1. Explain: we’re striking to protect patients
We know that patient safety has motivated you and other members to vote in favour of strike action. Current conditions mean you can’t always provide the level of care you want to.
Last year, we asked nursing staff about the working conditions on their last shift. A huge 80% told us there weren’t enough nursing staff to meet all patient needs safely and effectively. Only 18% said they had enough time to provide the level of care they’d like.
Members of the public recognise this too. In our recent public poll, 79% said they believe there aren’t enough nursing staff to provide safe care. Explain to your patients: taking strike action is a chance for nursing staff to advocate on behalf of patients and their safety.
2. Reassure: we can strike safely
Members at the majority of NHS employers across the UK have voted in favour of strike action, but before that can happen, we take crucial steps to make sure any strike is safe and legal.
Part of that process is organising “derogations”: these are exemptions provided to a member or service from taking part in industrial action, allowing us to maintain safe staffing levels during strike action.Any RCN industrial action must follow the life-preserving care model, so derogations will allow staff in safety critical roles to continue working. In some places, this might look like a traditional Christmas Day service – this could be a helpful way of explaining what a strike-day nursing service will look like that patients will understand.
Our historic industrial action in December and January showed that nursing staff can go on strike without risking patient safety.
3. Say: this is our last resort
Nursing staff know what is best for the profession and best for patients. There are now nearly 50,000 nursing vacancies across the UK, thousands of burned-out and underpaid staff members have left the profession in the past year, and the UK government has no plan to improve the situation. Yet, ministers have so far refused to listen to us.
We feel that strike action is the best way to make ourselves heard and effectively campaign for patient safety, the NHS, and the long-term future of the nursing profession.
On top of that, thousands of nursing staff across the UK are struggling financially. It’s not right that highly skilled, compassionate professionals, who work on average an extra day unpaid overtime every week, are having to resort to food banks and charities just to survive.
4. Ask: will you support us?
Explain to your patients that it means a lot to have their support. We want to show patients that everything we’re doing is to protect the NHS and improve patient safety. Members of the public can visit the RCN strike hub to print posters to display in their window or workplace and download resources to use on social media.
When RCN members took historic strike action in December and January, we were overwhelmed by the public support, with patients bringing food and drink, and cheering us on.
Patients can support us by signing our open letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, speaking to their friends and loved ones about the strike, and even visiting picket lines to support us while we’re taking strike action.
