r/NursingUK

Just back from maternity leave and have been granted set days due to lack of childcare. Why do other nurses see this as something to be angry about or moan about? As soon as I was asked by another colleague what I’m doing such as doing part time or full time etc I said I was part time with set shifts, she said passive aggressively when she had her children she had to put them into nursery 5 days a week and just get on with it. Followed by other nurses claiming they had so support so the same should be for me. Baring in mind I’m in my 20s and they are mostly in their 50s. Why do the older generation nurses hate to see flexibility and managers actually supporting staff. It’s the culture of well if I suffered everyone else in the younger generation should suffer too. Surely you’d want your colleagues to actually come in on set days and help staff the ward rather than having to leave their jobs.

I finally got a job as a theatre nurse! After 7 failed interviews I was successful on the 8th one.
It got so bad that one of the hospitals that I’ve been interviewed in (3 times) made mockery of me and asked me if I wasn’t searching other places like care homes.
I’ve been sooo excited cause I didn’t just get a job, I got a job in my dream hospital and my dream role!
I can’t wait to begin my career and I’m ready for all it has in store for me.

Theatre nurses, any advice please?

So good news after approx 200 applications on indeed and being rejected to even volunteer, I am finally going to be working as a nurse again 🥹

It’s a community role and I am just so excited and can’t wait to start.

However, due to the excitement I went overboard and ordered cake to celebrate
In the past 30 minutes I’ve eaten

15 bueno Dutch pancakes
A whole tray of old school cake and custard
A whole tray of Oreo cake
A tub of ice cream

I’ve took it too far, can barely breathe and fear I might actually die before my start date.

What is your take home pay after taxes and everything for band 5 nurses (all ranges)? I’m just trying to make sure I’m planning appropriately. I know talking about pay can sometimes be frowned upon so I appreciate anyone willing to discuss it
❤️❤️❤️

I’m not going to make a generalisation here however I’ve been seeing a lot of post on facebook slating nurses now. I know this will be a small minority however way do retired nurses look down on us that we are all on our phones, stuffing our mouths chatting. We don’t they see we care as much as them. Why do they constantly have to put us down ? It feels like we are getting put down by everyone at moment it’s so so disheartening

I’ve copied one the comments I couldn’t help but comment back that we do actually nurse

‘100% in my day we were at the bedside every patient was ours not just a few. on the wrong side of the coat a few times. when one asks for something the reply " I am not your Nurse I will get your nurse" does my nurse turn up NO, have I been made aware of my nurse NO. There is no real nurses today. It was a vocation in my day, wanting to care for people. Now it is a career ladder only worrying how to climb up the next grade, tail end licking on the way.
Grading killed nursing, put nurse against nurse as the favourd ones got the higher grades’

I could put loads more like it I feel what’s the point no one hears us

This question has been bugging me for a while, and I just want to hear others views/perspectives.

So, for context, I've been qualified for 18 years, I've worked in Emergency/Acute medicine for the large majority of my career and yet in the last 18 months I have seen an increasing amount of patients (mostly young women between 20-26) come into hospital with abdominal pain of unknown origin, with nausea and vomitting. They have all been under Gastro, (we get a lot of Gastro outliers on my ward) none of them were allowed to have IV cyclazine. No allergy, no side effects. Just point blank refusal to prescribe.

For example, one young girl had horrific nausea and vomiting linked to a gallbladder issue and hadn't kept anything down for 48 hours. She'd had ondansetron with limited effect but it was documented in her notes that "patient cannot have IV cyclazine due to drug seeking behaviour" one of our senior doctors relented and allowed her one dose and she was like a different person. She ate and drank and looked so much better. I spoke to the doctor later and they said they were limiting how much she could have because they didn't want her to become addicted to it.

I have seen people become confused and disoriented after having it, it is listed as a side effect that it can make people feel dizzy, and yet in all my years of practice, I've never heard of it being addictive until recently. Is it a new thing? I'm happy to be educated but refusing anti nausea meds seems sort of counterintuitive if someone has been vomiting for multiple days.

What does everyone else think?

Are we allowed to run for political office such as local counsellors?

Politics can often be very polarised and although nurses shouldn't bring political beliefs into work, i find that some political opinions are viewed as fine and some are frowned upon.

For example I see loads of nurses with pride badges, free Palestine, or talk about going to protests and actively support left political parties like Green. But if someone said they were going to attend reform marches and actively promoted it/ talked about it in work, there may be some criticism/ backlash.

I imagine there wouldn't be a perceived issue by a nurse running for independent or Greens but if they ran for Restore or Reform, it might be different.

Does anyone know the answer for this?

To be clear, I don't care about someones individual political beliefs. I just want to know if the NMC discourages or doesn't allow nurses to run for political office.

Hi, can I ask what is the best way I can give thanks to all the nurses who are currently keeping my grandkid alive? Today seems like a good day to do that.

I really appreciate everything they are all doing and say thank you at the end of every chat but that's not enough for me.

I'd like to take in some food or gifts or something, so what sort of things do nurses appreciate?

Years ago when my child received training for her first insulin pump we took in a couple of boxes of expensive chocolates for the team. It fell short, they couldn't have been less interested. It would have been ironic if they didn't want the chocolates because of the diabetes angle.

In light of the current local election results, assuming it continues and Reform get in.. what are people’s thoughts about what happens to the NHS? What will it look like? What will happen to our jobs.. benefits such as sickness pay.. pensions?

I am completing the revalidation application via MyNMC and it is asking me to confirm that the person I have completed my reflective discussion with isn’t a family member or someone I have a “close personal relationship” with. I completed the reflective discussion with a friend last week who is a former nursing colleague of mine and I see them maybe 3 times a year. Would this be considered a close personal relationship?

Would I be better off re-doing the reflective discussion with someone else?

Update; I have called the NMC and they have advised that anyone you consider a friend cannot be used for your reflective discussion or as your confirmer…

Waiting to see if my trust are doing anything today. I did otherwise bring cake for the lads

Edit: I'm home! We got nothing and my manager said nothing. I personally don't care about getting a pat on the back, but our ward has been beat to death with short staffing and poor resources. I had to cover 8 extra shifts last month on top of my own and bank because of poor ratios. My trust didn't even post anything on their social media and we are a mostly nurse led trust. It would have been nice to be told we are appreciated for our hard work. Words are literally free!

My mate who works in private nursing said they only got a box of biscuits and a thanks so not a uniquely NHS problem

However, everyone enjoyed my costco cake

Hello everyone. Please I would like to know if research nurses are always responsible for recruiting patients for trials? I’m interested in research but don’t really like that aspect of it. Do you recruit patients in your role?

Now the first payslip is in with the new wage, has anyone actually found this to be useful.

With the increased tax, high cost living, hardly feels to be making any difference.

I am all for patient centered care and trying to accommodate everybody's needs but the situation is getting out of hand, it's common knowledge NHS doesn't have the funds and the facilities and that's nobody's fault, still I feel like everybody woke up and chose entitlement.

Literally on a daily basis I have people DEMANDING to be placed in a sideroom and literally on a daily basis I have to explain those are for clinical reasons only and not personal preference.

Nowadays my Trust has put a leaflet for "call for concern" on every patient's bedside table, that is for poorly people or if someone needs a second opinion urgently... once again it got misused. One of the Outreach nurse told us they audited the calls and a good 95% of them are complaints based on entitlement rather than actual clinical concerns, which is a waste of their precious time.

A few days back we had a patient who called PALS 3 times because they demanded to have a sideroom and the ward to let their 3 small children to stay overnight. I said absolutely not: visitors in general are not allowed to stay overnight unless they are carers, this person is in no condition to care for 3 toddlers and, I am sorry to say, this is not a nursery and I am not taking that responsibility on my back. This person and their family threatened to report us all to NMC because we are forcing them to neglect their children, our ward manager and matron stressed a thousand times it's against hospital rules for safety reasons and they have to arrange their own childcare.

I am extremely glad our management was on a side but still, wtf is going on with people? Why is everybody becoming so entitled? In other fields you are allowed to give Karens what they deserve but of course we can't, if anything we end up being everybody's punching bag and are left to deal with the drama. I am sorry to say but I barely get paid enough to do my job, let alone to reinforce everybody's unreasonable requests

I don't know why but today everybody is in a bad mood and you can see. We are once again short of staff, nobody picks up bank shifts in the week because the pay is shite so we are left to "go with the flow". It's Friday so we have to sort everything out for the weekend because of course in 2026 healthcare still runs on office hours, so if something is left for weekend Friday staff will be blamed.

We have a few difficult patients, physios put them on the chair and run away, 5 minutes after they want to go back in bed but will go on full dead weight mode; family gives me bad look because "just pull them up"... sure thing, why don't I just pull up someone twice my size so that we both end up injured?

Other departments are no help at all either. I already have PACU on my back calling every 5 minutes and sending me their lead because I won't take the patients back. Look, we are 2 people down, I am in charge and got my own patients, I am struggling to discharge people so I have no beds, what exactly do you expect me to do?

Then of course there is ton and ton of paperwork that is just time consuming, the damn phone won't stop ringing and people just turn up in the ward as if it's a walk in center.

I was already on a bad mood because of my personal life but that's my own problem, usually I am quite good at leaving it behind but nowadays it's getting more and more difficult, I'm pretty much on autopilot. Dear NHS, stop making me feel like I am failing the patients because you failed me big big time

I’ve been a qualified RMN since March 2020, I worked in a CMHT for the first few years then moved to primary care a couple of years ago. My primary care role usually involves working with patients with mild to moderate anxiety, depression, OCD etc.

I have always been slightly anxious as a nurse but recently I find my anxiety seeing patients to be much higher. I’m not sure why it’s suddenly got worse as I’ve not had any negative experiences with patients or had any issues raised by patients or my manager.

I just feel like I’m not good enough to be helping these people and don’t feel like I make much of a difference. I secretly wish for patients not to attend their appointments as it means I get a break and relieves my anxiety. I get butterflies in my stomach when I see they have arrived. I know this isn’t normal but it’s making me dislike the job and I feel completely drained by the end of the day. I’d like to think I hide this anxiety infront of the patients as I’m pretty good at masking how I’m really feeling.

I suppose I just wondered if anyone else has experienced something similar to this and how you got over it?

for context I’m nqn and my ward has this thing where you do obs when they flag, not at set times (which is how I’ve done it in all my placements so this confused me a bit upon starting but anyways got used to it).

i was on nights and there were two obs due at 750 am (I finish at 8 but we usually just go home after handover), but one patient he literally had no sleep and asked me not to bother him so I figured that the nurse in the morning could do it after her meds or during skin checks. the other lady when I went round was walking round the ward.

anyway she came in and I finished handover and she said why haven’t you done this I explained why and she went in and of course he was awake and the other patient was in bed. So she got really mad at me and my hca who I felt bad for because it was my decision to delay them.

the nurse associate doesn’t vibe with me or maybe she’s like this with everyone but Everytime I handover I get random questions that don’t seem relevant and sighs when I said I couldn’t get the bloods. little things like that I’ve not had from other staff members.

she got so mad at me about the obs and raised her voice in front of other staff members and I felt rly embarrassed. if she asked nicely I would’ve done it before I left, but I got a bit upset because she shouted at me in front of other staff members so I went home and said it’s only two obs.

anyway my hca said that she always complains to management so I emailed my manager the situation cos I didn’t want things being said without my aide. i mentioned in the email the work culture being negative and how I’ve been shouted at multiple times by some staff members &. how it’s effecting me coming into work but now I’m regretting sending that email cos I don’t want to be the drama I just want to get the experience and then leave for a more positive job :(

I feel like I should’ve just woken him up now to avoid drama and it might come back to me. Or just done them after handover when my shift ended, but it was being shouted at that made me just want to go

if im in wrong ill probs apologise when I next see her but i dont know if me being emotional is clouding my judgement or i should stick up for myself i need some guidance 😭

It’s shit for everyone, especially the unemployed nurses, don’t get me wrong. I’m just fed up of my job though and I want a new nurse job but there aren’t any in my trust or they are hyper competitive.

Very long one apologies
Not sure if this belongs in this subreddit but if I could get any advice from anyone that’s been in the same situation, I would be grateful 🙏🏾

My partner feels like “I’m not showing them love” when I’m too tired to be overly excited to see them. For context I work in a busy ICU just started after moving from a much quieter unit so it’s taking some serious getting used to. We have been together for almost 4 years live apart and I usually go to work from their house as it’s closer to my new job.

Yesterday and today I had two very busy shifts on my feet all day. Was just able to stuff food in my mouth during break times type of busy. I try to communicate with my partner through the day via text but they usually understand if I don’t reply in hours I’m very busy. They’re usually okay and very understanding about that.

So yesterday after my shift I came back to theirs and immediately went to be slept from 9pm that’s how tired I was I noticed their behaviour was odd quiet and reserved. But I was polite I said hi made small convo mentioned my hectic day and said I’m going to bed. The next morning they made a comment that implied they where sad last night cause I wasn’t as bubbly as I usually am, I kinda brushed it off as I was rushing for work and genuinely didn’t want to hear it. Today I’ve finished work they’ve picked me up from the station and it’s immediately awkward I try to make some small talk but it doesn’t really go anywhere and I kinda leave it cause again on my feet all day , I just didn’t have the mental capacity. We get back in the flat I just lie down we have a few short convos about some stuff but nothing too deep. They then go “I haven’t been feeling the love” I try to explain very tired, my behaviour has nothing to do with them and more due to the fact that uno 12 hr shift on my feet all day. I just need to settle and decompress. But I did also mention in no way was I mean or moody I was just simply quiet, just kept to myself before I can start processing the real world. To preface they are usually really touchy, loud and playful type of person. I can be too just not when I’m tired. Whilst I understand they may feel a bit “unloved” because I’m not my usual bubbly self , but at the same time how do I effectively relay that I genuinely not mad or sad I’m just tired ? They seem to get so offended and make it about themselves, but now I’m offended cause you know I’ve had a long day at work, you can see the fatigue in my attitude and the way I look yet you somehow turn it around to “.your not showing me love”??? It genuinely is making me mad the more I think about it

I did bring this point up to which they replied “you can’t say I can’t feel that way” which is true but how do I say that is none of my concern if me distressing after a long day makes you feel not loved ? In the nicest way possible

Has anyone had a partner who just dosent get it a d how did you make it click for them ?