Nurse Pay

I had a recent twitter disscussion about nurse pay. I started off with the view that if the salary for nurses was too high then it would attract the wrong kind of people.... I have met and know many people who stay in jobs they hate just because it pays well. Then I got slammed by several people disagreeing with me say that I should not accept a low wage just because I enjoy my job and just because 'its a vocation'. Then some people got very personal and suggested that I should quit my training (I have 3 student nurse shifts left then I have finished my training) because I was wrapped up in a romantic notion of nursing and allowed my profession to be undervalued.


I first of all like to point out that I feel there is more to what I am 'worth' than what I am paid. Although the amount of pay reflects your value, I think that in nearly all the proffessions I can think of your amount of pay reflects your responsibility, not nessersaily how hard you work. Nursing is a difficult job and you do have a lot of responsibility on your shoulders, but in my view if you were to compare nursing to another proffession a band 5 nurse is sort of equal to middle management (responsibilites wise, not 'how hard we work' wise). Therefore I do not think the current pay bracket is 'that bad'.

Also this disscussion goes into what you see as 'a lot of money'...because what I may think is a lot of money now may be different to someone elses...

But then it was pointed out to me about pay rises, and comparing the pay rises of nurses to other proffessions over each financial year. Now I definitely agree that if everyone else is getting a pay rise we should get one too. I also now understand that by not giving nurses that pay rise devalues and disrespects the profession. Furthermore nurses should not accept this.

But I do not think you can suddenly say that nurses should earn 'this much' or 'that much'. I think the government should give us pay rises with inflation and when other service providers get pay rises. But unfortunatly we do not have a government that is that 'fair' and in my opinion this government has let the NHS down as a whole not just the nursing proffession. But I think this is different from just demanding extra pay because we work so hard.

I was told that I apparently I may feel differently after I am a 'real nurse' but currently I work really hard and I get paid what I consider a pittence and I feel this way so I am not sure.