A WIT Nursing graduate feels she has been left with no option but to emigrate given the ‘drastic’ cut in salary she would be forced to take under a new HSE/Department of Health recruitment scheme. As outlined on page one, Sandra Ryan of Viewmount Park will embark for Liverpool this July, a path which most of her fellow WIT graduates have beaten in recent months.
“It’s just been one cut after another,” said Ms Ryan, who outlined her situation in an emotional letter to Sinn Féin Senator David Cullinane. “In Third Year (of college), our internship got hit with a massive pay cut – from 80 per cent of a First Year’s Nurse’s salary to 60 per cent, and I fought tooth and nail with the INMO to have this cut reversed. “I took part in press conferences, radio and TV interviews, trying to show what this meant to student nurses. It sickened me.
I am sick to death of hearing the whinging and whining of nurses, go noone is stopping you, having seen first hand over the past few months the actual “work” you get up to minimum wage would be too much, I have the pictures and evidence to prove this. Try getting 20 minutes notice that your company is closing that day and working for min wage even though I have 15 years experience but that is all I was offered in a new role. Grow Up