I love working in the NHS because..........................

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There has been quite a bit of negativity about the NHS and working in the UK on this forum recently so instead of another thread saying how bad things are and how much we hate our co-workers I thought it would be nice to have a more positive thread. I'll start

I loved my job because:

I am a nurse practitioner in general surgery and recently I put a bid together to support a more formalised pre-assessment service, I took it to my senior managers who supported it and took it to the trust board. I have recieved confirmation today that it is a project that will be supported and funded by my trust.

There is money there you just have to try to put together a good case to access it.

Specializes in RN, BSN, CHDN.
i dont want rich quick

i just want a pool

actually i have one but its full of frogs

And you'll get one, a very nice one. Train up your hubby to keep it clean they go green here too lol.

Specializes in med/surg.

I loved my NHS job which was on an acuten medical ward. It was busy but the nurses I worked with were really facntastic.

However as the new budget year grew closer staffing levels fell to quite frankly dangerous levels. we were not allowed agency to cover sickness or anything else in all honetly. I found a job closer to my home, in the private sector & left. It was in the nick of time. The day I started my new job my old NHS hospital put up it's staff car park fees (YES THEY ACTUALLY CHARGE STAFF TO PARK AT WORK!!!!) from 30p (50-55cents approx) to £1 (95 cents approx) per day.

Now I've learned that 3 wards have closed there - 1 acute surgical, the stroke unit & a care of the elderly ward. Guess which ward will be taking the briunt of the latter 2 closers with inadequate staff.......... yup....the ward I just left!!!!

It makes me mad because that hospital had fantasic nurses but the management treat them with such contempt!! I'm glad I left but I'm sorry to, sorry for the peope I left behind.

Some may say I should feel guilty for leaving but who would give me a medal for staying?? I'd more than likely be part of a law suit for inadeqaute care due to lack of staffing! At least my place may have gone to some newly qualified nurse who would not have been able to get a job any other place!

I know this thread should be about how good it is to work in the NHS &b there are TRULY fantastic nurses doing just so but I for one could not work in a place where managers treat staff soooooooooooooo very badly while their own pockets (& parking spaces) are well lined!!!

& don't EVEN get me started on the advertised wage for the new head of the RCN or the increase in the NMC/RCN fees!!! When the average staff nurse can't even afford a mortgage in 95% of the UK!!!!

Specializes in Operating room and Trauma.

Sorry to hear about you situation Chassie 2 i hope your future endeavors will be more sucessfull. Allow me to say this is what i term as dedication making you poor( can be financial emtional etc) .

I have always advocated to being an agent for change should the situation allow you to do that.(dont mean to be patronising)

Allow me to share chaps. I come from South Africa and have work in the depts of poverty. That does not get me down i am a christian believer and i think there will change for the good one day. The question why the USA. I work for a private company in the UK that does alot of rehab programs in Zambia ( buliding creches and soup clinics for kids etc). We travel out twice a year to Luanda for charity work. Our company has a head office in the USA(not going to mention where).

My aim God willing is to finish my contract at my chosen hosp in California and do lobbying from within the USA. There are alot of multinationals over there that get huge tax incentives for various donations that they make especially with Africa on the agenda.

As the Americans say you have to network.I view this as my chosen path in life coupled with teaching and my other half shares in this passion. I guess i am not after the large SUV and swimming pools those do come in handy at some point but not my main focus.

I am not anti NHS i just feel that the goodwill of many of my former coll are being eroded and that saddens me. I still believe in the fundamentals of nursing.

I have stepped out of that frenzy and gotten hold of myself.

PLATO 353

" to get fullfllment out of life try and change your job every 10 years...."

sailor turned MD 2001

Specializes in renal,peritoneal dialysis, medicine.
I loved my NHS job which was on an acuten medical ward. It was busy but the nurses I worked with were really facntastic.

However as the new budget year grew closer staffing levels fell to quite frankly dangerous levels. we were not allowed agency to cover sickness or anything else in all honetly. I found a job closer to my home, in the private sector & left. It was in the nick of time. The day I started my new job my old NHS hospital put up it's staff car park fees (YES THEY ACTUALLY CHARGE STAFF TO PARK AT WORK!!!!) from 30p (50-55cents approx) to £1 (95 cents approx) per day.

Now I've learned that 3 wards have closed there - 1 acute surgical, the stroke unit & a care of the elderly ward. Guess which ward will be taking the briunt of the latter 2 closers with inadequate staff.......... yup....the ward I just left!!!!

It makes me mad because that hospital had fantasic nurses but the management treat them with such contempt!! I'm glad I left but I'm sorry to, sorry for the peope I left behind.

Some may say I should feel guilty for leaving but who would give me a medal for staying?? I'd more than likely be part of a law suit for inadeqaute care due to lack of staffing! At least my place may have gone to some newly qualified nurse who would not have been able to get a job any other place!

I know this thread should be about how good it is to work in the NHS &b there are TRULY fantastic nurses doing just so but I for one could not work in a place where managers treat staff soooooooooooooo very badly while their own pockets (& parking spaces) are well lined!!!

& don't EVEN get me started on the advertised wage for the new head of the RCN or the increase in the NMC/RCN fees!!! When the average staff nurse can't even afford a mortgage in 95% of the UK!!!!

Its 10 pounds a year for the staff car park but as its 100 spaces short you often end up in the public car park which is 2 pounds, if you dont pay its a 40 pound fine or a clamp, if you dont pay the fine they dock it from your wages im told!!!! which sounds illegal!

i know what you mean about agency we have been stopped having people from the nursing bank, which is what the probelm is, especially as people are on holiday.

Specializes in med/surg.

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However as the new budget year grew closer staffing levels fell to quite frankly dangerous levels. we were not allowed agency to cover sickness or anything else in all honetly. I found a job closer to my home, in the private sector & left. It was in the nick of time. The day I started my new job my old NHS hospital put up it's staff car park fees (YES THEY ACTUALLY CHARGE STAFF TO PARK AT WORK!!!!) from 30p (50-55cents approx) to £1 (95 cents approx) per day.

Just realised my calculations were wrong - should not have done this post shift!! £1 is almost $2 now!

The parking permit I paid for the past year I think has cost me £48 (to park in NHS grounds), if all the spaces for staff are full, you have to park in visitors spaces and pay the extra. Plus if your child is sick on the ward, you have to pay up to £8 a day to park to be with them, (you're exempt if you're on benefits). We are constantly being asked if there are parking permits they can use. I think it's quite disgusting that a) parents of sick children have to pay to be with them and b) we have to pay to come to work and do a job. They say the money goes towards patient care but somehow I just don't buy that one.

ok, so i dont work in the nhs anymore, but when i did it was in a small rural hospital, where the majority of the staff helped each other and worked as a team. i always thought that there were always nurses who got positions in mangement and then promptly forgot about where they came from.

yes i hated the days when you didnt stop, because someone had called in sick and they wouldnt call to ask anyone else to come in because that would cost money.

theres always going to be the staff that are put upon by the powers that be,,,,,,and the nurses will always rally round and try to give the best care that they can, because theres no-one else to do it.

i came to the usa because i wanted something different, not just because of the nursing but a different lifestyle. theres a lot thats done better in the uk, but the uk nurses just dont realise it.

its a pity that more uk nurses dont post here, and not just the majority of us who have left or are leaving.

Well...........After reading the majority of these threads......I feel truly sick! I start nursing in 3 weeks time. I've handed my notice in with my current employer as a Marketing Executive!

Although I had done my research.......these comments have made me very apprehensive! I have spoken to a large number of nurses and about 80% of them enjoyed nursing. And although they had a few horror stories....they were nothing compared to this!

Unfortunately mableUk..... the thread has turned into ' What is possibly the worst that could happen in the Nhs'. I'm glad your comments have kept me feeling slightly positive :)

I suppose all I can hope is that my experience is more positive and I will take note of all points mentioned....and hope the majority of them don't happen to me!!!!!

Specializes in renal,peritoneal dialysis, medicine.

youve got to bear in mind that most on here are leaving the nhs so dont feel downhearted

we will all be on here in a few months running down the USA system, thats the nature of humans im afraid

Specializes in RN, BSN, CHDN.
Well...........After reading the majority of these threads......I feel truly sick! I start nursing in 3 weeks time. I've handed my notice in with my current employer as a Marketing Executive!

Although I had done my research.......these comments have made me very apprehensive! I have spoken to a large number of nurses and about 80% of them enjoyed nursing. And although they had a few horror stories....they were nothing compared to this!

Unfortunately mableUk..... the thread has turned into ' What is possibly the worst that could happen in the Nhs'. I'm glad your comments have kept me feeling slightly positive :)

I suppose all I can hope is that my experience is more positive and I will take note of all points mentioned....and hope the majority of them don't happen to me!!!!!

Denise, the job is going ot be what you make it. Nursing is a hard job and always has been. The money is not great for what you do. The hours are long and hard and you hardly ever get a break, you never leave on time. Your feet ache and your back hurts. You get sick to death of the patients, their friends and their meaningful others. You can get covered in bodily fluids and sometimes the smells knock you sick to your stomach. Management treat you like the hired hand and the universities well they teach you how in a real world you would nurse, they are all next to useless.

Nothing was different 15 or 20 years ago it was just the same but then you dare not moan and complain you got on with it and then you would smile and laugh throught because your expectations when you came into nursing were that it was a hard job.

I worked for the NHS for 17 years and boy did work from day one but I enjoyed what I did and I expected it to be hard work. But I promise you I smiled everday and I laughed through the hard times. I love the patients and I never resented ever looking after them and making their life better.

So Denise go into nursing with an open heart and mind-love the job and smile through the hard times. I am not unique there are others out there who have the passion and the dedication.

I came to the US not to leave the NHS I came because my family live over here, nursing was the tool to bring me here. My job in the uK didnt want me to leave and the senior nurse of the hospital asked me to take a career break-we all know I would never return but I reckon that is the best compliment I will ever recieve.

Thank you for being so honest. I am looking forward to it, but Im still terrified. Sure I'll get there!

I was a holiday rep for a season a few years ago. I worked from 8a.m. till 2 the following morning without any break. I had 17 properties to visit daily. I was hit 4 times by abusive guests. I dealt with 3 deaths on my properties. I had 3 caberets, a bar crawl, party night, and never had a day or night off for 2 and a half months. We were so short staffed that i did the job of 5 people. I had lots of hospital visits to do at the end of every night. I had to walk to and from work 3 miles each way in the blazing heat....then at least 5 miles around all the hotels because they wouldn't supply me with a bike or car. I would work all day, then do aiport duties all night, then with no sleep work the whole of the following next day!

My friend on the other hand went with the same company but to a different resort. She got every afternoon off for siesta, every night off except one, only had airport duty one day, but no nights, got a car and only had 5 properties. She loved it and is still there now.

Is this not like the NHS? It depends where you are/Hospital/Area??

My friend turned round to me and said she couldn't believe i had been so negative!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for your feedback tho. x

Specializes in RN, BSN, CHDN.

My pleasure Denise-yep sounds like you've already experienced just what nursing can be like lol. Remember no matter how hard you work-at least your not lying in that bed frightened because you have just been told that your worse nightmare has happened and you either have to have major surgery or they are not going to do anything as it is too late!!

You get to go home and come back and fight another day

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