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Why do nurses get paid so little?

Hello

I've just come home from a two night stay in hospital and was amazed at how hard everyone works there. I was seen by a doctor in A&E at around 10-11pm, and the next morning at about 9am he came to see me again and didn't look like he was heading home anytime soon.
The nurses in my ward also had incredibly long shifts and from what I could see only took one break, and they were always busy with patients or inputting information into the computer, cleaning/making beds etc. My main nurse worked from 7am to 8 30pm...

They were all really skilled and knew their stuff, as well as having to do the dirty jobs like cleaning up "accidents" and looking after people who were throwing up.

I really admired them all and I just don't understand why their pay is so bad when without the nurses the doctors definitely wouldn't be able to do their jobs properly.

I'm also slightly confused about the differences between doctors and nurses. The vast majority of nurses on my ward seemed to be Filipino, but all of the doctors I saw were either white British or Indian. I don't mean to sound like I have a problem with other nationalities (I definitely don't!) I was just wondering why it seems like a lot of nurses are immigrants when it is definitely not unskilled work. I hope that makes sense...?

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Reply 1

radio1

Financial worth and social worth are very different things.

Reply 2

Florence321

Original post by radio1

Financial worth and social worth are very different things.

Care to elaborate? :smile:

Reply 3

obstupefacere

Original post by Florence321

Care to elaborate? :smile:

There are large numbers of Nurses, there is relatively low demand for Nurses.

So there is no reason to offer them higher salaries as they are desperate for work.

The only time we would see an increase in wages is if the demand for nurses increased, or indeed - if the number of nurses willing to work in the profession decreased - which isn't going to happen any time soon.

People are not paid relative to what they do for society (ie; social value) --- they are paid instead relative to the demand/supply of their labour.

Reply 4

Horsedobbin

Original post by skeanos

Because they get paid a fair bit for doing porno on the side.

That is a stupid, unnecessary and degrading comment-and not in the least bit funny.

Reply 5

radio1

Original post by Florence321

Care to elaborate? :smile:

Simply put

We need nurses, there are plenty out there or willing to be. There is no real shortage as there is with a highly skilled neurosurgeon.

The NHS is a business not a charity case, therefore it is like all other jobs - The demand for nurses and the supply of nurses dictates their pay, nothing else.

This is partially why there are a lot of nurses from abroad as people in UK have realised they could get paid more or the same for less work,

Reply 6

This Honest

My economics teacher said something about how their trade union is weak, so the gov can supress their wages plus supply of nurses are large so wages will be kept low etc

But I agree, they should be paid more because they are invaluable to society.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 7

ifstatement

Nurses do get paid well, what are you talking about? Though with Nursing it's kind of working up the ladder part. My Cousin started as a nurse off A levels, after nearly 20 years of hard work she is now a manager and earns well over 100k in Canada.

Secondly the reason why so many foreigners take nursing as a profession is because it's a very highly demanded profession in most first world countries currently which is handy if you want to emigrate to another country. For Canada nurses come under the skilled worker list, all you need to do is pass the points test and you can qualify for residency in a year or two. Nurses are pretty much in demand everywhere, this is the reason why you see so many Filipinos taking it as a profession since the job is pretty much an entrance key into many countries.

Original post by obstupefacere

There are large numbers of Nurses, there is relatively low demand for Nurses

Wrong, since it's a job many other countries are lacking and are highly in demand.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 8

Just Josh

I think it's because there is so many nurses - i think 60% of nhs healthcare workers a nurses? something like that. If the government was to pay them all even 500 pounds more a year, it will be a massive cost to the government. Nurses are underpaid, but they understand that when they become a nurse.

The reason why theres so many immigrants is simple really - the UK does not train enough nurses for the demand. So we have to employ from other countries and so on so on.

It's a shame that nurses are under respected but

I don't get why people seem to think that there isn't a shortage of nurses? Almost every nursing graduate gets an array of job offers instantly after graduating. Most universities have 100% employment. There is a huge shortage or nurses surely? I don't understand?

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 9

Hopple

Because their desire to help people can be exploited by the government.

Supply and demand.

Original post by This Honest

At what cost? There are approx 300k nurses in UK.

If they all got paid £5k extra that is 1.5 billion extra.

Do you also want less medicine, less MRI scanners, etc

As I said earlier, please do not confuse social value with financial as in that case, bin collectors should also be highly paid unless we all want to be plagued by mice

Reply 12

This Honest

Original post by Jacktri

Supply and demand.

Actually it's Demand and Supply :cool:

Reply 13

Jacktri

Original post by This Honest

Actually it's Demand and Supply :cool:

Reply 14

This Honest

Original post by radio1

Alright but would you be happy with a nurse's salary (average) if your job was a nurse?

I wouldn't because there are barriers to the job such as training, exams, hours, and that would put me off if the salary wasn't good enough.

Reply 15

KingGoonIan

I think nurses do get paid well. I want to become a nurse and rise to the level of advanced A&E practitioner if I make it there I could earn up to £42 an hour.

There are many different roles in nursing.

Reply 16

ibysaiyan

Original post by skeanos

Because they get paid a fair bit for doing porno on the side.

It seems watching to much porn has distorted your view of reality... same goes for anything else taken to the extreme.

Reply 17

member398873

It depends what band you are. My mum is a band six junior sister and earns about £35k, I know that's not a doctors wage- but I wouldn't say it's little :s-smilie:

Reply 18

ibysaiyan

Nurses do get paid well...
My mom has been offered 22-25/ hour... on average nurses with great experience can get anywhere between 11 (minimum average) to beyond 25 ish.. again it depends on what band he/she's in along with previous experience and whether the job is being offered by a recruiting agency,nhs ,private,etc.

Reply 19

radio1

Original post by This Honest

What does that have to do with anything?

As I said earlier - there is no shortage, and if there was a shortage in the UK it's easy enough to fill the vacancies with outside the UK

This is the real world, where highly skilled people often end up in low paid jobs