A nurse who works in Oxford says she is striking after staff shortages and low wages left her feeling “burnt out” and providing care she does not feel is her best.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) announced it would undertake strike action, for the first time in its history, after balloting members over industrial action in a pay dispute.
The RCN argues low pay is driving understaffing, which puts patients at risk and leaves nursing staff feeling overworked, underpaid and undervalued.
Nurses across Oxford, and the wider UK, first walked out on December 15 and are doing so again today (December 20).
The RCN is demanding a pay rise of 5 per cent above the RPI inflation rate – which currently stands at more than 14 per cent.
A psychiatric nurse who works at Littlemore Mental Health Centre in Sandford Road, but wishes to remain unnamed, told the Oxford Mail her experience of working on wards where a majority of the time less than half of staff are regular.
The 23-year-old explained many NHS wards now rely on agency workers to make up the shortfall of nurses.
She said: “They are not expected to do as much because they do not know the wards or the processes. That increases our workload so much and makes our job so stressful
“Part of the reason people go into agency work is that you get paid so much more, with much less responsibility.
“Alongside this, you do not have the stress in your life always worrying about your patients and how they are going to be on your next shift because they do not work on the same ward every time.”
The anonymous nurse believes that if nurses were given higher wages this would significantly boost morale, encourage people to stay in the profession and improve the quality of patient care.
“If our wages were increased there would not be so many people leaving and there would be less need for agency workers.
“Yes, it might be more expensive in the short term for the NHS but in the long term it would save the NHS so much money.
“As well as this, people would have job satisfaction and they would be less stressed as all the regulars would know what they are doing - it would improve everything massively,” she explained.
She hopes the industrial action will make a difference however she admits nurses do not actually want to be on strike and feel they have been forced into this position by low wages.
“A lot of the people who are doing nursing actually care about people and when you care about people you know that going on strike going to affect them.
“That is why this has taken so long – because we care about our patients,” she added.
RCN general secretary and chief executive Pat Cullen said: “For many of us, this is our first time striking and our emotions are really mixed. The NHS is in crisis, the nursing profession can’t take any more, our loved ones are already suffering.
“It is not unreasonable to demand better. This is not something that can wait. We are committed to our patients and always will be.”
An Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust spokesperson said: "The Trust has robust plans in place to ensure our patients, carers and staff in both community health and mental health services are kept safe during strikes, while delivering the best care possible.
"We are continuing to work closely with union representatives to make sure we can continue to provide key services on these days."
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This story was written by Sophie Perry. She joined the team in 2021 as a digital reporter.
You can get in touch with her by emailing: sophie.perry@newsquest.co.uk
Follow her on Twitter itssophieperry
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