breaks and she cared for people without being paid.

Answer 9

depends on where u work as a nurse but just a FYI if the hospital is offering a sign on bonus of a couple thousand that should signal red flags it may mean that hospital has a hard time keeping nurses and u will more than likely have more than 5 patients at a time which can be very dangerous

Answer 10

Yes definitely. I left the profession 6 years ago for this very reason. I was sick of doing the job of a senior house officer and getting paid the wage of a cleaner. It will never change and nurses will always be undervalued for the work that they do, and this dates back to the Florence Nightingale era whereby nurses were viewed as illiterate alcoholics.