Why be a nurse if you're not up to it?

Jonny's anger is miss placed at nurses. It should be turned on to the bean counters who got in to health care in the 90's after getting laid off from there jobs. Most nurses I believe are there because they want to do the right thing. It is this business model that has gotten us into trouble. I am sorry if I can must pick what is a priority as an RN it is to make sure my patients get there meds, treatments, followed by the mountain of charting, and family interactions, and Dr. orders. Forgive me if I do not get to laundry and linens. I believe that is why nursing assistants are hired. To assist the nurse. Please get a clue. Florence lived in a different time. Go back there if you want to.

Yes a lot of student nurses do struggle to make ends meet, however the bursary is higher than any other course, so it attracts the wrong type of people into the NHS who have had a braincell then it would be dangerous, get rid of the managers I say as it is them who are bringing the NHS down, one I saw recently got a 100K pay-off, of OUR money which could have been used for much needed resources.

that's because they get a grant and tuition fees paid for them.

Boab, are you a nurse or lecturer?
All my bursary paid for was childcare. No hand outs! I spent two years paying off my credit card so laughable I'm splitting my sides.
Drop out rate is unacceptable but these also include course failures. Many students drop out through family life pressures. Other from lack of school support with assignments. Some have bad ward experiences and are just used as free labour.
I think bursaries should be repaid if the student decides themself to drop out.
MRSA is everyones problem. Doctors overprescribing antiobiotics to cleanliness standards dropping. From cleaner to consultant we should all do our bit. Including visitors who bring untold germs in with them.
I do hope you dont need the NHS anytime soon. If you do lets hope you get a compassionate nurse, dedicated to caring for her patients and not one who is downhearted and demoralised by such opinions as yours. However as you feel the NHS sucks its a shame you cant go to USA where you pay for any treatment. Just keep your credit card handy in an emergency though.
I know we all pay for the NHS and money could be better spent but that is the big wigs job and us on the shop floor are doing our best!

Jackie,

I am glad you made it. You are one of the very very few who go through the training that ever come out the other side and actually do the job. Too many want the cash on the way through. Not sure where you got your debt from. In Scotland, fees are paid, bursary is handed out, money given for childcare. Single parents allowance. Dependents money - for the two kids. There are student nurses getting paid more than my wife gets. And lets not forget, 45 weeks of paid maternity, a year of extended bursary should things get tough. Etc etc etc. For them to end up dropping out and not working as a nurse?????? Incentives should only be paid after they've been working for a period, NOT while they study. That might up the pass rate from 24% don't you think?

As for student "debt" from nursing, you're having a laugh aren't you? Want to compare the funding for nurses to the funding for other students?????

The gripe was that the current NHS sucks. When people are getting bugs that kill them from being on wards, when drug availability is a lottery, and when something like only around 24% of the student nurses (being paid roughly 30 THOUSAND to study) actually make it out the other side to work as nurses - and these are only a few of the gripes, then he was right. It sucks.

Let me introduce myself. I'm the new generation lazy incompetent bug spreading university trained nurse everyone on here seems to loathe or despair of. I have been qualified for 2 years and love what I do, including all aspects of patient care (yes I do actually touch/feed/bathe/care for patients!). I was a mature student and sacrificed the early years of my children to take this huge leap and embark on my training. All of my big fat bursary (thankyou boab), thats all £6500 per year was spent on childcare for my 2 year old son whilst I was at college or on the local hospital wards. With time off I did bank support worker shifts to help make ends meet and pay of the £10k debt the 3 years training got me into.
As a relatively newly qualified nurse I welcome the experience and knowledge of my colleagues (old school or not) and feel that the attitudes expressed on this page are demeaning to new nurses most of whom have worked hard to qualify and enjoy their work.
Matrons are back in my local hospital, however only in title. Now in a managerial role their main concerns are balancing numbers, of both patients and finances and rarely make an appearance in the day-to-day running of a ward. A shame I agree however should anyone work in an environment where a "tyrant" rules and workers are scared of the dreaded matron, surely this can only be detrimental to patient care.
And finally to Jonny, who initiated this "gripe". I would like to stand up for the thousands of university trained nurses and say I am proud of my qualification, I worked bloody hard to get it and would appreciate your support in letting us do the job we are paid (very well in my personal opinion) to do... after all the bottom line has to be caring for our patients as best we ALL can together as a team. Please don't tar us all with your workshy brush and return the respect that we have for you.

God bless you for your comments we patients would love to see the old Matron back on the ward we would also like to see in house cleaners that clean up properly rather than a quick rub round in the time allocated and be there for spills and other unpleasant messes
I can only assume government ( All of them) are trying to damage the public view of the NHS so that the sale of it and the introduction of Private health insurance will be an easier to sell
Christ help us if that happens look at the USA if you can't afford the insurance you can't afford to live
The NHS is still the best health service it's just the top heavy management and the paper or armchair technicians the service tends to attract today are more likely to speed up it's doom
Maybe that's the grand plan but please don't give up all the time there are people like you in the service we can all hope it's one of you we get rather than another Degree holding theorist

Roger L

I'll tell you why I think a lot of them do it. Because unlike any other University students in the land, they get PAID to go to Uni. Nice big fat bursaries that they get even when they're off. Beats Income support!

The mistake was to transfer training from the hospitals to the so called universities.At one time all training was done in the hospital and you were employed by them,if you attitude or skills were not up to it based on regular ward reports you were out on your ear. You also worked hours that covered a 24 hour period including weekends and bank holidays etc. Now we just turn out people with worthless degrees who are more interested in their own status than the actual art of nursing.You might criticise Nightingale but at least she rolled her sleeves up!

I had to get blood taken this afternoon, which is something that always makes me feel faint. The nurse who did it was amazing and certainly wasn't a new generation uni nurse. She was old school and seemed strict yet able to put me at ease enough that I wasn't shaken like usual. She had amazing bedside manner and was the fastest blood draw I've ever had. It seriously took a minute and she didn't miss! There certainly is something to be said for experience, as she obviously became that good by doing it a lot. Nursing seems like one of those jobs you're only good at by doing.

To NHS sucks, that sounds like some hospital you work In, typical NHS, not all Nurses are the same, however the next generation of nurses who are Uni trained scares me, as this sounds like the only kind of nurse you are going to come across in the next 30 years, I have adopted a non-care approach for paperwork and targets, as long as the sufficient charts and things are dealt with the rest can wait, I have more pressing duties I must be getting on with such as interacting with Patients and their Families, trying to keep Staff Morale to a high, Dispensing Drugs, I certainly do not have time to eat biscuits and talk about my Family, if that's the case you should be reporting these Nurses to the Ward or Nursing manager, as they are not doing the job they are meant to be doing, as I said on My main post, they are breaching NWC regulations and could be struck off the register for It and by the sounds of it quite rightly so.

What a complete shower! You are quite right, always moaning about not being paid enough.

Tell them they are all going to lose their job as there are peple out there willing to do it for a fraction of the wage and with more enthusiasm and pride.

This just may give them somethin' to moan about.

The dead wood must be removed. The sooner the better.