Are our Nurses worth a Pay Rise in line with Inflation?

Question

They have been promised less than the inflation rate and and so far have received nothing. Staff are being cut and morale is low. Some now have to work 12 hour shifts at night with only 2 20 minute breaks. They are open to abuse and violence.

A PETITION has been started to try to get their pay rise enhanced and at least implemented. Nurses do not want to strike. Link to Petition http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/nursespayrise/

EDIT: Hi Curlynurse. I do understand about the breaks and what the reality is, but I didn't want to post anything that was not, "official" procedure. I should have added 6 shifts for the price of 5 due to new time restructuring too. Sorry I missed it off.

Hello Jack, Yes I do think Nurses are worth much much more, but I want people to sign the petition to get what "Uncle Gordie" promised first, then we can start a campaign for an above inflation and better conditions.

Answer 1

Now i could go on forever...

Yes we do. i work as an auxilliary nurse in a dementia unit. I love my job and my patients, all in various stages of altzhiemers.

Without going into too much detail, we have to clean them up when they mess themselves, from both ends. and also when they decide to empty their bowels and their bladders anywhere but the toilet.
we get scratched, punched, kicked, spat on. not their fault as they don't know what they are doing. It is also a back breaking job as i know there is a no lifting policy and various ways to roll a patient, but the penpushers who dictate these rules can't understand that is isn't always possible to stick to these rules with a patient who is fighting you.
Also some of the ways we have to handle them would hurt a frail person or frighten them e.g. many are terrified of being hoisted ...so on these occasions we take the weight.....you see we put our patients needs before our own. thats what i came into nursing for..to care.
The trained staff have to have such knowledge these days and the doctors who dish out the medicines ....well where i work anyway...don't even bother seeing the patinet, they wont llsten to the nurses who advise them through experience of handling the patients what would be the better drug to put them on. we hate doping up out patients but sometimes for the safety of other frailer ones we have to for a while to calm them down.
we are understaffed and when we need to work overtime now we have to go on the bank and get paid nearly three pounds less an hour to do it.
we do it as we know we are short staffed and help each other out, but they wont give us any more.
morale is low as we are all just bushed!!
the best part of the job is when we have a rare time to sit and talk to the patients who can and get to know what they were like as young people....they can tell some great stories. we also have a laugh with them, they can be so funny.

so for getting attacked, cleaning up all sorts of mess from urine to faeces (of various consistencies). dressing them, undressing them, feeding them, caring for them, putting up with rude and aggressive relatives, being looked down upon by some doctors, having to work overtime with cut hourly wage, i dont get paid as much as these

some supermarkets pay more
nhs pen pushers can earn upwards from £50.00 per year
a first year police cadet earns about £19.000 per year....and quite rightly so
council office workers can earn from £15.000 - £40.00 per year
a cleaner offshore can get about £20.000 per year
kicking a ball round a pitch......millions of pounds per year
sitting in parlaiment shouting hear hear......up to well over hundred thousand

and i get..£14.000 p year

that is an ok wage in some places of work
but not for what i do...........i am responsible for peoples lives. i have to take care of their safely as well as everything else. you cant leave most of them for a minute.

they even took the extra £50 we got per month for looking after mental health patients away from us saying we were getting a better pay deal.............we are still waiting.



Edit
so who is the miserable old f.rt giving the thumbs down for us wanting a decent wage.

Answer 2

Hell yes we are!!!! I'm a student nurse and believe me conditions are bloody awful!!!

I could really write an entire book about the bad work conditions, long hours, crap pay, sheer ammount of abuse of patients and families, no job security, leaving ourselves wide open to litigation just for trying to help, etc. You get the idea.

I'm so sick of the conditions in this country I'm not sure I even want to stay a nurse after I graduate. If I do, I certainly won't do it in this country. I'm off to Oz or Canada.

Nurses are invaluable, why would we put up with a situation where a shop assistant and binmen get paid as much or more than us?????? It's ridiculous!!

Oh, and just so everyone knows, a student nurse gets a bursary which works out at a less than half ofthe minimum wage (studying for a nursing degree we get nothing at all). Yet we still put up with the same abuse, etc. How are we supposed to live on this?

Answer 3

We all deserve a raise dont we? Seems like everyone wants one.
Serioulsy-i have no clue what the average nurse makes a year, so i really cant say. My thing is this, as with teachers and many other careers that people go to college for years to obtain. You know the pay sucks, so why do it? Use that college degree for something else. I never could undserstand why someone would go to school for all those years for a career choice where they know from the start they wont be happy with the pay.
Dont like the pay, find a different job.

Answer 4

after not long ago finishing a night shift i would say yes we definatley deserve a payrise , as for the 20 min break that would be a dream , i often work 12 hour shifts without having a drink or being able to go to the toilet , i would like to see gordon brown come and cover a 12 hour shift in A& E on a friday night

Answer 5

They certainly are entitled to the money, they work their asses off and get hardly any recognition for it. Look at these daft wee boys who are playing football and involved in scandal on a regular basis, why should they get more money? The priorites are wrong, the nurses save lives, what do footballers do? Nurses also have to put up with alot from doctors and their "i am more important" attitude. Not saying that docs arent important but they look down on nurses, I have seen it bothin a prefessional capacity as well as being a patient myself. Its absolutely terrible to see someone belittled when they main aim fo being a doc or nurseis because you want to help people. Ok, i will get off my soap box now.

Answer 6

Of course they are worth a pay rise in line with inflation and they should get it automatically. I am sure the monumental army of NHS managers get inflation proof rises and pensions as well. Give it to the front line workers I say.

Answer 7

I could'nt do the job - nothing to do with bodily fluids me! Thankless task that needs great dedication and enough neck to call the doctors wrong sometimes. Nurses are worth their weight in gold.

I've signed the petition my dear and passed in on to my pals thanks for that

Answer 8

sounds like nothings changed there then! this will go and on for ever, take what ever money is offered and get on with life,
i work in spain, inflation increases every year but wages don,t. at least you get some small increase..

Answer 9

LOL 2 20 MINUTE BREAKS!!!!
I WISH.... MOST OF THE TIME WE HAVE NO BREAK AT ALL. EVEN TRYING TO GO TO THE TOILET IS IMPOSSIBLE SOME-DAYS.

Answer 10

yes