Originally Posted by lilmisslee84
Hiya,
I am about to qualify in the Uk and have yet to watch sicko. What I can tell you tho is that the grass is not necessarily greener here. In fact most uk people believe we are heading for an 'american' way of healthcare. The NHS is a great ideal, but its not working anymore, there are HUGE freezes for jobs over here,and there were many redundancies in the last year as the hospitals were millions (if not billions) in debt so they r constantly shutting wards down adn making nurses redundant.
no job freezes here anymore ... also a great deal of the 'redundancies' in the NHS have been paper ones ... that would be the people whose jobs disappeared but weren't actually made redundant as they were redeployed into vacant posts ...
that would be the peopel who were made redundant by one trust , because the service moved to another trust or to a contractor funded by another trust ( e.g. acute trust based elderly long stay and slow stream rehabwards closed, and the PCTs commission the service from a private contractor or from the local authority through partnership working creating job opportunities for displaced staff... )
the trust i work for cut several hundred jobs from the payroll, but no one was actually made redundant although a small proportion resigned and moved elsewhere rather than be redeployed...
people seem to think there is still a 'jobs freeze' because the classifieds in NT and NS are still pretty bare - the rates charged for advertising in those alledged journals vs the rates NHSjobs charge for advertising on the website and handling a significant part of the application process via their on line applications system make it a no-brainer who to use
- wages over here start at £19,000 - £23,000 (Approx $38,000 - $46,000)
incorrect the basic wage of a new entrant o band 5 is 19 454 GBP EXCLUDING unsocial hours payments.
the basic salary at the top of band 5 is 25 175 again EXLCUDING unsocial hours payments
I work as a Staff Nurse on an Acute Assessment Unit i am current paid as a band 5 redeployed from a band 6 Emergency department Senior Staff Nurse role ( and on transitional points becasue the role was a whitley E that 'erroneously' ( in the eyes of senior management ) got banded as 6 so was covered by the transitional points) and earn 21 971 GBP basic pay protected to 22 315 GBP (band 6 transitional point) this year i will earn over 27 000 gbp working a rotating shift pattern including roughly 3 in 8 weekends and 1 in 5 point something nights with insignificant contribution to unsocial hours payments from weekday non-night shifts ( as we finsih day shift at at 2010hrs) , no 'twilght' or 'half -night' shifts and little or no overtiem or bank working
I will also have had over 7 weeks of paid annual leave ( 29'days' *7.5 hrs A/L and 8 'days' * 7.5 hrs public holidays)
when i work nights and on saturday i get 1.3 * my basic hourly rate , if i were to do a twilight shift and more than half the shift was after 2000 hours i get paid the whole sihft at 1.3 * basic ( for instance a 1430 - 0230 twilight with an unpaid 20 min or 30 min break taken before 2000 hours would attract the whole shift being paid at 1.3 * basic)
when i work on a sunday or a public holiday i get paid 1.6 * m,y basic rate
and rises very slightly unless you go right to the top which i think is still only £50,000 ($90,000)
band 6 BASIC salaries for team leaders or the lower end of Nurse practitioner / nurse specialist roles are 23 230 to 31469 gbp
band 7 Basic salairies for unit nurse managers, nurse specialists are 28 036 to 36 962
band 8a which is the typical salaries for Nurse Manager / Matron , Service Manager or some Specialist Nurse / Nurse clinician roles are 35 760 to 42 912 , above that are senior management roles although there are some Consultant Nurse roles advertied in 8b/ 8c
the top point in AFC band 9 is 89 723 GBP - Board levle Directors of Nursing may be paid more as executive director salaries within the NHS are outside AFC
- housing prices are really high here, a 2-3 bedroom would cost approx £250,000 ($500,000)
3 bedroom hourse for well under 100 000 in Yorkshire and the Northwest , really nice three bedroom houses somewhere between 120 - 160 000
and our houses are not like american ones, majority only have one bathroom
incorrect . many 3 bed houses built in the past 15 or so years have had 2 bathrooms and the building regulations mandate a toilet on each loor of a 2 level house and on 2 of 3 for 3 levle houses 9 although many are built with toilets on all three ( usually bathrooms on 1st and 2nd floors and a toilet on the ground )
the house my parents brought 30 years ago have a toilet on the ground floor and bathroom upstairs ...
if we are talking aobut the older housing stock you have to remember that most pre WW2 houses in the Uk are fully brick or stone built including interior walls which makes significant interior alteration extremely expensive vs the studwork contruction methods used in the USA.
with toilet and there isn't much cupboard space
define isn't much cupboard space, the house i live in at present is a relatively small 2 1/2 - 3 bedroom sei detatched and has a large under stairs cupboard, a large tank cupboard/ drying room and built in wardrobes in the largest bedroom
-Taxes over here are 22% of your wages,
see above, remember you tax free allowance, any tax credits etc, NI rebate and tax offset on pension contributions, tax offest on childcare schemes funded through salary sacrifice ...
and if you have a 2nd job or work for an agency you will be taxed even more from those wages, about 40%
incorrect
-theres is no nurse
atient ratio here (only on hdu and icu), many wards have 1 nurse per 8 to 12 patients, on nightshift there will be just 2nurses and an assistant to 30+patients,
plus of course the Site practitioner any support team s/he has resident full shift memdicla cover upto Specialist registrar ( many of whom have more experience that newly board certified attendings i nthe US)
-study days have to be done in your own time
incorrect
-there is a high MRSA and CDiff levels here,
define 'high' ...
-nursing here has taken a lot of work the doctors used to do but it is not reflected in the pay
in what sense - those nurse who have a role which has specifically replaced medical reoles are paid for the role , other 'doctor's jobs that nurses now do' are things which US nurses may well consider to be core nursing roles such as gaining IV access
no you don't - or do you mean 'council tax' which is the local authorieis s directly collected tax and is generally around 1000 gbp /year and pays for roadside rubbish collection, paid professional Fire services ... as well as roads and public works stuff, social services , schools, libraries, sports facilities, community facilities etc...
and car tax aswell on top of everything else your paying out
top rate less than 300 gbp / year - most peopel are paying 100 - 200 gbp yr dpending on the engine size emissions rating
Would you like to comment?
and it aint gonna get any better soon, a lot of uk nurses are moving to usa or australia
