[Politics] The Sun - nurses ?

[Zeberdi]

My older sister is a nurse and refused to strike because she cares very deeply for her patients.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I just feel so sorry for the patients who had chemotherapy or radiotherapy booked on the strike dates and it had to be postponed at short notice. It's playing with people's lives.

If they can afford to strike and have a day watching Loose Women or whatever without pay, then they can't be that badly off. My older sister is a nurse and refused to strike because she cares very deeply for her patients.

As others have said, your chemo and radio comment is wrong; the Loose Women comment is just insulting.

My take is that nurses don’t go into the profession for shits and giggles and to make some money, they do it because they genuinely want to help. Given this, and the nature of the job, it must take a hell of a lot for them to want to strike. I trust their judgment and support them 100%.

 

[portlock seagull]

It’s wildly exaggerated how many nurses are on strike.

 

[Weststander]

God bless her, I would love to give her a rise.
Standing ovation coming from me, you have hit the jackpot sir, please send her my most respected wishes. She has me cry.

Here's the interesting thing. Her pay is really good. Just from being a nurse for 20 years and moving up a band (I think they call it). Far, far better than the figures mentioned in the sympathetic media. The NHS rewards length of service/skill set in effect and so it should.

The pension scheme is also astonishingly good. Post tax relief as you contribute, she has a deduction of 7.84% from pay. The gross employers and employees contributions total 30.48%. Nurses retire on a guaranteed final salary, or later entrants career average pension at age 60, or later entrants at 65.

We're leaning on the side of the younger nurses on very modest pay, in London especially.

 

[Is it PotG?]

View attachment 154779

Can almost hear Florence Nightingale softly whispering this in reassuring tones.

 

[AlbionBro]

Here's the interesting thing. Her pay is really good. Just from being a nurse for 20 years and moving up a band (I think they call it). Far, far better than the figures mentioned in the sympathetic media. The NHS rewards length of service/skill set in effect and so it should.

The pension scheme is also astonishingly good. Post tax relief as you contribute, she has a deduction of 7.84% from pay. The gross employers and employees contributions total 30.48%. Nurses retire on a guaranteed final salary, or later entrants career average pension at age 60, or later entrants at 65.

We're leaning on the side of the younger nurses on very modest pay, in London especially.

So is it basically, 'stick with it?'

 

[Swansman]

My NHS nurse wife won’t be striking and she didn’t vote. It’s not political for her and she’s not against the strikers one jot. But she just wants to spend every shift helping the sick, the old and less experienced colleagues.

Many nurses are like that, my mother is similar... which is why they desperately need these unions to pick the fights. A lot of nurses would work for free 16 hours a day if it was humanly possible and employers (state or private) are not late to abuse it.

 

[beorhthelm]

Here's the interesting thing. Her pay is really good. Just from being a nurse for 20 years and moving up a band (I think they call it). Far, far better than the figures mentioned in the sympathetic media. The NHS rewards length of service/skill set in effect and so it should.

an interviewee claimed this morning they'd gone up to grade 7 and only earned £100 more than when they started in 2007. the grades are all on line to see, no one verifies claims.

 

[Zeberdi]

My take is that nurses don’t go into the profession for shits and giggles and to make some money, they do it because they genuinely want to help. Given this, and the nature of the job, it must take a hell of a lot for them to want to strike. I trust their judgment and support them 100%.

When I first started working in the NHS in my late teens (late seventies), nursing (and teaching) was a vocation. People entered these professions because they felt they had a ’calling’ - something innate about the personality that makes someone a caregiver or teacher. However, by the ‘80s under Thatcherite Britain, my nursing friends were already leaving in droves as they felt the free market reforms were destroying the workplace practices that nurtured a caring environment for the patients whilst also throttling trade unionism. By 1988, the nurses were so angry with poor pay and poor working conditions, they took industrial action. That time, the public, the RCN (the Royal College of Nursing) and the media were against them (although the doctors supported them) .

“There are many personal, moral questions about striking when you’re looking after the sick, and those questions are particularly acute in nursing. It’s a hierarchical profession with a long ideological history of being committed to service and dedication, going all the way back to Florence Nightingale.”

It is these abiding attitudes that has for decades undermined nurses more than any other profession in fighting for fairer pay levels - ‘they do it because they care’.

Being ‘caring’, having a sense of vocation, having a ‘natural healer’ personality type are NOT mutually exclusive of fighting for a decent salary, for better working conditions and if necessary taking industrial action to achieve that.

’Fcuk the Praise - where’s the Raise?!”

Ps My Mother was an SRN then high up in the Health Service as an Occupational Health Nurse (40 years service), my SIL and Cousin were both Community Nurses (retired - 45 and 45 years service)

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

no
yes (end up offering more)
yes (wont get 17%)

i was surprised less than quarter of trusts had strikes.

It is very hard for many health care professionals to down tools. Even before I resigned from my union (over their tomfoolery over Israel) I never went on strike. And I'm not even healthcare (instead a uni academic). If we miss a lecture it has to be rearranged, or we lose something that can be (and should be) assessed (in exams, for example). If we miss a day of marking we end up having to work in the evening to catch up, making the strike pointless. If we fail to meet the deadline for completion of marking, the students can't graduate owing to academic rules. We used to be able to wave late marks through after the dealine using academic sub board chair's action (I am ASB for 3 programmes). Now we have to have an extra full ASB (half a day's work for up to 10 people, due to quoracy rules). And so on.

And only a small proportion of staff where I work are in the UCU (for their tomfoolery, see above).

It is MUCH more jeopardizing on the healthcare frontline where people may die as a consequence of striking. We have got to this point because elements in the tory party want to force the issue so that it damages the NHS, turns the public against the nurses and facilitates the slow meander to privatization. And all this is deniable (and vigorously denied) by the tories, many of whom believe they are 'doing their best to meet the workforce half way, but are hamstrung by union militancy'. That Jonathan Pye video posted earlier today sums it up.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Jesus, I knew the NHS had been run down, but it sounds like the staff are as fragile as the patients.

That's a bit harsh.

 

[Badger]

I think Jonathan Pie sums it up nicely

 

[jcdenton08]

I am fully 100% behind the nurses, despite personal/family inconveniences. I fully support their judgement and right to withdraw labor given the absolute piss taking the government has done to their pay, quality of working life and the therefore patients themselves.

 

[Rookie]

Jesus, I knew the NHS had been run down, but it sounds like the staff are as fragile as the patients.

Hugely insulting thing to say.
I have been around nurses all my life and they are far from fragile and have a huge amount of strength to do the job they do.

 

[Me and my Monkey]

I'm an ex-nurse. My husband's an NHS nurse still. Neither of us believe this strike is justified or fair. Nursing has never been a highly paid job, it's hard work, and you have to do and see nasty stuff sometimes. You don't join the profession to earn loads of cash or for an easy life, but it has other, immense, rewards. I'm not politically minded, they're all tits, and God knows whose or what's fault it is that we find ourselves as a nation in the state we're in now (although I have my own suspicions). Most ordinary, working people are suffering to a greater or lesser degree at present, most people can do little to alleviate it. Those nurses who are choosing to strike are basically holding everyone else to ransom. If every nurse in the country gets a 17% pay rise, then the rest of us are royally f***ed, its just not affordable. Playing the "woe is me, I'm an NHS hero, don't you know" card is frankly a bit nauseating in my opinion.

 

[beorhthelm]

It is very hard for many health care professionals to down tools. ...

understand that, i was kinda expecting many nurses to report for work regardless. doesnt take many out to make a show and have impact. but only 44 trusts even voting for action is different from the story RCN portrays.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

It’s not just the pay but the lack of staff. Many have left the profession, which is leaving dangerous levels of staffing. There are 47,000 vacancies for nurses.
Also factor in the student debt they start off with, before paying rent food etc

 

[A1X]

I suspect those complaining will be much happier once it’s been flogged to the US and rebranded “Trump Health” with all strikes banned.

 

[Peacehaven Wild Kids]

If they can afford to strike and have a day watching Loose Women or whatever without pay, then they can't be that badly off. My older sister is a nurse and refused to strike because she cares very deeply for her patients.

My wife is a nurse and I find your comment insulting/idiotic/trolling (although I’m not sure which at the moment)

I trained for 4 WEEKS to do my job and I earn more than a nurse, that doesn’t sit right with me if I’m honest.

 

[The Clamp]

It’s not all about pay. Nurses are striking for the safety of patients.

Are the nurses who refuse to strike going to turn down any pay increase offered? I hope they all acknowledge who took the hit and the risk , if this strike results in a pay improvement.

Anyway, I’m behind those that are striking and understand why those not striking are not joining in.

Regardless of my opinion, nurses do a bloody fantastic job and I hope they get the support they want and need.

Massive respect to nurses from me.