In my Trust porters are planning another strike because of pay and conditions. Media have been talking about it but, instead of mentioning these guys are on their feet all day for minimum wage and hospitals need them like oxygen, guess what they have been saying? "This is gonna have a massive impact on patient care. Patient safety is at risk here, people might die"... WTF?

Media have also been talking about NHS staff not being happy about the 2.4% raise saying again an higher increase will impact on people's life and require a tax increase as well. Of course media know very well what they are doing and the average citizen is not over the moon whenever an increase of tax is even mentioned, so of course people got mad and said we should be grateful we have sick pay and "golden" pension and, if anything, we should be getting a pay cut.

So basically according to media and the general public the reason why NHS is in a pile of shite is because staff wants a fair pay, without knowing that patient safety is ALREADY at risk and it's been for years due to recruitment freeze and hospital cutting staffing levels to the bone.

I would expect someone with the smallest crumble of common sense to be mad at the government criminally underfunding NHS for decades, this country pissing money on welfare, billionaire companies paying less taxes than me or whatnot but yeah, let's pin it on NHS workers. Nobody has ever heard an MP saying "mmm I already earn 6 figures and get everything for free, maybe I should give up my yearly raise", then why are people expecting NHS staff to sacrifice themselves? This job is coming with pressure and responsibilities like never before, nurses are the hospitals' dumping ground, as a single person I will never be able to afford to buy a house and people are struggling to pay their bills, yet somehow I am supposed to feel guilty about £80 extra on my payslip (mind you, before tax).

I am sorry to say but whoever thinks this increase or our pay is reasonable should work with the average nurse for at least a month, let's see how they like it

In this day and age, is it really that bad? I know factors come into play, such as moving up in the same area etc, but I'm now getting to the point where I don't think I can afford to do it anymore? My hubby is massively concerned and feels there's no stability because I do job hop but my argument is that I can't stay in a job that I dislike.

For context, I've been qualified 12 years and I'm now in my 10th job. Wild I know ... I have moved around the UK and Scotland and got loads of experience in community, oncology and palliative care. In those areas I've worked my way up to band 6 level. So, at least it's all been in relevant areas but I do feel so guilty now about the job hopping and feel like I just need to stay in my current job I hate for the stability?

I know it's a mixed debate and lots of folk think job hopping is terrible but some think it's not so bad, would love to know your thoughts x

Doesn’t help that staff aren’t being replaced due to the nhs recruitment freeze.

There’s also the poor treatment of staff, the pay, the poor pay rises etc.

I also think other professions are in the same boat.

Hi all,

Can anyone please help explain why my eyes burn so much while on shift? I don’t put my hands in my face, but I am running around constantly, squinting at the screen while focusing on medication. So thinking it is maybe tired eyes? But surely they would just be sore rather than feel like the firey depths of hell?

😳

I have completed all the necessary pre-employment checks on Trac and been trying to contact recruitment advisor by email and phone calls for the past few days but have unfortunately not received any response. As it has taken over a month to complete this stage, I would appreciate your advice on how my application will progress from here. Shall I send an email to the hiring manager now?

It’s amazing how the government push the not enough prisons for prisoners agenda, even suggest they need to build another 10,000 prison places. However, they never do the same with health care, even when it’s obvious there aren’t enough hospitals, beds, staff etc. to treat patients.

Hi all,

I'm about to start a new role. Part of the job will be teaching patients, carers, schools and companies, as well as the public, so I want to build my confidence and skills in health education and communication.

I have basic health literacy/communication skills but I'd like to go further and improve this. Does anyone know of good CPD on:

- Health literacy

- Teaching and presenting to patients and groups

- Improving health communication (plain language, teach-back, etc.)

I learn best from live sessions, so I'm looking for webinars or in-person study days rather than self-paced online modules, which don't suit how I learn. Free or low-cost would be ideal, but I'm open to recommendations whatever the price.

I know a lot of this will come with experience and getting more knowledgeable in the specialty, but I'd like a head start.

Any suggestions, or things you found helpful when you started teaching in your own roles, would be much appreciated.

Thank you ❤️

Hi all!

I’m qualifying soon and have secured a role in rural community nursing. I’m over the moon! It’s exactly what I was hoping for from the start of my training.

I’ve got the basics i.e. fob watch, notebooks, business insurance and making sure I get new tyres and a service before I start, especially as we’re going into winter. My car has a miserable amount of boot space so will be looking to upgrade once I’m settled into the role, but I’m planning on buying boxes to keep organised.

But I’m wondering about little things you didn’t realise you needed until you started. Might I need something like a book light for writing notes in my car when it’s dark? A pad to kneel on when doing dressings? A shewee in a pinch? (I might just be looking for an excuse to spend my last learning support fund payment). I had a lot of placements in the community, but not specifically with the community and district nursing teams.

Anything is helpful! Thank you all in advance! :)

I’m struggling to understand how this is supposed to work in practice. Are we genuinely looking at a situation where patients detained under forensic sections could lose their benefits? If so, what does that mean for rehabilitation services and the wider pathway towards discharge?

How are patients supposed to utilise Section 17 leave, develop independent living skills and engage in community rehabilitation if they have no money? Are we expecting services to fund these activities instead? If that’s the case, I certainly wouldn’t be investing heavily in the Big Three right now.

I understand the frustration when patients repeatedly refuse treatment, fail to engage with assessments or decline to participate in rehabilitation. However, removing their financial means doesn’t automatically encourage engagement, and I struggle to see how it would support safe, sustainable discharge into the community.

There are also very practical concerns around access to dental treatment, prescription medication and meeting basic needs. What happens when patients cannot afford these, and what additional pressure will that place on already stretched services? I hope the ICB consider how they will fund the cost of providing money from the workplace safe for leave and travel and prescriptions. I dont think the big three will like their margins becoming worse.

Ultimately, what is the long-term plan here? Are we still investing in rehabilitation and recovery, or are we moving towards a system where patients remain in hospital longer because they lack the financial means to practise independent living in the community?

I’m not against accountability or encouraging engagement with treatment, but I think we need to understand the real-world consequences of this policy before assuming it will achieve its intended outcome. Being trans I dont think I will be here to see this policy enacted but it is interesting. I hope burnham keeps pushing for changes but we really need to consider the impact of the private sector.

Edit : the issue around prescriptions and dentists mainly impacts the private sector as ashworth etc / high secure where many of these patients start their journey have in house dentist and also have a pharmacy so medication is just taken from a inhouse pharmacy and community pharmacy is not needed .

So I worked for Trust A for over 10 years. Had my 10 year service annual leave etc however have been in the nhs since 2008 as a HCA. I left trust A to do my nurse training and rejoined on the bank as a HCA and secured employment at Trust A as a Staff nurse once I qualified.

On dealing with HR when secured staff nurse post I asked about my previous 10+ years service for the trust and would that be honoured. I was told yes.
Now my contract states I receive 307.5 hours which I believe is the AL for 10+ years. My ESR also states time in this employment 10.96 years.

In September I went off sick for surgery. Returned after 6 weeks 19/10. Today I’ve been told I’ll only get 1 month full pay and 2 months half pay. Which if I’m in receipt of the 10+ service is incorrect. I should be allowed 6&6. Am I correct in thinking this.

I’ve tried to ring HR but my advisor isn’t in so will have to call back tomorrow but I’m just wanting to know if I’m thought process is correct.

Thanks.

Got my conditional offer on the 1st of October. Both references say complete, occupational health says “awaiting employer update” since the 19th and my DBS has been on stage 4 since the 9th.

I’ve never worked in the NHS before, this is my first RMN role, is it normal to wait this long? Is there anything else I can do to help the process in the meantime? Sorry I’m NQN and terrified they’re going to rescind it or something, I keep overthinking and don’t like the long periods of being kept in the dark! Thanks so much for any help.

Absolutely fed up with the constant battering via social media/the press that as NHS staff we are expected to absorb with no right to reply.

A long post appeared on my Facebook page about how awful an experience a woman had had taking her daughter to the local minor injury unit.

She had limited commenting on the post.

She acknowledged she had gone straight there and not given her child any pain relief. She then went on to complain that the nurse seemed annoyed and rude that the child had not had any pain relief and couldn’t take tablets. Since when has it been the NHS’s responsibility to undertake basic parenting or caring roles? Why hadn’t this woman given pain relief and a little bit of time? Might have avoided the visit altogether?

This people never post their outcomes; you are still alive/nothing was wrong.

They never consider this is all free at the point of access.

They are selfish and entitled. They have zero concept they are the 100th person that day that has presented to us without taking any responsibility for their own situation or responsibility for self help measures.

The moral injury is constant.

Then on top of these, constant low level passive aggressive comments/microaggresions and social media complaints, we have to endure those with bigger fish to fry and bigger platforms like Paula Mcgowan and the Marthas rule stuff.

Also topped off with the constant battering from management to do more with less and how we are never good enough.

Failed targets. Failed audits. Just Failing.

Whilst we endure this we deal with actual trauma, death, dying, isolation, its literal torture.

If someone spoke about this system as an idea people would think it was evil.

How far in advance do people get their shifts? I’m fairly new to shift work. I was led to believe I would get 6-8 weeks in advance but only have shifts until the week after next. I understand this is the same for everyone. I’m starting to find is stressful with childcare planning.

I don't know, you go to work, do the best you can, short staffed, you get an inspection, a group of people who are rude, ignorant, don't introduce themselves and look at you as if you're a piece of shit on their shoes. They proceed to pick fault with everything and basically make you feel completely useless. Two of these people have no medical experience whatsoever. Honestly, they live on a different planet. I hate this job

hey guys, i’m a qualified paeds nurse of nearly 2 years, i’ve been working on the same ward since qualifying 12.5hr shifts, full time 37.5 hrs per week. however, my mental health has rapidly declined over the past year from working here :

- we have a high turnover rate and we’re currently severely understaffed most shifts
- i have IIH and migraines and i requested to be referred to occupational health so that i can stop doing nights due to the effects it’s having on me - WMs informed me that this will be unlikely to happen and i still have yet to be referred - this was 4 months ago. i have been chasing it but nothing has been done.
- we self roster however my christmas rota and rota in general is abysmal and 2 of my day off requests were rejected - which i’ve wasted for nothing and won’t get back. i was given a night shift, sleep day and back in LD, DO, then 3x LDs. We have to work a minimum of 2 key shifts yet there’s some staff only working 1 key shift

these are just some of the few things impacting my mental health and i just wake up everyday physically forcing myself to go into work - im emotionally and mentally drained and my boyfriend, friends and family have all highlighted the effects they can see my job is having on me - as i’ve “lost my spark”.

I have 2 choices :

- I bank at my permanent trusts hospital and i recently got a bank job at a private paeds outpatients hospital. I quit my substantive role and just bank at both jobs. the private job pays £26/hr.

- or i stay at this role and wait for another job to open up on another ward/specialty - while continuing to bank; i had an interview today for a job and i literally missed the role by a few marks and they picked someone else - so im really kicking myself atm.

I live by myself and i pay £980 of rent, i’m waiting for my PIP results after my assessment as well, which can go towards rent and i’m also working on paying off £5,000 of credit card debt.

Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated- i suffer from OCD, depression and anxiety and i’m just worried that my

So, I am a qualified nurse with many decades experience in A & E, critical care, intensive care, paediatrics & I hold CPD qualifications in teaching, Intensive care nursing, respiratory nursing and A & E Nursing (for those of you that remember the old ENB modules!). I also posses extended skills training such as suturing, triage and nurse prescribing under PGD’s (this will be important later).
I injured my back several years ago and retired from nursing, however this year I decided to return to Nursing via the NMC test of competence route. I’m currently going through the process of applying for my pin after completing the TOC.
Since Feb this year, I’ve been working as a HCA in a prison, to sharpen my skills and blow off the cobwebs while I’ve been undertaking my return to practice tests. But also to learn the role as I wanted to work there after I get my pin through.
My employer has actually paid for my TOC because, I’ve worked hard and I feel they valued my work ethic and what I’ve done in the past 9 months.
I was verbally offered employment as a RN when I return to the register.
At the same time another HCA has just qualified as a newly qualified nurse. Now, she has had an interview before me and has been given a job and consequently started working. A student nurse who doesn’t qualify until next year, got an interview and has been told she has a job when she qualifies-they are holding a post for her!!
I was the last one to be interviewed due to annual leave and other factors, but I was still lead to believe that the job was mine. One day after my interview another candidate materialised and had to be interviewed. So I was told I wouldn’t know the outcome until they had their interview.
Then today I’ve been told I wasn’t successful. Although my interview was “excellent” the other candidate scored higher and has been offered the job instead of me.
How is this fair?? I feel led on and humiliated as I now have to mix with colleagues who will know I haven’t got the job yet 2 newly qualified nurses have jobs and one post is being explicitly held for one of them!!! I also now don’t have a job as I can’t work once I have my pin back which will happen in a week or 2. What recourse do I have? What should I say in my complaint to HR? Does anyone have any advice for me please?? Thanks in advance

Only 69% of NQNs would have been able to get a job in wales in 2026, prompting the Welsh government to create more NQN jobs and, according to the article, work with graduates to find them employment. I have my cynicisms about how successful this will be too tbh, but it highlights the resounding lack of response from England.

Out of the previous cohort of my own course, 8 out of 41 have got jobs. 8. A 1 in 5 chance of getting a job. Much worse odds than the 69% that prompted action in Wales.

It makes it very clear that something could be done about this, and there’s a deliberate choice to stay silent and do nothing instead.

Imo (which may be controversial) i feel as though nurses need to have their own pay scale.

The AfC did serve a purpose.. more so at the time it was implemented however, to me it feels like it's being used by the government as an excuse to kibosh nurses from receiving a decent pay increase due to the inclusion of so many other MTDs.

It gives rise for them to repeat the old "We don't have the funds" while somehow managing to repeatedly increase the MPs wages and annual bonus.. but that's an alternative rant.

Now just to be clear my comments are NOT a slight aimed at the non-nursing members within AfC, i genuinely think every branch within AfC should fight for better in regard to their own sector.

To me banding everyone together appears to be extremely beneficial only for the NHS and government as opposed to each and every hard working tax payer keep the cogs turning.

Thoughts? Have i completely misunderstood the AfC? Is it achievable? Beneficial?

I have a history of depression and C-PTSD, its not work related, its all to do with my childhood and I admit ive not dealt with it well.

I have blocked out many of my childhood memories so I dont even remember what the cause of the trauma is, I just have a vague idea but I wont think about it. As a result since the age of 10 the trauma has manifested through nightmares. As such i ended up with chronic insomnia and i take antipsychotics as these prevent me from dreaming or at least from having any recall of what ive dreamt.

Now im 40, and I guess my ADHD is kicking in as my brain keeps trying to fill in the gaps but this is resulting in false memories and the nightmares returning big time. Im also waking up mid dream but finding I cant get out, so the dreams are now basically hallucinations and always when im kind of tired.

I work strictly nights due to the insomnia and also because I have poor social battery, my colleagues are just too much drama to handle. However, my GP signed me off for stress and MH when he learnt that I was hallucinating when tired with the stipend that I focus on regulating my sleep and myself.

I told work and asked if they still wanted me to come in for a 1:1 that had been booked and they were all "no, not whilst you are signed off" . But here is the kicker, my immediate boss has. Not. Stopped. Calling. Ive emailed my sick note and an explanation and when I do answer her calls I feel fucking gaslit as she makes up her own notions about what im doing. How is the change in medication? Have you seen the doctor again? I havent mentioned medication, she knows when my next appointment is.

She is literally calling now, as i type, she wants to do my return to work before the sick note has even ended. I am more stressed now than I was originally. I just want to be left alone instead of getting calls every day every 2 fucking hours, im scared to look at my phone.

How do I deal with this, im seeing the doctor again tomorrow , do I raise this with him? Do I go to higher management and say this is fucking harrassment?

My DBS status on NHS Trac is showing as completed, and my recruiter has confirmed that they have received the result. However, it seems that my recruiter wanted me to wait for my DBS certificate and inform them if there is anything listed on it. I am very much confused as i thought they will be received results automatically once the DBS process was completed. Is this the usual process? I’ve tried asking my recruiter several questions to clarify the process, but unfortunately, I haven’t received any responses to my queries.

What is the logical steps after completing pre employment checks?

Today the day cases unit called us because a patient needed admission for pain management; when the patient came they were already a few hours post op and mobilising.

Not too long afterwards this patient came at the reception to say they didn't want to stay anymore because they were feeling better and their spouse was on their way to pick them up... okay, fair enough. The thing is this patient also wanted their belongings which were still at the day case unit, so I told them to please wait for a porter to bring them over and then went on to assist 3 of my colleagues who needed help.

After around 45 minutes I saw this patient at the door escorted by a nurse and the ward manager of the day cases unit, they looked as if someone had just taken a dump on their lunch and demanded to speak to the NIC with the tone of someone who obviously is after a fight. They went on a full rant because "this patient had surgery, we weren't happy they came back to us. If anything happens we will all be in a trouble"... I was like WTF?!?

From my understanding I wasn't the only one to have this conversation with the patient because after I had left their nurse, an HCA and even the ward clerk also told them to please wait... so not one, not 2 but 4 people all said the same exact thing, then why were these people talking to us as if we forced the patient to go all the way back there to pick up their bags? This person is not a 90 year old with dementia but a very much healthy 45 year old with full capacity and very much aware of the risks and the reasons why they were supposed to wait.

I am sorry, I wasn't aware I was working in a high security prison, I must have missed "tackling people with full mental and physical capacity" in my job description. I didn't like at all this accusatory tone or the way they spoke to us, even the patient was quite annoyed at being followed around as if they were stupid.

At the same time we had 3 very confused patients wandering around so in rhat case I would have understood, but this person had full capacity! Don't I end up in trouble if I tackle them for absolutely no reason? Why do these people think we were going to be responsible?