Valuing people we need

We need specialist nurses as we need specialist doctors. My DD is a specialist oncology nurse who has a degree and a lot of extra training in cancer.
She says the care assistants are vital to the general nursing and should be paid more and there should be more of them.
We can look to this government to see why there aren't enough nurses or care assistants.

Is that bed tidying, general comfort, reassuring presence not the role of the care staff on a ward?

Developments in medicine and treatments & the law have changed the working day for everyone in the medical/ hospital world. Roles have evolved and new ones added. I have a good friend who was a theatre technician.... his job would not have existed before the complex machinery etc existed to help increase life expectancy during complex surgery.
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PECS

Nurses take on more medical responsibilities than in the past and current treatments, technology used etc is more complex.

I think that's an unfortunate development in some ways. Nurses can't do everything, and it's difficult for them to give the level of nursing care they used to give, while also taking on many of the duties previously performed by junior doctors.

It's also hard on patients who are often left ringing bells in vain because nurses are rushed off their feet doing six million other things.

I do think there's a place for old style general nursing care in our hospitals as well as more specialised nursing care, but that's probably a different debate.

Sadly I think it’ll never change. Unfortunately.

Nurses take on more medical responsibilities than in the past and current treatments, technology used etc is more complex.

Why should getting a degree preclude caring capable people from nursing? ?‍♀️..... there's a free bursary...and many different entry routes ( secondment from your nhs trust....or training to be a nursing associate then topping up later to become fully qualified....if you want to be a nurse in 2022 then you can be if you apply yourself.

Lyng17

I was a medical secretary on band 4 and always thought that HCAs should be paid more than me for the work they do. Never understood why nurses need degrees. I have older friends who are highly skilled nurses without degrees. Surely this requirement precludes a lot of caring, capable people from nursing.

I agree.

I've always been very aware that there are thousands of people involved in everything I do.

Almost every single one of them will be earning minimum wage... Less than a decent living wage.

The process that goes towards the simple act of wiping my own bottom is staggering. People involved in recycling the materiels, working in the factories, packaging, delivery, shelf stacking, working the till, taking away the waste, minting the roads that got the products out... It can go on infinitely

We need each other, we should value each other

We need unpaid family/parent/spouse carers. They are rarely acknowledged and get paid nothing.

Lyng17

I was a medical secretary on band 4 and always thought that HCAs should be paid more than me for the work they do. Never understood why nurses need degrees. I have older friends who are highly skilled nurses without degrees. Surely this requirement precludes a lot of caring, capable people from nursing.

Like it...or like it not , nursing has changed ....as have most professions over the years.... in order to progress ...you need a degree and often a post graduate qualification.... what can't you understand? What do you think nurses do these days? .... if you have worked as a medical secretary you will know that nurses are accountable professionals in a leadership role ?‍♀️

I was a medical secretary on band 4 and always thought that HCAs should be paid more than me for the work they do. Never understood why nurses need degrees. I have older friends who are highly skilled nurses without degrees. Surely this requirement precludes a lot of caring, capable people from nursing.

I'd like to think the days of fawning over celebrities who put themselves out in the public domain are coming to an end.

I'd love for that to be true.

Poppyred

LOUISA1523 My daughter? What does she have to do with this conversation??

? I thought you said your DD was a HCA ... apologies

LOUISA1523 My daughter? What does she have to do with this conversation??

@poppyred I don't get your point? ?.... we are living in 2022 .... all nurses need degrees to qualify.... I myself didn't.... but I soon found that education was the only way to progress.... so i went for jobs which would allow me to progress and pay me to gain an honours degree and a masters ( as most advanced specialist nurses do) .... maybe your daughter could look to progress within the NHS?

I’m not.
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“I am determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may find myself. For I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness is determined not by our circumstance but by our disposition.” – Martha Washington

Germanshepherdsmum

No need to be so gratuitously unpleasant to me Maizie. Your post shows that you nothing about me or my values.

I have read enough of your posts to have formed a fair idea.

And I'm in Angela Rayner mode today.

Know nothing …

No need to be so gratuitously unpleasant to me Maizie. Your post shows that you nothing about me or my values.

PECS I did say that the employers are the ones who fix the pay. But we can all show that we value people and what they do for us even if we can’t increase their pay.

PECS

Germanshephersmum you cannot pay increasesd fuel bills with courteous behaviour

GSM is fine. She's worked her way up out of poverty and pulled the ladder up behind her...

(All by smiling nicely and saying 'please' and 'thank you' it seems )

Yes MaizieD I do.

MaizieD

I think that it's all just a lot of hot air from posters when they say they value certain sectors, bewail their lack of status and income and then throw their hands up in horror at the thought of trade unions, organisations developed to fight for recognition and pay, actually having iny influence in running the country.

I know that no-one has done it yet but I've been on enough Politics discussions about the 1970s to know just how many posts react to 'the unions'.

Strangely enough the same people seem perfectly happy with millionaires and business leaders running the country who have no interest whatsoever in recognising the true economic and practical worth of these vital workers...

Well said. We need stronger unions.

And we're footling around worrying about what an extras few pounds a week might do for these workers while the wife of our Chancellor, who has just increased their tax burden, forced an unasked for 'loan' on the populace and failed to offer any real help for people in distress, is paying our Treasury annually more than many people earn in one year in order to minimise the tax she pays on her enormous wealth.

Doesn't anyone find this very strange?

Germanshephersmum you cannot pay increasesd fuel bills with courteous behaviour