Most underpaid profession?

slimfandango

ringo_24601 wrote: »

I'll look at my wife's profession - A&E nurses. They need degree level qualifications. They work very long hours, under high pressure with people's life in their hands. They may only receive very short breaks as part of very long shifts too.

The salary for management level (e.g. senior sisters) is barely any higher than other grades. In a comparable profession (e.g. Air traffic control) they would be earning £15k more and treated a lot better. Imagine working 3 shifts in a row (37.5 hours) and having 1 1/2 hours of breaks during that. Don't forget the potential for assault by patients, needlestick injuries and the effects of working night-shifts.

Not if they have plough experience.

redcard

marleyboy wrote: »

Nurses, Fireman, Police and even the Army are severely underpaid for the work they do.

How can Police and Firemen be so severely underpaid when vacancies are so oversubscribed?

Firemen and Policemen spend most of their working day doing hardly anything.

slimfandango

Psychologists...especially counselling, forensic, occupational. The degree is really hard, you generally do a postgrad, and then training...and for years get paid the same as a waiter or barman. What's that all about?

[Deleted User]

slimfandango wrote: »

Psychologists...especially counselling, forensic, occupational. The degree is really hard, you generally do a postgrad, and then training...and for years get paid the same as a waiter or barman. What's that all about?

Right.. my brother is a clinical psychologist. He got paid £22k-ish whilst he was doing his doctorate and now he makes > £40k. He can earn hundreds of pounds an hour doing private work (for patients and insurance companies). He's got it quite cushy now.

sulphate

Biomedical scientists (they carry out laboratory tests to monitor/diagnosed disease etc). They are paid on the same bands as nurses, but unlike nurses they have very little recognition in the NHS/medical profession. Few hospital departments could function without them. They need a degree to get their initial job, but are required to complete specialist portfolios/diplomas if they want to progress further, which is essentially around 3 more years of hard work, unpaid study time (the labs are often so understaffed they can't take paid study leave) etc etc and they are not guaranteed the promotion at the end of it. The pay for shift work/unsociable hours is not great either, but often forms part of their contracts.

I am not a biomedical scientist, but I used to work in one of the laboratories as an assistant hence my opinion. Honestly, at least half of NHS workers are grossly underpaid for what they do.

PlymouthMaid

Agree with all the professions mentioned above. My daughter is studying biomedical science and it is certainly a tough degree. I teach and for more of a pitttence than school teachers get

Gavin83

marleyboy wrote: »

Nurses, Fireman, Police and even the Army are severely underpaid for the work they do.

The problem with all of these is that they're public sector jobs and therefore the pay will always be stunted. Increased pay will mean increased taxes.

For me it would probably be care work. Extremely grim and difficult roles with long hours for what is normally minimum pay. I could probably do most jobs (in theory at least) but I don't think I could manage this one.

jackyann

I would agree with "care workers" although some would argue it is not a "profession".
Most are not in the public sector with the protection that gives them. They have to behave in a very professional manner, and as said, take responsibility & do tasks that are allied to nursing.
Child care workers are also badly paid for doing a professional job.

It is the work of a moment to see what we actually value in our society!

slimfandango

ringo_24601 wrote: »

Right.. my brother is a clinical psychologist. He got paid £22k-ish whilst he was doing his doctorate and now he makes > £40k. He can earn hundreds of pounds an hour doing private work (for patients and insurance companies). He's got it quite cushy now.

He is in a very small minority. Of those who have graduated with a good degree in psychology and many of whom also have a Postgrad and also further training, only a very small proportion go on to get a Doctorate and can command those kind of sums. Many well-trained non-doctoral psychologists earn less than £35K. Many Doctoral psychologists, like Clinical psychologists, also earn less than their training would merit, really.

Sncjw

i think nurses are the most underpaid. their training is so intense and is only 3 years long. they need to do placements, juggling assignments and exams and home life during their students life and also completeing paperwork for the uni during placements.
nurses also need to do mentorships which mean training to teach students.
the doctors seem to be the ones who influence the care of the patient but rememeber nurses are with the patients the most and get to know them through their families. they need to deal with the horrible side of the job which is the sick and mess. they also get the anger from families that something isnt being done despite doc changing their mind. Nurses need to be like a doctor when it comes to medication as it is sometimes the nurses who tell doctors that the patient cant have a medication or via a certain way due to contrindications and also paitents may be nil by mouth and doc prescribes it orally. Some nurses end up teaching the junior docs whats best for the patient.
some wards are understaffed thus causing potential problems and nurse faces the problems. as a student nurse i was required to be given breaks but some nurses wouldnt take a break until it was ok to do so due to the number of problems. healthcare assistants are a great assest to the wards but they can only do so much for the nurse.

When i was on the ward the nurse wasnt supposed to be disturbed during medication round but its so impossible to not be.

also i think carers are underpaid too in care homes they pull 12 hour shifts and they also sometimes get trained to do medications.

Im glad i had the privalge to have an insight in the working of the wards.