Thread by @AmyFoxMcNally

As a librarian, it's my job to help distinguish reliable & accurate sources of information & debunk misinformation (regardless of intent) & disinformation (intended to mislead).With the @theRCN members voting to strike, let’s look at some of the misleading information. A thread🧵

Nursing is a highly skilled graduate profession, not a vocation. It is risk-oriented & patient safety focused. There’s a lot of talk about nurses being paid on average £35,500. That figure is indeed an average; it takes into account the most highly specialised nurses & managers.

In Wales, newly qualified nurses start on band 5 at £27,055 & progress to £32,934 after 4 years, which is the highest salary they can receive, without applying for a new job at a Band 6. Here’s a link to the NHS pay bands 2022-23: bit.ly/3UvgMqN

It’s not just nurses that are eligible to strike, it’s also nursing staff, so that includes healthcare assistants & healthcare support workers. Typically, these are on a band 2 or 3 on the #NHS #AgendaForChange pay bands, £20,758-£23,177.

These key workers, who provide care & support for patients so that nurses can do their highly specialised job of nursing, are essential to the wellbeing of patients.

This Tweet from @DHSCgovuk is disinformation. It leaves out the bottom of band 6 & implies that nurses progress automatically from the bottom to the top of band 5 (as they do) & conflates this with progressing to the top of band 6 (they do not). This means applying for a new job.

So why don’t nurses get a better-paid job, or leave? This is the issue. Chronic understaffing at the @NHSuk is due to a difficulty in recruiting & retaining nursing staff. Evidence shows they work hours beyond their paid shifts for free, to plug the gaps left by vacancies.

It’s not dissimilar to saying to the striking teachers in Scotland (@EISUnion) that if they want more money than they should all become headteachers. Then who is left to teach?

If a nurse applies for a band 6 job & leaves their band 5 role, that vacancy still exists & still needs to be filled. This is about #SafeStaffing levels for patients to receive care,without nurses being stretched so thinly that they are covering vacant posts as well as their own.

But won’t patients be at risk? The @theRCN is committed to ensuring any industrial action it initiates has the preservation of patient safety at its core. A way of maintaining this & safe staffing is through derogations, which happens on bank holidays such as Christmas Day.

A derogation is an exemption provided to a member or a service from taking part in strike action, ensuring critical care, preservation of life, & patient safety is paramount. More info here 👉 bit.ly/3ht9aXb

If the job of nursing is being portrayed as 'too important' for staff to go on strike, then it should equally be paid fairly to reflect this,so that we have a workforce of #nurses for the future. #FairPayForNursing #NursesStrike #SafeStaffingSavesLives #RCN #RoyalCollegeOfNursing