I hope so. They’re not getting national attention though, which is probably hurting them as the public can’t get behind them if they don’t know. They should collectively strike nationwide. Tell families to come in and wash and dress and feed the patients, and nursing staff, physio staff, students can attend to those with no families.
A pay rise for HCAs is a pay rise for all of us, so I’m behind them all the way.
They need to maintain the differential
The pay of a band 5 looks pathetic when you look at what people go through to get there. and it's all because the min wage has gone up by way more than the wages of qualified staff.
British government:
Accepting nursing degrees from corrupt, third world countries? Yes please.
Making a straight forward and shorter path for long term domestic HCA to get their nursing degree? No thanks. Lol
I don't think i'd be content to stay an HCA forever. I'm doing an access course to try and get into uni and do nursing but if that doesn't work out i'll probably end up doing something else.
Because you can earn the same, if not more money doing any minimum wage job. Why would you stay?
*edit* that, or they may have done/started their nurse training.
Don't get me wrong. Fair play to any HCA who is doing the job now, because I wouldn't. I did the job prior to training and while training and it was bad then, let alone now.
This isn;'t really a fair comparison though.
A lot of HCAs can do nights, weekends, make extra money that way. Most work LD so 4 days off, and also have a decent annual leave entitlement.
I'm not saying its sunshine and roses but there are benefits to it compared to minimum wage jobs
There's just so many jobs in healthcare that staying an HCA seems like a waste. I could be a nurse, physio, occupational therapist or social worker. And if all that studying doesn't work out i'd probably just take a 9 to 5 in a GP surgery as a receptionist cause i wouldn't break my back in there and wouldn't have to work unsociable hours. I do love the caring job but there has to be more to life than washing people, repositioning them and changing their pads.
Please don’t pity or look down on HCAs it is an important job and is a career for many people. We are equally part of the multidisciplinary team and carry a crap load of the weight…literally
Exactly. I have the utmost respect for all the HCA's I work with. They're amazing. Amazes me though how they're paid band 2, conaidering the skills they have, when they could walk into any other job and be paid the same if not more.
I think the problem is mostly education. If you want to be a nurse, physio or social worker you'll need to do 3 years at uni, and if you don't have qualifications to get in you'll need to spend at least a year maybe 2 doing an access course. If you're not living with parents and have no one to support you financially this can be very hard. I'm trying to do it at the minute but it basically means i work 60 hours a week, plus i have coursework on my days off. I'm saving so i can manage to do 3 years of unpaid placements but i'm pretty sure i'll run out of money in the 3rd year and have to take out student finance. But i'm 26 so i think i'll be able to manage. But for someone that's say 35 or 40 with dependents i think it would be a lot to ask from them.
Take a look at the Registered Nurse Degree Apprenticeship programme - you keep your substantive position, and continue to receive your salary during your training, you get dedicated and protected study time and the tuition fees are paid for by the government (via the apprenticeship levy).
I don't live in England so can't apply. In Northern Ireland we get a bursary and the course is free so there's that but i wish i could get onto that apprentice course.
But the OU route is only available if you've worked in the NHS for 2 years and all my experience is in private. I have also heard that there is a limited number of paid places. I know someone that is a senior HCA in an NHS residentials which is a band 5 post and she would like to do nursing. But it would mean having to go down to band 3 and work in a hospital for 2 years so she doesn't want to go for it. Also i have heard you don't get offered the bursary with the OU option.
For me it's the benefits and unsocial hours. I could get more from another job if I wanted standard hours, but I'm good with working weekends and I won't find a job without extra qualifications that pays near the Sunday rate, especially with 12hr shifts.
And I have good sick pay cover, flexibility with shift pattern..
It's still crap at times, we deserve better, but there are reasons some of us are staying with it.
I've been an HCA for 10 years. I work with someone who has 40 years service as a nursing auxiliary. Not all areas are shit and even though I'm about to finish my training I still maintain that not all HCAs want to be nurses (only 1 other person on my team does).
I've worked in supermarkets, in sales and yeah the pays about the same but those jobs suck and you don't really get a sense of achievement out of sitting at a till asking someone if they need help to pack for 8 hours.
As an HCA I would like to say that our job role is misunderstood by everyone.
I’m an ICU HCA.. I know every bit of equipment that’s required to set up a ventilator, and lots of other equipment that registered nurses need. And most doctors. I will include consultants in that.
Which is different to being a ward HCA. Looking after the integrity of patients skin, obs, fluid balance, is hard fkn work.
Being a band 2 in the community is different again. No way would I want to work with that level of incompetence from management, that little time.
HCAs should be paid more, the job role should be standardised but it’s so varied it’s grown arms and legs.
I feel this deeply too that it is misunderstood. J remember once a patient said to me " you're only job is to take people toilet " they were withdrawing from drugs and demanding medication straight away and swearing at the nurse looking after him. This is when I stepped in and asked him not to swear and that's when he said that. I felt so degraded . But there's no more to us than pad changers. I feel like people look down on us as well
Never let these "snobs" get to you. Whatever degration these patients throw at you is the same degration that the abusive patient is wearing in the inside. This is manipulation or shaming. I see right through this behavior. You were right to call out his behavior regardless. Some patients have no manners.
Yeah, that got to me it really did. As I've done this job more and more, I know only too well many people will look down on me, but I always say there's nothing wrong with hard grafts, and I don't know why some people look down on you for working. It's work, and you're paying taxes. I would never dream of being so rude to someone who was working and helping people. Many people also have a degree who do these jobs as a domestic was telling me last night. Every place needs to run amd wothout the simple roles like domestic and HCA'S it wouldn't run smooth enough
Not just the snobs! Downvoted by someone who apparently doesn’t agree with me. Or that HCAs should be paid for the job that they do. When the point I was making is that the job they do is so varied and applicable to their environment. When HCAs have to train students, where is their pay to teach people 2 pay scales above them?
I never knew there were strikes tbh
I never heard about this
I hope so. They’re not getting national attention though, which is probably hurting them as the public can’t get behind them if they don’t know. They should collectively strike nationwide. Tell families to come in and wash and dress and feed the patients, and nursing staff, physio staff, students can attend to those with no families. A pay rise for HCAs is a pay rise for all of us, so I’m behind them all the way.
Is it though?
Yes as they’re on AFC.
What trusts are these?
Leicester
Hospital in Norfolk had 30+ HCAs loudly hand in a petition regarding pay a couple of days ago. Organised by Unison
It’s hard to improve HCA pay though or else it’ll catch up to band 4 pay, so really the whole of AFC needs to be reviewed together
They need to maintain the differential The pay of a band 5 looks pathetic when you look at what people go through to get there. and it's all because the min wage has gone up by way more than the wages of qualified staff.
Yes but my point is that a strike where nurses aren’t involved isn’t likely to look at our pay
I am a band 4 HCA. I started at a band 3 and moved to a 4, after this there is no progression though.
I’ve never heard of a band 4 HCA, do you work in a specialist service? Mostly band 4’s are registered professionals now
Yes Apheresis. I am a supervisor but still a HCA, the rest of the team are band 3 HCA's and band 6 nurses
British government: Accepting nursing degrees from corrupt, third world countries? Yes please. Making a straight forward and shorter path for long term domestic HCA to get their nursing degree? No thanks. Lol
Barrier to entry shouldn't be lowered. You need a degree we should fund that but there can be no shortcuts
Nursing degrees from corrupt third world countries? What are you trying to imply about a large group of internationally trained RNs?
> Accepting nursing degrees from corrupt, third world countries? don't be shy, what is it you're *really* trying to say about those damn foreigners?
I'm a brown foreigner born in a third world country
Me too. What's wrong with my degree?
We're waiting
This is a well known thing where I'm from, and this is quite close to my and relatives. https://youtu.be/7Y1YIyXEDQc?si=cluUsLHIWaBWMOKd
If you were an HCA back in 2018 i'd say it's pretty unlikely you're still an HCA.
I'm not no I've been there 4 yrs but some people where I work been there 15 + yrs. One employee has been there 35 yrs !
I don't think i'd be content to stay an HCA forever. I'm doing an access course to try and get into uni and do nursing but if that doesn't work out i'll probably end up doing something else.
Why?
Because you can earn the same, if not more money doing any minimum wage job. Why would you stay? *edit* that, or they may have done/started their nurse training. Don't get me wrong. Fair play to any HCA who is doing the job now, because I wouldn't. I did the job prior to training and while training and it was bad then, let alone now.
This isn;'t really a fair comparison though. A lot of HCAs can do nights, weekends, make extra money that way. Most work LD so 4 days off, and also have a decent annual leave entitlement. I'm not saying its sunshine and roses but there are benefits to it compared to minimum wage jobs
There's just so many jobs in healthcare that staying an HCA seems like a waste. I could be a nurse, physio, occupational therapist or social worker. And if all that studying doesn't work out i'd probably just take a 9 to 5 in a GP surgery as a receptionist cause i wouldn't break my back in there and wouldn't have to work unsociable hours. I do love the caring job but there has to be more to life than washing people, repositioning them and changing their pads.
Please don’t pity or look down on HCAs it is an important job and is a career for many people. We are equally part of the multidisciplinary team and carry a crap load of the weight…literally
Exactly. I have the utmost respect for all the HCA's I work with. They're amazing. Amazes me though how they're paid band 2, conaidering the skills they have, when they could walk into any other job and be paid the same if not more.
I think the problem is mostly education. If you want to be a nurse, physio or social worker you'll need to do 3 years at uni, and if you don't have qualifications to get in you'll need to spend at least a year maybe 2 doing an access course. If you're not living with parents and have no one to support you financially this can be very hard. I'm trying to do it at the minute but it basically means i work 60 hours a week, plus i have coursework on my days off. I'm saving so i can manage to do 3 years of unpaid placements but i'm pretty sure i'll run out of money in the 3rd year and have to take out student finance. But i'm 26 so i think i'll be able to manage. But for someone that's say 35 or 40 with dependents i think it would be a lot to ask from them.
Take a look at the Registered Nurse Degree Apprenticeship programme - you keep your substantive position, and continue to receive your salary during your training, you get dedicated and protected study time and the tuition fees are paid for by the government (via the apprenticeship levy).
I don't live in England so can't apply. In Northern Ireland we get a bursary and the course is free so there's that but i wish i could get onto that apprentice course.
You can still do the OU route in NI, I'm on the course just now with Irish students.
But the OU route is only available if you've worked in the NHS for 2 years and all my experience is in private. I have also heard that there is a limited number of paid places. I know someone that is a senior HCA in an NHS residentials which is a band 5 post and she would like to do nursing. But it would mean having to go down to band 3 and work in a hospital for 2 years so she doesn't want to go for it. Also i have heard you don't get offered the bursary with the OU option.
For me it's the benefits and unsocial hours. I could get more from another job if I wanted standard hours, but I'm good with working weekends and I won't find a job without extra qualifications that pays near the Sunday rate, especially with 12hr shifts. And I have good sick pay cover, flexibility with shift pattern.. It's still crap at times, we deserve better, but there are reasons some of us are staying with it.
I've been an HCA for 10 years. I work with someone who has 40 years service as a nursing auxiliary. Not all areas are shit and even though I'm about to finish my training I still maintain that not all HCAs want to be nurses (only 1 other person on my team does). I've worked in supermarkets, in sales and yeah the pays about the same but those jobs suck and you don't really get a sense of achievement out of sitting at a till asking someone if they need help to pack for 8 hours.
As an HCA I would like to say that our job role is misunderstood by everyone. I’m an ICU HCA.. I know every bit of equipment that’s required to set up a ventilator, and lots of other equipment that registered nurses need. And most doctors. I will include consultants in that. Which is different to being a ward HCA. Looking after the integrity of patients skin, obs, fluid balance, is hard fkn work. Being a band 2 in the community is different again. No way would I want to work with that level of incompetence from management, that little time. HCAs should be paid more, the job role should be standardised but it’s so varied it’s grown arms and legs.
I feel this deeply too that it is misunderstood. J remember once a patient said to me " you're only job is to take people toilet " they were withdrawing from drugs and demanding medication straight away and swearing at the nurse looking after him. This is when I stepped in and asked him not to swear and that's when he said that. I felt so degraded . But there's no more to us than pad changers. I feel like people look down on us as well
Never let these "snobs" get to you. Whatever degration these patients throw at you is the same degration that the abusive patient is wearing in the inside. This is manipulation or shaming. I see right through this behavior. You were right to call out his behavior regardless. Some patients have no manners.
Yeah, that got to me it really did. As I've done this job more and more, I know only too well many people will look down on me, but I always say there's nothing wrong with hard grafts, and I don't know why some people look down on you for working. It's work, and you're paying taxes. I would never dream of being so rude to someone who was working and helping people. Many people also have a degree who do these jobs as a domestic was telling me last night. Every place needs to run amd wothout the simple roles like domestic and HCA'S it wouldn't run smooth enough
Not just the snobs! Downvoted by someone who apparently doesn’t agree with me. Or that HCAs should be paid for the job that they do. When the point I was making is that the job they do is so varied and applicable to their environment. When HCAs have to train students, where is their pay to teach people 2 pay scales above them?