If the US started a system like the NHS in the UK should nurses expect a cut in pay

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I believe that in the UK the nurses who work in the NHS get paid less than their US counterparts.

Honestly, I would be looking at the $$$s after a pay and not thinking "at least won't have to pay for a hospital bill". My attitude would change if I did get a bill of course.

I'm confident that the nurses in the US making over $100,000yr even if they did have medical conditions that would benefit from a NHS system would also balk at a cut in pay.

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Specializes in Mental Health, Gerontology, Palliative.
11 hours ago, GrumpyRN said:

Yes, life saving stuff gets done immediately, life enhancing stuff has to wait - better than not getting any treatment at all because you can't afford it or your insurance denies it.

Curious what the general public knows about medical staff? What criteria would they use to pick say, a surgeon? As an example, Harold Shipman was loved by his patients who all thought he was a great doctor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Shipman

Rubbish!

Again rubbish!

And there was me wondering what all those patients were doing on things like Rivaroxiban and all these other pills.

I agree.

Grumpy

❤️❤️❤️ Well said

Its amazing how often those claiming to know all about the single payer systems really dont seem to have an honest clue

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Specializes in Mental Health, Gerontology, Palliative.
20 hours ago, OUxPhys said:

...

As I said before it's unfortunate about the unions protecting the lazy workers. That's the one thing I hate, but, I like the protection of not being fired, punished, or written up for something frivolous.

Me too. Our union provides indemnity insurance as well.

I dont know if I have the term right "work at will" states where an employer can let someone go with no notice would not be tolerated here. It can be a PITA when the person is a twatwaffle who should be fired however there are protections for employees who for example make a mistake, and end up getting fired for it

For example, my mum died about a month after my BIL, both had cancer. I went back to work too early and made a drug error. I realised as soon as I had done it, and took all the appropriate steps to make sure there was no harm caused to the paitent, owned up to management and wrote a reflection on the situation because it was a crappy situation entirely of my own making and I figured I could learn from it.

Guess what didn't happen. I didn't get fired for my mistake. My boss encouraged me to take some more time off work which I did and asked me to write a reflection on the situation (which I had already done).

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Specializes in Emergency Department.

I'm going to take this back a step and ask the OP a question;

Why would you expect a pay cut? It would be a NATIONAL system, or perhaps the way the US is set up it could be organised at state level.

You have the armed forces which are paid for from central government don't you? I am not talking about the VA, something I know nothing about, but the actual soldiers, sailors, air-force etc. Surely they are paid the same regardless of where they happen to be stationed? Does a high cost state pay the forces more money than a low cost state?

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3 hours ago, GrumpyRN said:

I'm going to take this back a step and ask the OP a question;

Why would you expect a pay cut? It would be a NATIONAL system, or perhaps the way the US is set up it could be organised at state level.

You have the armed forces which are paid for from central government don't you? I am not talking about the VA, something I know nothing about, but the actual soldiers, sailors, air-force etc. Surely they are paid the same regardless of where they happen to be stationed? Does a high cost state pay the forces more money than a low cost state?

Military members are paid the same, but receive a locality based housing allowance and a family size based food allowance in order to average things out. Federal employees such as VA get a locality adjusted pay scale to compensate for differentiated cost of living.

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Specializes in School Nursing.

I was told by a former UK nurse that nurses are not nearly as respected in the UK than they are in the USA. Almost looked down upon, like some here look down upon blue collar/trades rather than 'professional'. (I'm not saying I agree with looking down upon trades and blue collar work- just relaying how many in the UK look at nursing as a career choice.)..

It appears the pay they receive there reflects that.

I don't think a country this big could do a system like they have in the UK. I think states might be able to independently, but that will take a huge change.. one that states seem to be unwilling to tackle.

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Specializes in Non judgmental advisor.
9 hours ago, lifelearningrn said:

I was told by a former UK nurse that nurses are not nearly as respected in the UK than they are in the USA. Almost looked down upon, like some here look down upon blue collar/trades rather than 'professional'.

I agree with this statement, In terms of how its perceived in the UK, or atleast my personal experience was this during my stay there working in the lovely northern Ireland,

One memorable moment was when I tried to have a discussion about differences in nursing across the pond with with someone while there, who then finalized the discussion with the following statement “That’s a lot of money to pay for people who just wipe [you know what]”, well if course I just shrugged it off, I really enjoyed working overthere Overall, beautiful country ?

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