Moan Moan Grumpy Fed Up Angry

Silverdragon102, BSN · Jul 2, 2005

Feel very angry and fed up with the way management have come down on us like a ton of bricks because of the overspend in NHS. When will they realise that there isn't enought money going to the NHS and that's wahy we cant make ends meet.
My ward have been told that we have to cut our staffing levels to 5 in the morning, 4 in the afternoon and 3 in the night. Which we are accomodating because we have no choice now they tell us that we can only book 29 agency shifts per month. Now this is all fair and good except we need to book that many agency staff in a week because of staff sickness,study time,vacancies and maternity leave.
State of play is
4 staff on long term sick
1 staff on matty leave
1 staff on Study days at least
4 job vacancies
2 annual leave
3 night duty
Which with the vacancies alone leave us 20 shifts short per week. We have been told to rally the staff but what is being forgotten is that the staff who are rallying are the staff that dont have long term sick, and that we are giving out best now.
What can we do to let people know that we are not mathamaticians but even we can work out that the remaining staff dont make the numbers up.
Things can only get worse :angryfire
Oh yes I forgot to add that if I stay to cover the ward because no trained staff turned in then I will be paid at 'D' grade for that pleasure when I am an 'F' grade. :chuckle

Kay

So sorry your having a rough time at work. Not sure if they can get away with paying you a D instead of F Have you had a chat with the union?

On the bright side atleast you will be leaving it all behind in hopefully 6-8 months time :)

uk_nurse · Jul 2, 2005

My ward have been told that we have to cut our staffing levels to 5 in the morning, 4 in the afternoon and 3 in the night.
wow! compared to our ward those levels are Fantastic! we have 2 or 3 if we are lucky, trained staff and one HCA who sometimes goes between 2 wards. That is for the whole day as we do 14hr shifts. At night time there is only 2 trained staff and again 1 HCA between 2 wards. Trying to get bank staff our ward manager avoids it at all costs. our ward is 23 bedded. Im a 'D' grade and at times have to do 'F' grade and run the ward as there can be 2 'D' grades on and im the most experienced (i have only been qualified for just over 2 yrs) and i only get 'D' grade pay for doing the job of a ' F' grade. i am not interested in becoming an 'E' grade as there is no support on our ward due to lack of staff.
There are 7 staff on mat leave , me included and many go off sick due to stress, tiredness etc. I just cant see why the Government dont realise the reasons behind the sickness of the nursing profession. Its looking at them in the face. It has been said in the news that nurses are the worse profession in taking more sick time off compared to other professions such as teachers and fire service.
It would be good for Tony Blair to become a nurse for a month and see what we are all talking about........ :rotfl:

ann h · Jul 2, 2005

We are all feeling the same about agenda for chage I have only come out at a 5

Bacuse our budget is in the same state everything from a catheter to a needle has a price by the side of it so we no how much we are spending.

lsunurse · Jul 3, 2005

Feel very angry and fed up with the way management have come down on us like a ton of bricks because of the overspend in NHS. When will they realise that there isn't enought money going to the NHS and that's wahy we cant make ends meet.
My ward have been told that we have to cut our staffing levels to 5 in the morning, 4 in the afternoon and 3 in the night. Which we are accomodating because we have no choice now they tell us that we can only book 29 agency shifts per month. Now this is all fair and good except we need to book that many agency staff in a week because of staff sickness,study time,vacancies and maternity leave.
State of play is
4 staff on long term sick
1 staff on matty leave
1 staff on Study days at least
4 job vacancies
2 annual leave
3 night duty
Which with the vacancies alone leave us 20 shifts short per week. We have been told to rally the staff but what is being forgotten is that the staff who are rallying are the staff that dont have long term sick, and that we are giving out best now.
What can we do to let people know that we are not mathamaticians but even we can work out that the remaining staff dont make the numbers up.
Things can only get worse :angryfire
Oh yes I forgot to add that if I stay to cover the ward because no trained staff turned in then I will be paid at 'D' grade for that pleasure when I am an 'F' grade. :chuckle

I plan to move to london in about three years. will things be better by then?

Silverdragon102, BSN · Jul 3, 2005

I plan to move to london in about three years. will things be better by then?

doubt it :angryfire

letina · Jul 3, 2005

There's a lot of cost-cutting going on in our area too. Our Trust has just hired a team of 'Management Consultants' to shadow us Community Nurses to see how we manage our time. They're trying to tell us it's to find ways of improving the system, they must think we were born yesterday. A lot of our nurses are on temporary contracts so we're thinking they won't be renewed if these guys have anything to do with it. So anyway, we have a plan - whoever is 'chosen' to be shadowed, we are gonna take them to the most minging smelly houses, that'll spoil their nice fancy suits :chuckle

madwife2002, BSN, RN · Jul 3, 2005

My ward have been told that we have to cut our staffing levels to 5 in the morning, 4 in the afternoon and 3 in the night.
wow! compared to our ward those levels are Fantastic! we have 2 or 3 if we are lucky, trained staff and one HCA who sometimes goes between 2 wards. That is for the whole day as we do 14hr shifts. At night time there is only 2 trained staff and again 1 HCA between 2 wards. Trying to get bank staff our ward manager avoids it at all costs. our ward is 23 bedded. Im a 'D' grade and at times have to do 'F' grade and run the ward as there can be 2 'D' grades on and im the most experienced (i have only been qualified for just over 2 yrs) and i only get 'D' grade pay for doing the job of a ' F' grade. i am not interested in becoming an 'E' grade as there is no support on our ward due to lack of staff.
There are 7 staff on mat leave , me included and many go off sick due to stress, tiredness etc. I just cant see why the Government dont realise the reasons behind the sickness of the nursing profession. Its looking at them in the face. It has been said in the news that nurses are the worse profession in taking more sick time off compared to other professions such as teachers and fire service.
It would be good for Tony Blair to become a nurse for a month and see what we are all talking about........ :rotfl:
God i didn't realise things were so bad elsewhere. The problem we have with our ward is that we are stroke rehab so no mobile patients and as they are on the ward for rehab we have to do lots of hoisting and manual handling which takes 2 per patient. The Qualified staff which hopefully we have 2 per shift will have daily patients and service meetings and can be off the ward for hours.

suehp · Jul 3, 2005

It is just as bad in the private sector - I get no supernumary time now to do my paperwork - 5 hours a week if I am lucky. OUr staffing ratios are different to the NHS as we only ever have one trained nurse on at a time for 26 reisdents. Our numbers have been cut to 1 trained 4 c/a's in the am, 1 trained and 3 c/a's in the afternoon and evening and one trained and one c/a at night...and if I have any empty bed I am expected to cut from that too. We arent allowed agency staff whatsoever only in extreme circumstances and it must be at least 2 months since we last had agency. If there is a shortfall i usually have to do it. It is no uncommon for me to have to do a 10 hour day shift and then to be called back to do a 12 hour shift at no notice. Recently my colleague had to do a 12 day then do a sleep in night (to which she got about 3 hrs sleep) and then do a 8 hour shift.

I know it s a differnet ball game in the private sector a little - but had to have a moan too - thankfully I will be out of this particular crap in a couple of months :uhoh3:

expatnurse · Jul 3, 2005

I plan to move to london in about three years. will things be better by then?

In the area you want to work in the staffing level is better. But I fear in the adult side it won't get better anytime soon. :balloons:

lsunurse · Jul 3, 2005

In the area you want to work in the staffing level is better. But I fear in the adult side it won't get better anytime soon. :balloons:

Things won't be as bad for you in the US :)

Laurlaur · Jul 7, 2005

I am sick and tired of the NHS!!!!!! We've had many many complaints as so many operations have been delayed for several days.....we're the ones on the wards that have to face the angry families!! Short staffed (with maternity leave not covered), many staff on sick leave too. I've just done a 14 stretch of day and night shifts with one day off...I'm shattered and fed up with it....the only thing that keeps me there is my love of nursing but not all of the crap that goes with it!!! Sorry for the rant! No wonder the NHS is losing nurses like there's no tomorrow..who wants to work for an organisation like this? That gets slated in the media every five minutes and staff morale at an all time low.......