Independent Nurse: Opinion - Nurses are doing a great job in tough times.(Column)

RCN congress has again put the NHS in the spotlight. It was more professional this year than last year, in my view, but still the messages are the same. Nurses are bearing the brunt of the NHS financial crisis and are still expected to accept a below-inflation pay rise.

I was recently at a dinner party with friends and I was the only one working in the NHS or, indeed, healthcare. It was interesting to hear their perspectives. Their views were not formed by what is in the press, or what is happening nationally, but by what was happening locally, from their own or their friends' experiences.

Many of the criticisms were about attitude. 'A young woman of 30 was …