Tony, a retired child and adolescent mental health nurse, came out of retirement to help during the pandemic, and thank goodness he did. Now on a nurse bank, he says, 'The situation was bad before I retired, but, on returning to work, I was met with excellent nurses describing feeling sick with anxiety before going to work in the morning, and crying when they finished work because they felt that they had failed to give patients the standard of care that they wanted to.'

Sarah says that she voted to strike because, after nearly 40 years of nursing, she's fed up of being taken for granted when it comes to pay:  'We've repeatedly been neglected and have not fought back', she says. 'But this time we've had enough.' This neglect has contributed to a reduced number of student nurses, and the early retirement of thousands, causing a severe staffing shortage.

Tom, a community nurse, says that the cost-of-living crisis is crippling him and other nurses. He said, 'I didn't come into the NHS to be rich'—none of them did; it comes from the heart—but he adds, 'We're hitting a crisis. We're looking after really vulnerable people, and no matter how hard we work, there's so much pressure and the resources aren't there.'

And Katherine, finally, an RCN member, says, 'Professionally employed people should not be forced to use foodbanks or sleep in their cars between shifts because they can't afford petrol.'

There are so many more nurses' stories I could share with you.