Re: Post Office Sell Off - Welcome To Tory Britain
 

So HCA`s are on just over £1/hour above minimum wage, my Mrs must be a fully qualified nurse then, never noticed her going to uni.:rolleyes:

Re: Post Office Sell Off - Welcome To Tory Britain
 

Absolutely spot on, just think that £28 is a little lite, last year I was on 3 different wards and I bumped into one nurse on all three wards:rolleyes:

Re: Post Office Sell Off - Welcome To Tory Britain
 

Of course nursing has evolved...it has been evolving since the days of Florence Nightingale....it has had to do this to keep up with modern technology processes and procedures.

And the university qualified nurses DO still participate in hands on care hands on care...but they have HCA's to help them do this.
It is a case of getting the work done as a team.
When my daughter was in hospital for five weeks earlier this year, her care was delivered by caring individuals who did what was necessary to make her comfortable...whether that was to empty her catheter bag, administer pain relief, or change her vomit bowl and give her a mouthwash. I saw the ward sister do this on more than one occasion.

If you do not have a doctor available and a patient needs an IV line re-siting, what would you rather have?
A nurse who is qualified to do this - and get on with it...or wait and let the patient become dehydrated because it does not fit with the traditional brow mopping vision of a nurse?

Nurses have long wanted to do these roles because they are on the spot when frequently a doctor is not....and they know it benefits the patient.
I did not go into nursing because of the pay...in fact I left a very well paid job in industry to go and follow my dream.

I cannot generalise why nurses go into nursing today...but the ones that I know go i nto it to make a difference to the lives of patients.
Nursing has changed...it is going to continue to change, this change cannot be stopped.
Nurses work as a team, with the HCA making a valuable contribution to the care of patients...this is good for the HCA and also for the patient.
Some of the finest lessons I learned were from auxiliary nurses - those untrained precursors of the HCA...and at last someone has recognised their value and given them training to do other things than wipe bottoms and do baths

As for your comment on CPD(continued professional development) this doesn't have to done by taking courses....you can do it at the place of work and by studying stuff that the professional journals provide.

British trained nurses are welcomed with open arms all over the world.
I cannot ever see there being a glut of trained nurses.

Re: Post Office Sell Off - Welcome To Tory Britain
 

That is spot on...except the hospital pays more for an agency nurse that the figure you have quoted.
Whe I was senior sister of my unit, I would juggle staff around rather than having to bring in agency nurses - nurses who didn't know either the patients or the layout of the ward...and who you used to have to spend more time wet nursing, than letting them do the job they were being paid to do.
More nurses on the wards would mean the deployment of staff who actually know the patients would be possible .......and it would save shedloads of money!

Re: Post Office Sell Off - Welcome To Tory Britain
 

Margaret, 2 things in life I don,t like. 1 is Bad ale. and 2 some of the Clowns on here who can do nothing but cut and paste. One thing that I do like though are people like you who talk sense and can back up whatever they say due to experiences in life and profession. I have to say that every experience that I have ever had in the hospitals in this great country of mine have always been very good apart from the last one. If it wasn't for some of the members of your profession, I would not be writing this now. You are 100% right with what you say regarding nurses and agency staff. I have just had an operation in the William Harvey Hospital in Kent. Not one English Doctor or Surgeon did I see in the 3 days I was there. Only 2 English nurses were available to cover 3 interconnecting wards with a total of 24 patients. Everybody else, foreigners. From the Agency nurses to the tea and dinner ladies to the ward cleaners. The recognised spoken language for the wards apart from the 2 English nurses was East European. Whatever happened to Matron.

Re: Post Office Sell Off - Welcome To Tory Britain
 

Mog, thank you for your vote of confidence.
I am no longer in the profession, having retired quite a while ago.
The Matron thing gets my goat too.....once upon a day, a very long time ago...the Matron was the figurehead of the hospital...she said 'jump' and not only did you jump, but you asked 'how high and how long do you want me to stay up??'
Matrons were long gone when I did my training and had been replaced by Nursing Officers......just another layer of management....which could be done away with(although my Nursing Officer - a Mr John Whalley, was noted for scrubbing up and assisting in gynae theatre...and turning his hand to portering duties too)
The matrons who are dotted about the hospitals today are much like these Nursing Officers, and were a sop to public concerns about the way the NHS was going...a political Google Page Ranking stunt.
Politicians aren't much good at running the country(unless you call running it into the ground 'running').
If they left the running of the NHS in the hands of those who know best how to do this, then things would be far better.......The NHS is like a vast ship...it takes a long time to stop it in it's tracks and turning it round after it has been steered in the wrong direction is a feat in itself.

Re: Post Office Sell Off - Welcome To Tory Britain
 

You`re right Margaret, the £28 is what the nurse is paid (or so i`ver been told), the agency will also get paid, so I would guess it will cost the NHS more like £40-£50 per hour.

Re: Post Office Sell Off - Welcome To Tory Britain
 

Doesn`t necessarily mean they were agency, staff get moved around quite regularly, my mrs often works in different departments and sometimes even different hospitals, and then there are bank shifts as well.

Re: Post Office Sell Off - Welcome To Tory Britain
 

Many people who start out as HCA's go on to become qualified nurses.
The NHS has a duty to maximise the potential of every member of staff(that is what a big part of appraisal is about). In this way the member of staff benefits because they are allowed to develop and grow...the patient benefits from people who have skills that are needed in a health care setting.......and the NHS gets the best from the people who work within it...now, if only the government would stop its meddling, it would be a better organisation by far.

Re: Post Office Sell Off - Welcome To Tory Britain
 

Certainly agree with most of what you say mog, but circumstances change with different hospitals. Like you I have been treated on a few occasions and in 7 different hospitals, but there is always one constant, nursing, only ever come across two nurses who were useless, which is a very low percentage over 34 years

Re: Post Office Sell Off - Welcome To Tory Britain
 

TNT have started posting letters round my way - I think they mainly do mass mailout deals for big companies like banks and finance companies, not single personal letters, yet anyway. The guy comes on a push bike with the logo on stands it outside and then delivers by hand. I would think the Royal Mail will always run the mail boxes. But at the end of the day there is too much competition to have a monopoly on it?

Re: Post Office Sell Off - Welcome To Tory Britain
 

tnt another foreign firm who avoid paying full tax .there will be nothing british owned thanks to the tory lies. we are the party for Britain = fail we will get tax dodgers = fail we will keep the nhs = fail tough on immigration = fail they are liars or incompetent . if milliband has anything about him he would re-nationalize royal mail , the utilities and the railways. that's billions £s more to leave the economy and the country. tnt are pulling a flanker by taking the government to court because whoever buys the royal mail will start with a 20% reduction in their vat, when in fact they could turn round and buy the royal mail on the cheap. say hello to 3 days a week post. this is nothing short of treason.

Re: Post Office Sell Off - Welcome To Tory Britain
 

What is nothing short of treason?

Which of the above ramblings is it?

Foreign Companies?
Tax dodgers?
The party for Britain?
Immigration?
Liars?
Milliband?
A 3 day a week postal Service?
All of the above?

Or

Your corruption of the Queens English and any type of logical thought?
:o

Re: Post Office Sell Off - Welcome To Tory Britain
 

Less, Cashy has a very good saying......it goes like this...'you can't put sense where there is none'
It is very true in the case of this member.

He remembers all of the things he can lay at the door of the Tories, but none of the things perpetrated by Tony Blair and his cronies....in his eyes(though he may now tell you differently - he never mentioned it at the time) they could do no wrong.

Politicians are politicians...they aren't in the job to make life easier or better for the electorate, but to line their pockets and to secure a place on the gravy train for themselves.

Re: Post Office Sell Off - Welcome To Tory Britain
 

Bloody hell John three different wards no wonder the nhs is on its knees:D