Many nurses will begin a series of walk-outs today (15th December) in a dispute over unfair pay.

Nurses are striking at 76 NHS services across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

NHS staff will continue to provide urgent, "life-preserving" care, but many services and routine appointments will be affected.

In our area, NHS Bath, North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire ICB (BSW Together), Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust, North Bristol NHS Trust and University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust will be striking on the 15th and 20th of December.

Locally, patients can expect disruptions at Paulton Hospital.

Jacob Daniel, aged 24, is currently training to become a nurse at university in Bristol.

"The things we have to do to provide care for those in need can be really difficult, and I don't think the salary nurses receive reflects that."

"I know people that are going on strike, I'm disappointed that I'm not able to join them on this occasion but I plan to go and take action on the 20th".

"I want to be able to show solidarity with my co-workers and fight for what is right. Nurses deserve to be paid better for all the hard work that they do."

"I started working during the pandemic. There has always been understaffing issues since I started and this has got progressively worse. There are legalities with me being a student nurse, so I don't get left alone, but I see my colleagues having to work long hours with minimal breaks because wards don't have the workforce numbers they need".

"I also work as a health care professional, which means I am left to look after and supervise people, but not provide medical aid."

"It's a lot of strenuous, stressful work as other people are calling on you for help when you may need to deal with a situation elsewhere. You're left in a lot of scenarios where you have to make a difficult choice because there aren't enough staff to cover the level of care needed for all patients."

In September, it was recorded that there were 47,496 full-time equivalent nursing vacancies in England, according to NHS Digital. This means that the NHS has a vacancy rate of 11.9% for nursing positions.

The RCN asked for a 12.5% increase in pay in 2020, but the latest basic pay for newly qualified nurses only increased by 5.5% this year. According to gov.uk, lowest earners to received up to a 9.3% rise.