Why do people become nurses if they know the pay and conditions are going to be terrible?
Surely we should expect a shortage of nurses considering how they’ve been treated over the year?
So brave.
They’re already fairly well paid.
I mean apparently the woman who won it did a
[Cat Impression](https://youtu.be/ba66JIr3zjs) on stage, so at least she took an opportunity to try and raise awareness on the only platform she has.
Is pay the problem, or is it it conditions of employment?
From what I can see in stats, Ireland is 8th in the world for nurses’ pay, but there’s a huge problem with conditions – over working, short staffing, chaotic management etc etc.
We also seem to have an issue with relying on temporary agency nurses to fill gaps, rather than just recruiting the numbers we actually need and ensuring they’ve a good career path within hospitals.
From what I can see most of Ireland’s healthcare issues are not about lack of financial resources, but rather about chaotic structures that have been just let evolve into situations that are not sustainable.
Unless we become number 1 is nurse pay in the world there will always be a gaggle who fuck off to get that extra money. And even if we did that unless we cut our cost of living too it will still happen.
Pay is only a piece of a larger issue.
That’s cringy as it gets.
I am an American who moved to Ireland two years ago for work. I have many friends who are nurses back home, and both the pay and conditions are very different. While the US has MANY issues with healthcare access, the quality of life for allied health professionals is very different. Factoring the dollar/euro conversion, the average ward nurse makes around 70k euro per year working a standard 36 hours workweek (3 12-hour shifts). Many nurses elect to work overtime, which pays 1.5 times your hourly wage for more than 40 hours a week, or 50 euro an hour. Income taxes in the US (the equivalent of PAYE/PRSI) is much, much lower so your net take-home pay is proportionally higher as well.
There are also staffing ratios for nurses that are heavily inforced both at the regulatory and union level. The usual nurse/patient ratio on a general low-acuity ward is 1:5, with 1:4 being more common. Critical care/ICU is usually staffed 1:1, although certain patients may allow a 1:2 ratio in this setting. In Ireland, many ward nurses have a 1:6 ratio, and it can be 1:12 on a night shift. There is also not an integrated EHR system in the HSE, and a nurse here would have to do a lot more manual data entry/admin tasks that a nurse in another region wouldn’t be doing.
While the US is an outlier in pay/conditions due to the private nature of the healthcare system, the ratios and compensation in other European/western countries are more competitive than Ireland. Ireland provides world-class medical/nursing education, however physicians and nurses flock to other EU countries, Canada, Australia, and the US in droves because of the pay, conditions, and work-life balance. My sister is a general ward nurse in Philadelphia, and all staff get a compuslory 2-3% annual increase (cost of living adjustment for normal inflation), they can also usually get a 5-10% raise/bonus based on performance, and there is room to advance within nursing to other salary grades as well. Staff were also given two generous spot bonuses during the pandemic, and there are also a plethora of stress management-work/life resources. I don’t believe that HSE nurses/staff, despite dealing with the pandemic and cyberattack, were given a bonus, and if they were it was not sizeable. However, they are able to pay their CEO 400k+ per year despite not really having executive level qualifications and inability to execute pragmatic efficiency changes. The systemic issues need to be fixed because it shouldn’t be seen as normal for a wealth developed nation like ireland to have people lining the hallways in trolleys.
Repost
If she had any dignity she’d have been boycotting the competition
No happy birthday
I am an RN in the US. When I graduated, almost 28 years ago, we actually had time to practice holistic care. I had time to get to know my patients on a personal level. Now, it’s all about $$$. The people who come up with nurse to patient ratios need to spend some time on the floor ot as an inpatient. People don’t always leave because of pay. They leave because of their managers or working conditions.
Who’s yer wan?
She is stunning
I work with lots of Irish Nurses, The problem isn’t the wages, it’s the lifestyle other countries can offer that Ireland can’t which is attractive. I’ve worked in Healthcare for 10 years and most Irish nurses go home or to the UK because its a quick trip home.
If you are young, about to hit college and want to travel the World then getting a degree in Nursing is an excellent choice, you can walk into nearly any country in the World and they will give you a job. My wife is a nurse and travelled the World with her degree. She met Irish nurses all over the world and then when she wanted, stopped and came home to walk into a job in Ireland
Not many jobs in the World you would be able to do the same, I can’t think of many
Is her costume supposed to resemble wonder woman? I’m guessing she is a nurse?
Healthcare hero – The second hand embarrassment.
By pounds or Kilos?
And butter and keoghs crisps, and doctors
They’re being replaced by nurses from the Philippines, no problem.
21 comments
Why do people become nurses if they know the pay and conditions are going to be terrible?
Surely we should expect a shortage of nurses considering how they’ve been treated over the year?
So brave.
They’re already fairly well paid.
I mean apparently the woman who won it did a
[Cat Impression](https://youtu.be/ba66JIr3zjs) on stage, so at least she took an opportunity to try and raise awareness on the only platform she has.
Is pay the problem, or is it it conditions of employment?
From what I can see in stats, Ireland is 8th in the world for nurses’ pay, but there’s a huge problem with conditions – over working, short staffing, chaotic management etc etc.
We also seem to have an issue with relying on temporary agency nurses to fill gaps, rather than just recruiting the numbers we actually need and ensuring they’ve a good career path within hospitals.
From what I can see most of Ireland’s healthcare issues are not about lack of financial resources, but rather about chaotic structures that have been just let evolve into situations that are not sustainable.
Unless we become number 1 is nurse pay in the world there will always be a gaggle who fuck off to get that extra money. And even if we did that unless we cut our cost of living too it will still happen.
Pay is only a piece of a larger issue.
That’s cringy as it gets.
I am an American who moved to Ireland two years ago for work. I have many friends who are nurses back home, and both the pay and conditions are very different. While the US has MANY issues with healthcare access, the quality of life for allied health professionals is very different. Factoring the dollar/euro conversion, the average ward nurse makes around 70k euro per year working a standard 36 hours workweek (3 12-hour shifts). Many nurses elect to work overtime, which pays 1.5 times your hourly wage for more than 40 hours a week, or 50 euro an hour. Income taxes in the US (the equivalent of PAYE/PRSI) is much, much lower so your net take-home pay is proportionally higher as well.
There are also staffing ratios for nurses that are heavily inforced both at the regulatory and union level. The usual nurse/patient ratio on a general low-acuity ward is 1:5, with 1:4 being more common. Critical care/ICU is usually staffed 1:1, although certain patients may allow a 1:2 ratio in this setting. In Ireland, many ward nurses have a 1:6 ratio, and it can be 1:12 on a night shift. There is also not an integrated EHR system in the HSE, and a nurse here would have to do a lot more manual data entry/admin tasks that a nurse in another region wouldn’t be doing.
While the US is an outlier in pay/conditions due to the private nature of the healthcare system, the ratios and compensation in other European/western countries are more competitive than Ireland. Ireland provides world-class medical/nursing education, however physicians and nurses flock to other EU countries, Canada, Australia, and the US in droves because of the pay, conditions, and work-life balance. My sister is a general ward nurse in Philadelphia, and all staff get a compuslory 2-3% annual increase (cost of living adjustment for normal inflation), they can also usually get a 5-10% raise/bonus based on performance, and there is room to advance within nursing to other salary grades as well. Staff were also given two generous spot bonuses during the pandemic, and there are also a plethora of stress management-work/life resources. I don’t believe that HSE nurses/staff, despite dealing with the pandemic and cyberattack, were given a bonus, and if they were it was not sizeable. However, they are able to pay their CEO 400k+ per year despite not really having executive level qualifications and inability to execute pragmatic efficiency changes. The systemic issues need to be fixed because it shouldn’t be seen as normal for a wealth developed nation like ireland to have people lining the hallways in trolleys.
Repost
If she had any dignity she’d have been boycotting the competition
No happy birthday
I am an RN in the US. When I graduated, almost 28 years ago, we actually had time to practice holistic care. I had time to get to know my patients on a personal level. Now, it’s all about $$$. The people who come up with nurse to patient ratios need to spend some time on the floor ot as an inpatient. People don’t always leave because of pay. They leave because of their managers or working conditions.
Who’s yer wan?
She is stunning
I work with lots of Irish Nurses, The problem isn’t the wages, it’s the lifestyle other countries can offer that Ireland can’t which is attractive. I’ve worked in Healthcare for 10 years and most Irish nurses go home or to the UK because its a quick trip home.
If you are young, about to hit college and want to travel the World then getting a degree in Nursing is an excellent choice, you can walk into nearly any country in the World and they will give you a job. My wife is a nurse and travelled the World with her degree. She met Irish nurses all over the world and then when she wanted, stopped and came home to walk into a job in Ireland
Not many jobs in the World you would be able to do the same, I can’t think of many
Is her costume supposed to resemble wonder woman? I’m guessing she is a nurse?
Healthcare hero – The second hand embarrassment.
By pounds or Kilos?
And butter and keoghs crisps, and doctors
They’re being replaced by nurses from the Philippines, no problem.