The Student Room Group

How much should nurses be paid?

After recent headlines about all non-EU workers earning under £35k being deported, it is clear the nursing workforce will be affected by this drop in the number of nurses in the UK.

Nurses start work on £21,692 and only very few will ever reach the £35k figure,

So how much do you think nurses should be paid?

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Could always train them here, but that would destroy the pro mass immigration propaganda "the NHS would collapse without foreign nurses"
Do very few really earn over 35k? Wow:redface:
Original post by Mrs House
Do very few really earn over 35k? Wow:redface:


It can take years to get close to that amount for some people
Original post by claireestelle
It can take years to get close to that amount for some people


On the other hand if they do further training they'd be on that salary after a couple of years and sky rocket past it if they become a nurse consultant.
Original post by amyc123
After recent headlines about all non-EU workers earning under £35k being deported, it is clear the nursing workforce will be affected by this drop in the number of nurses in the UK.

Nurses start work on £21,692 and only very few will ever reach the £35k figure,

So how much do you think nurses should be paid?


I recon we should start on around a grand higher and more for London areas considering teachers can start on that much and would be nice for public sector salarys to be similar to each other, and although it ll never happen maybe just having nhs salaries to increase with inflation would be a good start.
Original post by Helloworld_95
On the other hand if they do further training they'd be on that salary after a couple of years and sky rocket past it if they become a nurse consultant.


Really a couple of years :tongue: ?
You can't pay for that training yourself so you have to convince your trust to second you for it which takes to time and experience , no one gets to consultant level without putting in a good few years first.
Reply 7
Original post by Helloworld_95
On the other hand if they do further training they'd be on that salary after a couple of years and sky rocket past it if they become a nurse consultant.


How would they be on that in a couple of years? I agree about the consultant part but very few senior and experienced nurses become nurse consultants, and I don't know of any who are only a couple of years post-qualification.
Reply 8
Original post by thesabbath
Could always train them here, but that would destroy the pro mass immigration propaganda "the NHS would collapse without foreign nurses"


I agree that more student nurses should be trained. But there just isn't the capacity to find placements and mentors for the amount of student nurses that will be needed in the next few years, many universities are struggling to ensure the students they have at present are on suitable placements.
Original post by amyc123
How would they be on that in a couple of years? I agree about the consultant part but very few senior and experienced nurses become nurse consultants, and I don't know of any who are only a couple of years post-qualification.


I d thought you needed a masters and be working towards a PHD to be a consultant so couldn't even do it 5 years post qualification let alone 2 so no idea where they got that idea from.
Original post by claireestelle
I d thought you needed a masters and be working towards a PHD to be a consultant so couldn't even do it 5 years post qualification let alone 2 so no idea where they got that idea from.


We had a lecture on infection control in hospitals from a nurse consultant this year, who said that nurse consultants typically have 10-15 years' experience before becoming a consultant, just like consultant pharmacists in hospital.
Original post by thegodofgod
We had a lecture on infection control in hospitals from a nurse consultant this year, who said that nurse consultants typically have 10-15 years' experience before becoming a consultant, just like consultant pharmacists in hospital.

Makes sense why there's so few consultants with the many students choosing to do nursing with so many getting into the profession at an older age. Being a nursing consultant is certainly not for me for sure.
More than they are currently. I think nurses are generally very unappreciated.
Original post by claireestelle
Makes sense why there's so few consultants with the many students choosing to do nursing with so many getting into the profession at an older age. Being a nursing consultant is certainly not for me for sure.


Oh really, why is becoming a consultant not for you (if you don't mind me asking)? I hopefully want to make it as a consultant cardiology pharmacist within 15 years of registering as a pharmacist, hopefully as an independent prescriber too :wink:
More than what people get paid to do Minecraft videos on Youtube, that's for sure. Sucks how it works the way it does.
Original post by thegodofgod
Oh really, why is becoming a consultant not for you (if you don't mind me asking)? I hopefully want to make it as a consultant cardiology pharmacist within 15 years of registering as a pharmacist, hopefully as an independent prescriber too :wink:


A few reasons, mainly I don't think I ve the academic ability to do a masters let alone a PhD. There isn't a lot of scope to become a consultant in mental health , it d be much harder than if I was in physical health and to be honest I m not sure I d want all the responsibilities of being a consultant and I want a family with at least 2 kids so working that round consultant training might mean missing out on them growing up per say.
Cardiology , quite an interesting choice:smile:
Original post by amyc123
After recent headlines about all non-EU workers earning under £35k being deported, it is clear the nursing workforce will be affected by this drop in the number of nurses in the UK.

Nurses start work on £21,692 and only very few will ever reach the £35k figure,

So how much do you think nurses should be paid?


Every other professional course leading to a vocation has a higher starting pay. My sister started her first social work post at 23 grand and the next year it rose to 25 grand. She now works as a recruitment social worker and earns 27 grand, but she's only been a social worker for 4 years. Teachers, police officers, doctors, etc all have a higher starting salary than nurses and better upwards movement. While I would love to see nurse salary rise, I don't think it can ever equal current inflation rates, nurses most likely will always be paid less than what they need to be paid to live in current climate.

I also find this new immigration claim really stupid. MOST British people will never earn that kind of money, so why force this figure on migrants.
Original post by Mrs House
Do very few really earn over 35k? Wow:redface:


Less than an 1/8 of nurses are band 7 and above. Even most ward sisters don't earn near that kind of money.

Original post by Helloworld_95
On the other hand if they do further training they'd be on that salary after a couple of years and sky rocket past it if they become a nurse consultant.


Further training requires time and money and commitment. If you have a family or if you enter nursing at an older age (our oldest student is 63), then it's unlikely you'll ever be able to move past band 5 and band 6. Nurse consultants take years of training, often masters and having a PhD. Also nurse consultants don't earn a huge amount of money. They're on band 7-9, which can vary between £40,000 to £60,000. I know that's a lot of money, but when you consider the time commitment required, there are lots of other jobs where you can get to that salary point much faster. Also consultant positions aren't widely available on many wards. They're usually in specialist area's like critical care, A&E and specialisms like pain and infection control. Very rarely do you find elderly care nurse consultants or general med-surg nurse consultants. Also if you go on the NHS jobs site you'll find very nurse consultant positions available, they are not widely promoted as there isn't a great need for them - I respect what they do, but they most carry out research and deal with management, they don't actually have that much patient contact. The government doesn't need nurse consultants, they need bedside nurses.
Original post by Absorbaloff

I also find this new immigration claim really stupid. MOST British people will never earn that kind of money, so why force this figure on migrants.


They should at least make it a bit above the national average of £34k. I do feel that nurses, along with physios, ots and other band 5s at least deserve to start on 22.5/23k as teachers do. I m not sure anyone would ever agree we should start on the same as doctors do though.
Original post by claireestelle
A few reasons, mainly I don't think I ve the academic ability to do a masters let alone a PhD. There isn't a lot of scope to become a consultant in mental health , it d be much harder than if I was in physical health and to be honest I m not sure I d want all the responsibilities of being a consultant and I want a family with at least 2 kids so working that round consultant training might mean missing out on them growing up per say.
Cardiology , quite an interesting choice:smile:


Yeah, various forms of CVD run in my family, so I have quite a personal interest in cardiology :smile:

Hmm, so what do consultant nurses do? Do they perhaps run their own clinics as some nurse practitioners do (but perhaps at a more advanced level / with more autonomy)? I'm not too sure what the role is like for pharmacists either, as there aren't that many consultant pharmacists around haha, it's a protected job title and has only relatively recently been introduced into practice.

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