An NHS nurse has quit her job to start a new career at Lidl, where she will supposedly get ‘more pay and less stress’.
The NHS are facing struggles for the long, difficult hours doctors and nurses have to work in return for little pay, and one woman got so fed up that she quit her job to work at a Lidl supermarket.
The nurse, who chose not to be named, explained to the London Economic that she had wanted to be a nurse since she was little, hoping to make a difference in the world.
She said:
Since I was a child I wanted to be a nurse and help care for people. I went straight into nursing from school. I knew it wasn’t the best-paid career, but I thought it would be worthwhile and I’d be making a difference.
The nurse went on to say that while she had given nursing a chance, it became too much of a struggle to keep up. She found it hard to make ends meet and had to buy everything second-hand for her daughter.
She continued:
Sadly, it got to the point where my morale was so low, I couldn’t take it anymore.
Lots of my colleagues were leaving the profession, going home [to their country of origin] or joining [private] nursing companies. There weren’t enough nurses on the ward, so we couldn’t do our jobs very well. Patients would just complain at us all day because they weren’t getting the attention they needed.
[the price of] Everything’s going up and it’s harder and harder to make ends meet. We’re never able to treat ourselves or go on holiday. Everything I buy for my daughter is second hand including her school uniform.
When a Lidl supermarket opened up in the woman’s local area, she applied for the job, and got it.
She now doesn’t have to drive or pay for parking – a luxury she wasn’t granted while working at the hospital.
The woman explained how she’s now enjoying a stress-reduced life since taking the job at the supermarket, and had more time for friends and family with more sociable working hours.
She added:
The best thing is my hours are a lot more sociable. Pay is around the same level, but I get ten per cent off my shopping and I’ve sold my car, which saves a lot of money. Overall I’m slightly better off, but I have much, much less stress.
NHS Providers’ chief executive Chris Hopson stated last year that NHS nurses were facing a difficult time with ‘years of pay restraint and stressful working conditions’.
He said:
Pay is becoming uncompetitive. Significant numbers of trusts say lower paid staff are leaving to stack shelves in supermarkets rather than carry on with the NHS.
Theresa May addressed the issue in a speech last week by saying that the NHS would be getting an extra £20 billion funding a year.
Although she did not reveal where all of this money would come from, she said that part of it would be raised from ‘money we will no longer spend on our annual membership subscription to the European Union after we have left’.
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.