‘I finish most shifts feeling guilty and remember things I didn’t have time to do’

Nursing isn’t what I expected it to be, there’s never enough time for patient contact which really saddens me. Nurses are now mainly office-based and have to delegate the patient contact to healthcare workers. I often class a good shift as one where I have managed to sit down and talk to someone who needed me. I finish most shifts feeling guilty and wake up in the middle of the night and remember things I didn’t have time to do. The stress of the job is unbelievable.

The pay conditions really anger me. Working in mental health can be a risky job where staff are assaulted and have to face quite a lot of abuse. I do not think it is fair that I only get paid around £10 an hour, which is a lot less than my friends who do low-level administration work in offices where they get paid to answer the phone. The government is relying on the good nature of nurses to continue doing their job because they care. 
Kate Clayton, 15 months post-qualified, mental health nurse, Staffordshire

‘Nurses are a force to be reckoned with – I think that has become more prominent in recent years’

Before I began nursing I didn’t really see nurses as specialists or professors. It was only during my nursing studies and hospital placements that I began to realise the breadth of opportunities within nursing and the new found confidence nurses have. Nowadays we all work as a multidisciplinary team (MDT) and nurses work more closely with doctors and allied healthcare professionals. We, as nurses, are encouraged to speak up, ask questions and play a bigger part in the MDT and in our patients’ care plans. We also now have so many different opportunities for nurses like specialist roles, research and education. I think in the future we will see a lot more nurses going on to do the likes of PhDs and more specialist training. We are a force to be reckoned with and I think that has definitely become more prominent in recent years.
Bebhinn O’Dowd, 12 months post-qualified, critical care research nurse (specialising in major trauma), London

‘We are constantly working more hours than we should because it’s so short-staffed’

There is so much responsibility in modern nursing. You literally have people’s lives in your hands. It’s a big burden for a 22-year-old. Some older nurses have told me that in the past we would have been slowly fed into the system instead of being thrown in and immediately pushed to the limits. We are constantly working more hours than we ever should because it’s so short-staffed.

It seems more of an uphill battle to get what is deserved and to get the kind of respect nurses used to get - Liv Webster 

Pay is of course something my friends and I rant about and some people who I studied nursing with have already changed their career path – we’re not even 18 months qualified. A lot are being pushed into private sectors and agency work so the NHS is losing valuable members of the team who can’t deal with the pay when they have families to support. Having said that I absolutely love my job and wouldn’t do anything else.

Ella Clarke-Billings, 14 months post qualified, surgical nurse, London

‘I didn’t realise the monumental amount of paperwork that nursing incorporated’

I went straight into the private sector due to more opportunity. I would have preferred to work for the NHS at the time but in my specialism I found it very hard to get into. I wanted to be a liaison nurse, which is a role to support people with a learning disability while they are in hospital, but people don’t seem to leave those jobs once they’re in them as they are so good to have. There is definitely more room for climbing the ladder in the NHS but that’s not what interests me. For me, getting the right healthcare for my service users and supporting them to have the best quality life they can is what’s most important. It’s why I wanted to become a nurse – to be the voice for those that couldn’t be heard and that’s what I can do in the company I work for.

I didn’t realise the monumental amount of paperwork that nursing incorporated. I definitely thought it would be more hands-on than it is. It seems more of an uphill battle to get what is deserved and to get the kind of respect nurses used to get, especially in my specialty which other health professionals seem to deem as useless. People don’t view learning disability nurses as proper nurses as we deal a lot with the social side and not just the medical side of care. I have even had family members joke that I’m not a proper nurse; when you aren’t given that level of respect it can really deflate you.
Liv Webster, 15 months post-qualified, learning disabilities nurse, Lichfield

‘Coming into nursing is different but it’s important to see it as a vocation rather than a job’

Nursing has certainly changed since I started in the early 1970s. The introduction of technology has had a big impact. I’ve seen the introduction of electronic health records, email and e-learning, and this kind of innovation has helped improve the practice of learning for the benefit of patients and carers. Many nurses had to adapt to the change and for some it was a difficult time as they did not have the computer skills required. For new nurses this will never be a problem as the way they study is academic and they have been brought up with technology.

But ultimately a good new nurse will have the same core skills and qualities, such as empathy and compassion, as when I trained. Coming into nursing now is different but it is even more important now that those entering see it as a vocation rather than a job. It is a hard career albeit rewarding.
Helen Smith, 41 years post qualified, mental health matron and ward manager, West Midlands

Source: Guardian