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£1,100 Agency Nurse...
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Interesting story from my neck of the woods - although not my employer I must add.
Apparently the Trust in question paid over £1,000 for one shift through a nursing agency.
The question I have is "am I the only one offended by this cost"?
Apparently the Trust in question paid over £1,000 for one shift through a nursing agency.
The question I have is "am I the only one offended by this cost"?
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Seems to be appalling mismanagement. I'm honestly suprised that an agency which charges that amount gets any business - though by the sounds of it they won't anymore.
God knows how they negotiated over £1000 for one shift!
I know the only reason that agency nurses exist is because there is a demand, but maybe the NHS trusts should try to lessen that demand by hiring more nurses.
I find this annoying because the wards at my local hospital have trouble retaining staff for the simple reason that working conditions are awful on some wards because they won't hire enough staff to begin with.
She wouldn't get that amount. The agency would. She'd probably get £10 - £12/hour.
I still think that part of the blame lies with the NHS trust for creating the need to rely on these agencies in the first place.
Nope, fraid you've got the wrong person.
My offence is actually at the amount charged rather than at the managers involved. They have a duty to keep the A&E unit open, the nearest units are at leats an hour away and neither would cope if this was closed without increasing their own staff. As one of those units is actually the same Trust they obviously wouldn't be able to do that otherwise they would have moved staff around internally.
As for hiring more nurses (or another alternative suggested is to pay them more) this wouldn't work. Firstly, if the Trust could afford to hire more nurses and then have them sitting around "just in case" then the media would rightly compain about wasted resources. Secondly, nursing is specialised just as doctoring, physio etc is. So it's not just one nurse, but one for each area that you would need on standby. And how far do you take it? Clearly the Trust would have plans for more eventualities - this one has it's own internal agency arrangement but clearly this wasn't an option and they were forced to either pay a premuim or shut down. Rock. Hardplace.
With regards not working there, I don't know because the organisation in question has just been rated one of the top employers of Nursing staff in the country - by the RCN members...
Ultimately it is not possible to cater for all eventualities and the Trust seems to have been caught by that.
What pisses me off is that someone has taken advantage of that and charged a huge amount. Fine, supply and demand applies. But as usual the NHS is seen as a cash cow and someone has made a massive profit from that. At your expense. Remember this cost next time you hear someone say "where has all the NHS' money gone"...
I don't like agencies, I can see they have a place but I just get the feeling that they are just another parasite feeding from the NHS trough. They join the pharma industry, management consultants, builders, equipment supplies etc in that select group who I always feel think of a price and double it when they see an NHS logo...
no ...the agency take the pie ...leave a few crumbs for the worker ...but probably a few more crumbs than your getting.
has to be that way to make it worth working for them.
you get your monthly salary ...you have security ...the agency staff can often be unemplyed for weeks.
She/he'd be a fool if they did. Agencies generally pay more than NHS rates. But then the work isn't guaranteed...
I understand that the managers had a duty to keep the A&E open and if that nurse was the only one avalible then they had to use her.
I suppose that A&E is different to most other wards because the workload can very greatly. I assumed that the reason why they didn't have enough staff was because they didn't employ enough.
I only know from my own experience in my own trust where their are certain wards which have staff shortages because they won't hire enough staff to begin with. Which means it's not uncommon to have one staff nurse covering a ward of 35 patients. This causes massive problems with staff retension. I personally wouldn't want to work in such an enviroment.
From what I have seen this is completely untrue. On my last placement two weeks ago one of the nurses worked a 14 hour shift instead of her 8 hour shift to cover a sick colleague. If there is a genuine problem because of illness I think a lot of nurses would do the same. It's when it happens on a regular basis that problems occur.
I don't think it says whether the manager was a ex-nurse. But even if he/she was then the emphasis should be placed on the ex part. It would be likely that they would be no longer registered with the NMC.
I'm not saying all nurses would put themselves out. But to say all nurses work to rule is blatently untrue. Most nurses feel they have a responsiblity to the patient care and therefore end up working past their 'home time' anyway.
I agree with Kentish, most nurses [and other healthcare workers] work to rule.. when their shift is over its over.. only if there is an emergency would they be obliged to stay over [and most would]. But, I have seen the odd nurse doing overtime to cover a sick colleague, infact one staff nurse came off a nightshift to do a long day, i.e. in total she worked 24 hours. [Apparently she is an insomniac...!?]
The Scottish nursing guild rates are:
For a RN in charge of a unit on a bank holiday, £56 an hour
For a RN in charge of a unit on a night/weekend - £31 an hour
For a RN in charge on a dayshift - £27
For a staff nurse [not in charge] £46, £25.50 and £20.75 respectively
Even an auxiliary gets 28.50 an hour on a bank holiday.
For reference, basic salary of a staff nurse is approximately a tenner an hour. Although should they work a bank holiday, will get allowances, usually time and two thirds for bank holidays and sundays. Time and a third for nights and saturdays.
It was either that or the unit closed [and the bosses don't want to lose their bonuses], fair dos to the lassie - would you turn down a £50 an hour shift.
Don't think so.
In the main, yes. There are those who will work longer shifts to cover, or because they are worried about a patient/family.
I'd love to have the opportunity to walk away knowing that someone else will continue with my work. Sadly I come in the next day just to pick up exactly where I left off...
Okay, I have some inside information and I know many of the people involved.
Many of the managers in the department/directorate are ex-nurses and to be fair they do maintain their registration by working on wards etc.
However, I was also interested by this comment and understand the sentiments.
then see how you cope when they don't need you for a week ...or two ...or three ...