Ok so I’m married to one but I’ve have some incredible care from others. This video sums it up.
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOCda6OiYpg&feature=youtube_gdata_player[/video]

It’s true they are truly great.

They are often forgotten about until they are needed and then forgotten again.
They should be paid double for the care they give.

Few people have harder jobs imho.

you cant say they are all great some are crap.

Amen to all the above.

nurses are awesome and there isn’t enough of them. I couldn’t put up with what they do.

what waller said

I’ve had the good (bad) fortune to have experienced the very best of nursing care and I consider myself to be very fortunate. True, there are some that might leave a little to be desired but on the whole my experience is more than positive.

(edit. Deleted self-pitying paragraph. MTFU & all that).

I think you’ve got to be a bit special to deal with some of the crap that nurses have to cope with every day – but they don’t seem (outwardly) to think anything of it and just cope. For most us, compare with normal life and go figure.

Stu

I am a nurse, so thanks for the support and all, But why do poets all speak in that funny voice?

Wife is a matron and I am very pro-nursing profession. As in all things there are committed, excellent nurses (immodestly I would suggest like Mrs JamJ) and the ones talked about above. However like all professions, there are also those who are in the job for the wrong reason, fail to show empathy and do not provide a good standard of care…

I have met plenty of lazy, stupid, miserable nurses, who were should never had entered their profession.
They also have very good pay and conditions, to say that the majority are under paid and overworked is nonsense.

I lived in a house full of them when I was a stoodent.

They are great and they are as mad as a bottle of chips, in a good way.

I trained as a nurse, and left the proffession before ever working in it as I was able to earn around the same money working as a bike mechanic.
My wife, who I met while training stuck with it and is now a nurse practitioner with quite a lot of qualifications. She’s worked very hard to get where she is, and yes she gets paid pretty well.
She does work ‘long days’ (7am to 10pm), deal with all manner of unpleasant people (nurse led walk in clinic in So’ton), have a lot of paperwork to deal with along with the clinical side. She gets to pay 2 sets of registration fees to her professional body as she’s both adult and paediatric qualified.
Mind you, she’s got a good pension (‘though not as good as it used to be), her length of NHS service entitles her to 8 weeks of anual leave (!!!!) and she gets regular progression related pay rises.
As I see it, many nurses aren’t paid badly. Most of them work very hard for that money though. Mind you, nursing is such a broad profession that it is a bit like lumping ‘engineeers’ together…

What do you see, nurses, what do you see?What are you thinking when you’re looking at me?A crabby old woman, not very wise, Uncertain of habit, with faraway eyes?Who dribbles her food and makes no reply When you say in a loud voice, “I do wish you’d try!” Who seems not to notice the things that you do, and Forever is losing a stocking or shoe….. Who, resisting or not, lets you do as you will, With bathing and feeding, the long day to fill…. Is that what you’re thinking?Is that what you see?Then open your eyes, nurse; you’re not looking at me. I’ll tell you who I am as I sit here so still, As I do at your bidding, as I eat at your will. I’m a small child of ten ….with a father and mother, Brothers and sisters, who love one another. A young girl of sixteen, with wings on her feet, Dreaming that soon now a lover she’ll meet. A bride soon at twenty — my heart gives a leap, Remembering the vows that I promised to keep. At twenty-five now, I have young of my own, Who need me to guide and a secure happy home. A woman of thirty, my young now grown fast, Bound to each other with ties that should last. At forty, my young sons have grown and are gone, But my man’s beside me to see I don’t mourn. At fifty once more, babies play round my knee, Again we know children, my loved one and me. Dark days are upon me, my husband is dead; I look at the future, I shudder with dread. For my young are all rearing young of their own, And I think of the years and the love that I’ve known. I’m now an old woman …and nature is cruel; ‘Tis jest to make old age look like a fool. The body, it crumbles, grace and vigour depart, There is now a stone where I once had a heart. But inside this old carcass a young girl still dwells, And now and again, my battered heart swells. I remember the joys, I remember the pain, And I’m loving and living life over again. I think of the years ….all too few, gone too fast, And accept the stark fact that nothing can last. So open your eyes, people, open and see, Not a crabby old woman; look closer …see ME!!

Married to a midwife, was a nurse, met loads of her colleagues over 20 yrs. For the most part they are pretty awesome people with huge compassion and care. There are always some who buck the trend.

We can only hope that the charming young lady in the video gives the equivalent enthusiasm, care and compassion when shes up to her neck on the ward.

I was an ICU nurse for 8 years, great job, humbling and life changing experience but the NHS is such a poor employer I left.

I was always amazed by my nursing colleagues willingness to be dumped on by management and do nothing about it.

All very nice of the student nurse to say those things, some she probably meant, but after 2 years of school learning she has a lot to learn.

But at least it got the nurses union on the tv.

Project, you describe the RCN as a union, you’ve obviously never been a member of it

I couldn’t do what the nurses who looked after me in ICCU do. Fantastic people.

http://www.rcn.org.uk/aboutus

Seems very like a union by another name to me.

From their website.

The RCN is the largest professional union for nursing in the UK, with around 400,000 members both in the NHS and the private and independent sectors. Whether you are a registered nurse, midwife, nursing student, nurse cadet, health care assistant or nursing auxiliary, you can join the RCN. As the only union in the UK which is specific to the nursing family, the RCN recognises your needs better than anyone else. As a member of the RCN, your views and experiences will help to shape the development of future nursing policy both in the UK and internationally.

It’s more that most members expect a union to stand up for them, challenge policy and protect them as conditions are eroded. They won’t even support a work to rule never mind industrial action. This is why I don’t view them as a union.

Edit- as a student nurse I was once invited to attend a meeting and dinner at their HQ in London, anyone who spoke out of line with general policy was cut short and afterwards they spent members subs on a silver service meal and got pissed on red wine, so in someways they a very much like a real union

I reckon the unbelievers have no nurses in their immediate circles. Very sad when one loses the love for it but hardly surprising that not everybody has the emotional resilience to withstand been treated like dogmuck by doctors, senior ward staff, patients and families alike.

The pay ain’t bad but I’m still not convinced their efforts aren’t worth more.

I dont subscribe to this nurses as ‘angels’ cobblers. Some are great, some are just downright horrific..whether its their work or their attitude to the job, colleagues or patients/relatives. Ive worked with examples of both over the years…for some it is a true ‘calling’ as such and for some it is simply a wage..couldnt think of anything better to do, or they wanted to get their degree/Masters etc and thought nursing was an easy way to get it.
I am a nurse BTW (in case you couldnt tell).

smogmonster – Member

I dont subscribe to this nurses as ‘angels’ cobblers.

Yep its like any other profession, some care some are just in it for a wage.

Sadly due to my wife’s MS we see more medical people than most would chose to do. I have to say 90% are superb & the remaining 10% are either snowed under or that small minority who DGAS.

Well my mrs says it was never a ‘calling’ for her, she did it so she could get into Australia! (that was about 30 years ago & she still hasn’t been)
However, she found her niche & is very lucky to be on an orthopedics/plastics kids ward in Leeds GI. She loves her job & the way she does it but hates the way it’s all run nowadays.
Chances are that if your child has had any time in Jimmy’s or the LGI for orthopedic or plastic surgery, my mrs will have been around at some point.
She says the worst part about the job is meddling, gobby, chavvy parents!

winston_dog – Member

I have met plenty of lazy, stupid, miserable nurses, who were should never had entered their profession.
They also have very good pay and conditions, to say that the majority are under paid and overworked is nonsense.

I guess we have the winner of todays top troll post.

Cock 😳

Technically I’m a nurse, all be it in a high secure prison setting. I have to agree that the vast majority are fantastic, however due to various reasons a very small minority are not that good.