We, Nurses and Midwives, like everyone else in the world didn’t sign up for a global pandemic but boy did we SHOW UP! We didn’t have the option to work from home, turned up when our own family were at risk, before vaccinations were available and at times without  access to appropriate PPE. We were given back handed complements of how good a job we had done but missed out of pay increases whilst our politicians got pay rises. We are denied workers Comp for Covid despite working in a Covid ridden environment with staff known as close contracts being made to continue to come to work – we get less sick days than teachers! We were at one point encouraged to have sick leave for any cold like symptom yet if we use our sick leave we have a “please explain” meeting with bosses for having more than 5 occasions of illness within 12 months! We are also mother / fathers/ sons and daughters and our families need us too. We are disrespected by this government with constant ignoring of ratios and no factoring of acuity. Not counting babies has been an issue for a long time but how can a baby of a sick Covid positive woman not be counted? They require observations, compete cares and monitoring when their mother who can not have a support person stay with her is ill and can’t tent to baby cares herself. These babies require nursing, observations and note taking yet are just an “added uncounted extra”.
a job we loved is becoming a constant cause of stress and fatigue. Compassionate nurses are slowing dying off from burn out.

Hospitals are not a business they are a necessity. Give us the conditions we require to do the job we are professionally trained for. Look after the nurse and you’ll have excellent nurses, neglect the nurse and you’ll have neglected patients.

Safer ratios, count babies, appropriate sick leave, and pay nurses what they deserve for nurses are the backbone to our healthcare as a nation.