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Nurses are not heroes.

That was a dangerous narrative perpetuated by the government and media at the height of Covid. It prevents them from being seen as human with human needs. Now it’s being used by the same media and government to justify the horrendous working conditions and pressure they are being put under.

Nurses stay unpaid after every shift to help their patients and colleagues. That’s great! Nurses are heroes ❤️

Nurses working through their breaks to help their patients. That’s great! Nurses are heroes. ❤️

Nurses are dealing with unalive and traumatic situations every day. Nurses are heroes ❤️

Nurses get beaten and abused on shift by patients and relatives but it’s ‘part of the job’. Nurses are heroes ❤️

There is nothing heroic about a person not getting adequate rest between shifts. An exhausted nurse should not be looking after anybody other than themselves. They are human.

There’s nothing heroic about a person not being able to provide themselves with adequate nutrition or hydration. They are human.

There is nothing heroic about not receiving proper support or acknowledgment of the trauma they go through every day. Same with assistants and paramedics. They’re still human.

There is nothing heroic about being black and blue by a patient or stalked by a relative and having to see them the next day. Not being able to do anything about it because it’s seen as ‘part of the role’.

There is a massive difference between ‘knowing what you’re getting into’ as a newly qualified nurse and treating them with disrespect, running them into the ground and expecting them to be ok with not having their basic needs met for the needs of the general public.

The nurses wages do not reflect their working conditions or the trauma they experience and have to heal from. They are human and grieve for their patients too. They don’t reflect that this a vocation requiring a degree. That nurses don’t just ‘make beds’, they insert tubes down peoples throats to breathe for them, take chest drains out, keep people alive with complex concoctions of medications they’ve mixed. And so much more.

The NHS has relied on the generosity of its nurses and assistant staff for too long. That generosity is wearing out. What we are being put through isn’t worth our wages anymore.

Stop advertising nurses as heroes and force the public and parliament to see us as the humans we are.

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The fact I was denied reasonable adjustments to enable me to take a course for professional development, and was laughed at by the educator for asking, shows how far the NHS still has to go in allowing neurodiverse staff the same opportunities as neurotypical staff.

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Unless you have been the sole nurse on a unit (whilst your one colleague is on break) finding a patient with no heart beat, call the crash team and initiate a CPR/resus attempt alone: you do not get to say the NHS has enough nurses.

At the moment, this is a scenario most NHS nurses worry about whilst going to work every day.

For each extra patient a nurse has outside the safe ratio of care, mortality for those patients raises 7%.

Steve Barclay, the Health Secretary’s, solution is that nurses should work harder. We’re already doing the work of 4 nurses, 2 assistants, the cleaner and cook. We are already exhausted.

Patients do not deserve to be treated by exhausted nurses.

Nurses deserve to be able to treat their patients whilst not compromising on self care.

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The demonisation by the media was a back handed move aswell. It would have taken less effort to sit and have a conversation with nurses than it would have to organise that.

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Leaving the NHS was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. I have had a 10 year career within it, holding various positions, most recently as a nurse within a busy cardiology unit. A sense of duty is ingrained in us from the moment we enter University and doesn’t really leave us. We are taught the NHS is the only option, with private and non-clinical options being rarely discussed and non-NHS clinical experiences as students being nearly non-existent. Nurses have been historically seen as subservient martyrs, drawing the mental image of the ‘Lady and the Lamp’. The fact it has been seen as a female dominated profession due to the women as carers stereotype hasn’t helped. It’s a poison that has been spoon fed into the minds of the general public, that nurses ‘knew what to expect’ on entering the profession. It’s led to public disdain for nurses demanding better working conditions as ‘patients should come first’. No nurse would contradict this statement. However, the implication of this is that nurses are being expected to ignore their own, essential needs in favour of others. They need adequate rest, to feel safe on shift, hydration and nutrition. Nurses are still human. Without being able to care for themselves, they wouldn’t be able to care for their patients. 23% of nurses consider unaliving themselves. I was one of them. Resilience is crucial as a nurse due to the range of traumatic experiences we witness, but not to the point of expecting us to respond like robots. A sense of duty is important, but caring for our own physical and mental health is more important.

Nurses aren’t martyrs. They are highly educated professional and deserve their basic needs met.