oreo75

I was redeployed 6 months ago & am not happy in my current post, I am starting to think about going down a band, but was wondering about pay. Do you end up going to the bottom of the lower band or do you end up being moved across or at the top of the banding depending on where you are on the pay scale. Don't want to start asking this question at work, as I am still thinking about what to do. I hope this has made sense.

I just wondered how many patients other nurses in the uk are expected to look after on a shift? I'm not so much interested in ItU but more wards. I feel our nurse to patient ratio is unsafe, if I have patients I look after 14 on a shift. I work on a busy orthopedic ward, which is trauma, so a high percentage of elderly confused sick patients. Other wards I have worked your usual is 8 patients but when you are short shift (maybe about once a month) you may have a work load like this but this is every shift. There is a reason behind this, & I have on several occassion address the nurse/ patient ratio to the ward manager, where I've been told we used to do it like that but we don't have the staff to have few patients, which I can see that point but rather then covering with band 5 bank staff we are covering the shift with band 2 band staff & not just using band 2 when we cant' get band 5 cover. Back to my reason for posting, today came on shift my ward manager was on so I didn't have to be in charge (I'm one of the ward sisters) I was allocated my 14 patients the other nurse on is newly qualifed, has a pin & this is her 3rd week on the ward & 1st week not being supernumery. The ward manager then says this am that she has a meeting & I have to oversee the other nurse as well as look after my own patients, which 2 of which were sick, plus 2 discharges & 1 admission. One of the patients came back infected so had to be transfered to the infection control ward, which the other nurse didn't know what to do, so rather than have the time to show her what needs to be done, I had to sort it out. So in reality I didn't document on the other 14 patients I was in effect looking after them. This is an awful day, but quite normal for the ward. I love being a sister & have been in post between this ward & my last ward where I was acting for a year now, but I can't cope with the patient ratio, & feel like I'm giving poor care & poor standards of documentation & am worried for my career. These ratios might be the normal in many places & need to know if maybe I can't cope with nursing any more. Also if anyone has advice on how to handle this situation then I'd be grateful.

If you are planning to work as a HCA while doing your training try & not let the uni know you are doing this or planning to, as it's something that is looked down upon. For reference's I'd be looking to use ward managers from your placements. When I was a student, it was really looked down upon by the tutors from the university, the uni know I was working & everytime I saw my tutor it was mentioned, but without doing it I couldn't of made it to the end of the course. I think working as a HCA is a good idea as you then know what it's like to be a hca, you will gain extra skills & knowledge & you earn money, you need to make sure you get the balance right.

In the hospital where I work if they come as as a emergency or elective surgical patient they go to a dedicated MRSA ward (which treats, surgical, orthopaedic, ob-gynae), if they have a past history of MRSA. If they have been able to obtain 3 clear swabs over the previous year from being on the MRSA cohort ward or from clinics, then they would be admitted to which ward was most suited to there needs.

Sometimes you might need to have your manager complete paperwork before you go though the gateway, so it's not as automatic as it seems. The trust I work at has this system, I'm in the process of trying to get my old manager to complete the paperwork, so I can get the back pay I'm due.

Congratulations to everyone, keep phoning the NMC & chasing them up. I don't know if it does help but at least you know what is happening

I'm handing in my notice tomorrow but I'm so worried about doing it. As I didn't tell anyone on the ward that I had gone for another job. I even had my apprisal 10 days & didn't say anything. I'm at present acting up into a band 6 post & have managed to secure a permanent band 6 on another ward, I feel guilty about going as the ward manager keeps says about when she can have me in a permanent post but at the end of the day it isn't definite that I'd get the job & I don't feel that she is a very good manager. Just trying to find an excuse as to why I'm leaving now.

I was in my first job for a year, I then moved to a cohort ward dealing with every speciality as I saw it was an opportunity to gain experience with everything to help me move to a sister post. I'd say you need to have at least 6 months of working before having time out so you have time to consolidate your skills but the longer the better.

I do not know how many cases there have been due to cannulas but someone is just as just as much risk of developing a MRSA bacterima as from a cannula as from a central line because this a point of access for bacteria which maybe isn't going into a central vein but is still going into a vein the same goes for catheters these are invasive devices that are allowing bacteria to enter the body & cause infections. I think you are wrong about infection control policies have little evidence behind them, try speaking to your infection control & prevention department nurses, and you will find the policies are set on evidenced based best practice, also some of the best practice policies are now becoming government policy so will mean you will have a legal requirement to ensure things are done (but can't remember what at the moment, but I will check). The bare below the elbow policy is a government policy, you should not be wearing a wrist watch at all, no matter what your dominant hand is, it has been shown that there is a heavy bacteria growth under watches. Not only is it infection control risk due to the bacteria but also a moving and handling risk as you risk injuring the patient with it.

like most here we have the option of tunic & trousers or dresses. I wear dresses cause I find them more comfortable the trousers have elastic waists & come up really high.

it's a cohort ward that has MRSA patients

My dream job has come up at work, I'm currently working as a band 5 on a cohort ward which I love, it is a new unit which opened about 5 months ago & when the whole directorate was reconfigured in the summer I asked to go to this unit which was opening (one of only two people to ask to go) everyone else that works on the unit are the staff from the ward that closed to make way for the new unit. We have two band six's at work one of them is acting in the role at the moment, and they have decied that they don't want to work on the unit & have applied for another job but does not want to apply for the band 6. So there is a band 6 coming up which I really want to apply for, I spoke to the unit manager & the only band 6 who has got loads of experience, the unit manager is happy for me to have the job & asked me if I would like to act up into the role for 6 months which I said yes to. I had a chat to the band 6 who I said that I'm willing to do what ever they need me to do to be prepared for the role. My only problem is that there could be another staff nurse on the ward that would want the job, she has been qualified for longer than me & she was on the ward before it was closed. Which is an advantage, but I think I've got somethings on my side such as the band 6 as already said about speaking to the unit manager to get me into the acting up post & she said to me about applying for the band 6 post on the unit. So I need ideas to make stand out to show I'd be the right person & to show how much this post means to me.

I completely agree but not only staffing levels they should look at skill mix. Where I am they say we are fully staff but our skill mix is awful, so in essence we've had 4 band 5 nurses on the ward as the other band 5's are all newly qualified so need loads of support. So many shifts have gone uncovered, so days we've had 1 band 5 & a newly qualified. At the moment the managers are saying we are not doing a good enough job as we've had complaints, but with staffing levels like we've got is it any wonder! It's a shame they don't just look at who was looking after the patient but the bigger picture of how many were on duty at the time. I sometimes wonder if they would sooner I complete patient paperwork than get a patient a commode etc.. I just want to add I work on a surgical ward with 24 beds where most of the patients need 2 people to see to them, it's a very heavy ward with some sick patients.

Staff would only be swabbed at outbreak when the outbreak is caused by a single strain. When a patient is swabbed, any MRSA positive result is then sent away for grouping as usually when 2 patients on a ward are MRSA positive they usually have 2 different strains. As for the staff being swabbed, there have been trials were staff were swabbed & they showed no higher rates than the general public (being approx 6%) & when they were they were still able to work & did the treatment. Usually if staff are swabbed they have to swabbed at the start of the shift otherwise they is a greater risk of them being positive but not being colonised or have the bacteriema but have transient which will be washed off when you next bath/ shower. I'm currently working on a MRSA Cohort ward in the UK, & have to have intensive infection control training to work there, so my MRSA infection control knowledge is good.

Have you thought about speaking to someone more senior to your ward manager. They might be able to see the bigger picture & if you can speak to them & explain how it would help your career development, it might help.

I have been a band 5 for a year now & am being to think about starting to develop myself towards a band 6 post as most of them need 2 years experience, ultimately I would love a band 7 post. What sort of things to I need to be doing. The manager I have at the moment is ok but not great, more interested in being friends with everyone rather that helping people develop.

You'll probably find that you will have to wait until you have been qualified at least a year before any agency will take you on, you will probably find that if you go it alone that you will still have to wait a bit as places are going to want experience. Sorry to give you bad news, but you will surprised how fast the year goes & what a difference it will make & how much knowledge you will gain.

I started my current job back in September the first 6 weeks were fine I had the usuall amount of nights, I'd have a block on nights in a months. For the last 16 weeks (I counted) I've worked permanent nights with the odd few days, I've said something to the ward manager, the matron & nothing was been told even the person I live with who is acting matron said something to the ward manger other matron but still nothing has been done, I was told was swop which no-one was willing to do. I hate it now when I do a day shift as I feel I'm unable to cope properly with it. I'm feeling this is now having an effect on my health, I suffer from serve PMT (if I lived outside of europe it would be PMDD, but it's not recognised here) which has the become worse over the last few months results in a very bad episode recent. One of the symptoms I suffer with is depression, which usually lifts once my period over, which isn't completely lifting. I'm also not sleeping anymore, & feel so tired all the time, if i sit for any length of time I really feel like I could fall asleep. I've tried taking over the counter sleeping tablets but they didn't do anything apart from making me feel worse! I'm planning to go & see my doctor this week & have a chat to him as I feel this has only come on since I keep being put on nights. I want to go & see occupational health about this but I'm worried that they'll say I can't do my job properly & then I'm going to be out of a job or it will make things worse & I'll never see a day again. What would you all do?

I was wondering how I get hold of my transcripts, to find out how many hours I've done. Is it just a case of phoning up the uni?

Starting pay for nurses in the UK is £19,166 which is staring band 5 money for a registered nurse, before you get your registeration you get paid at band 3 which is £14,037. Hope this helps.

I've been reading all your post in this section & can't believe how different it is starting out nursing in the US to the UK. I'm also glad that reading all your posts has managed to calm me down a bit & realise that how I feel at the moment is normal. This is my first week of being a Staff nurse (RN), here in the UK until we are registered with the NMC (who control our registeration) we work under the supervision of a RN, in the hospital I'm based at we are given 2 week of being supernumery, more if we haven't got our registration & then we are expected to be to take a team of patients anything up to 12. We have a perceptor for about 6 weeks, & some paperwork to comeplete for our perceptorship but that's it. First day was lovely compared to the rest of the week we just had our induction, paperwork to sign & name badgesn etc... & went to visit the wards we would be working on. Day 2, is my first shift on a ward (I'm working on an acute surgical ward that specialises in colorectal surgery & breast surgery), I'm given 8 patients to look after with another girl that has just started so we half the workload between us & have 4 patients each, they are all the sort of patients & numbers of patients I've looked after during my supported practice (which is the last placement before become a RN). I coped really well & felt I got enough support. Day 3 is the first 13 hour shift I do, I'm given the same patients as yesterday but this time I get all 8 as they are low dependent I'm on top of my workload & feel well supported. Day 4 is the last day of the week for me & another 13 hour shift. This time they are short staffed as one of the RN's doesn't turn up for work!!! So I'm given different patient to look after all of which are more dependent & there are 8 of them. Several are post major surgery, on epidurals, hourly catheters, I'm also trying to do the doctors rounds so I know what's going on. I've also got a sudent who is 6 months behind me keep asking me questions which is lovely but I'm really stressed out & could do without it & I dont' know how to politely tell her to leave me allow. I had deal with several relatives that were aguementative. I made my first mistake by taking out a catheter before an epidural (I didn't know they were meant to come out after the epidural). I didn't feel too bad all day as I was so busy but at the end of the day I really had felt out of my depth. Even thought this day was awful I feel it was also a really good day as it made me see where my weaknesses are & in which areas & with what I need help with. The odd things is that now I've written this I really feel as if I could handle that kind of day & patients now, I've got several ideas to help me to be able to cope & manage my work better. At the time I really didn't think that I could be a nurse & cope with the job, I spent most of Friday night in tears even woke up at 4am & started crying again. I'm glad everyone has posted on here how they are coping or not cause it has made me see that most people feel the same when they first start out.

I'm glad I'm not the only one, I started this week. Here in the Uk things are ver different & I really wish I had the sort of start you all get. (I'll do another post about my first week, so you can all see.) Every night I've had some dream about work, last night I was dreaming that I had been given too many patients and also I see the programme director for the nursing school I was at but they looked different & I was asking them why my registeration was being held up. At the moment I feel like I have too many patients, & I'm still waiting for my registration to come, even though I've paid for it the NMC are still waiting for a form from the university they only have half the information they need from them.

I'm in the same boat as you at the moment I have just qualified & still haven't got a job, lucky the trust I did my training as being good & are giving us bank jobs until a permanent post comes up.

The role of nursing is being taken off the Home Office shortage occupation list, this applies to band 5 or 6 posts. Click here to read the full story on the BBC site. I can't understand why the RCN are so mad about this, when there UK nurses that are unable to find employment, it seems like they have their priories wrong. I know there is a lot of nurses due to retire within the next 10 years but when the government spends so much to train nurses & then 80% of nursing students are unable to find jobs & they are forced to take jobs else where, there is the possiblity of them not returning it seems to make sense to take nursing off the shortage occupation list, it's not that it has to be removed forever.

Not from what I can understand, I'm at Canterbury University, there is no jobs for us students that are just finishing there & the ones that were hoping to work there have been told there are no jobs.