AIBU to think this is crap nursing care - sorry LONG

[DailyHateMailAreCunts]

Yesterday I had to take my DD (10) to hospital to have some dental extractions. They were fairly big ones at the back, so the dentist recommended she have it done under a general anaesthetic at our local hospital.

We arrived a bit early and the ward nurse basically told me off and said she was too busy to see me and I would have to wait my turn. Fair enough, it was really busy on the ward and I hadn't come early to queue jump! Just felt she was a bit abrupt.

After waiting a couple of hours we went down to the anaesthetic room. I found the anaesthetist and anaesthetic nurse really calming and reassuring. I was convinced there was no way they were going to get a needle in the back of DD hand but they managed it and DD was asleep in seconds. I wasn't allowed to stay and had to wait in a waiting room down the corridor.

After about an hour or so, I could hear DD screaming and I mean screaming! I could here her right the way down the corridor. A few minutes later a recovery nurse let me into the recovery area to see DD. She was white as a ghost, with blood all over her face, crying and shaking saying her mouth hurt. The nurse said this was 'normal'.
I asked if DD could have any more pain relief but the nurse said she'd had enough. (She'd had paracetamol and ibuprofen on the ward before coming down and the dentist had used local anaesthetic)
The nurse said DD just needed to 'wake up' a bit more and 'calm down'.

At that moment the anaesthetic nurse we had seen before walked into recovery and saw DD was upset and in pain. She immediately got DD morphine which she was given to swallow. I was a bit worried it was too much medicine as the other nurse had said she had already had too much, but the anaesthetic nurse assured me it was fine and had been prescribed by the anaesthetist.

The morphine did the trick, DD calmed down and we were sent back to the ward. When we got there the ward nurse who had 'told me off' for arriving early was looking after us. She said in a fairly irritated way "oh they've given you morphine for dental extractions?" and pulled this face . "well normally you would be allowed to go home now, but because you've had morphine you'll have to stay for at least two hours" I didn't mind, had nothing planned for the afternoon, I just felt like I was a big inconvenience.

When we were in the car park we saw the same anaesthetic nurse walking to her car. She'd obviously been crying.
I thanked her for looking after DD and asked if she was ok, she said she'd got in trouble for giving DD the morphine (even though it had been prescribed) because the recovery nurse had complained she was interfering with her job and the ward had told her she was bed blocking and delaying other peoples discharge. I was and

AIBU to think this is just really crap nursing care or am I expecting too much from the NHS?

[MattDillonsPants]

The nurse told you she'd been in trouble? Surely she's not allowed to tell that to patients!? I'd be really worried about this to be honest. It does sound ott. Morphine is a full on drug. My DD had the same procedure done at 9 and it isn't nice but she probably was affected by the general and would have calmed eventually without morphine.

[FeralBeryl]

No you are not!
So sorry your daughter had this experience. The nurses are very stressed and under a great deal of pressure to keep 'planned' traffic going, but there are always exceptions to the rule and they need be be accommodated.
If you feel strongly, please get in touch with the PALS department. It doesn't necessarily mean a formal complaint but will register your upset and dig to find out the problems.
The crying nurse was wrong to tell you she'd got into trouble though. She was acting entirely within her remit and if her peers had a problem, they should take it up with the anaesthetist. Please don't mention her - you'll probably get her another bollocking from Nurse Ratchet
Hope DD is feeling ok

[DailyHateMailAreCunts]

What is PALS department?

The nurse in the car park did quickly say she shouldn't be telling me (after telling me) and begged me not to say anything. Think she had just had a long day and I can understand that. I don't want to get her in trouble (again)
I probably shouldn't have accosted her in the car park.

DD is out in the garden on the trampoline and tearing round the place like nothing ever happened wish i'd sent her to school

[x2boys]

The first nurse was rude and morphine is prescribed for tooth extraction ds2 had several teeth out last yr due to decay he's severely autistic and has learning disabilities and I struggle to clean them he was prescribed morphine but the anaesthetic nurse was really unprofessional to tell you .

[FeralBeryl]

Oh good I'm glad she's ok today, don't be surprised if she's a bit tired later on after on even today, lots of fluids too to flush the gases out of her little system.
PALS is the Patients Advocacy Liaison Sevice. They are literally advocates who cut through all red tape and can get a timeline from the hospital of exactly what happened and why. They will also check anything that needs 'actioning' will be done.
They can help plug gaps in the system (ie-lack of provision for pts requiring opiates post op on a day ward) by speaking to management too.

[littleducks]

Maybe contact PALS to describe the incident without been mentioning g the car park bit.

The nurse w but crying and upset and didn't break confidentiality or anything so I wouldn't want to cause more problems for her.

[ThisisMrsNicolaHicklin]

I am a nurse and I am very firmly of the belief that the very least we can do for you is to be nice. Its not ethical to leave a pain in distress when you have analgesia already written up. Pain is subjective and there is no way any of the nurses could tell how much pain your DD was in except by what she was telling you.
Sadly, there is a lot of pressure to keep the flow going but it shouldn't ever be at a patient's expense. If you think this is what the ward nurse was advocating then you should complain.

[DisgraceToTheYChromosome]

PALS is the patient liaison service, first point of call for concerns about treatment.

I'd give the whole experience 7 out of 10: your daughter received the treatment she went in for, her pain was managed correctly and she recovered well. Minus 1 for attitude in the ward, minus 2 for the frankly unprofessional behaviour of the anaesthetic nurse. DW reckons in her day you'd just have a fight in the bogs after shift, although this may have been confined to Corby.

[Mishaps]

Yes - go for PALS. This is not acceptable. If morphine had been prescribed and it was given appropriately then that is how it should be. The fact is that you have fallen foul of the target-driven culture of the NHS now. Whatever they do they have to make sure your bum hardly hits the bed before you are out!

Hope your little one is feeling better today.

A few years ago, my DD, then about 16, had to have a complicated extraction of a front tooth that was lying sideways in the roof of her mouth. Up on the ward afterwards, the nurse said it was time to go and she set about removing the cannula in my DDs hand. Part way through my DD went white as a sheet and was slipping away - the nurse did not notice - I has to say to her that my DD had fainted!!

[DailyHateMailAreCunts]

Thank you everyone for your responses.
I've googled PALS and found an email address so I might just send a quick email over this afternoon, because overall I did feel like our presence was a big hassle.
It's a shame because the dentist is really lovely and the hospital is modern and clean. I think they need to address their 'internal politics' though.
Thanks for the tips Feral I'm going to stock up on some sugar freeribena and get her drinking.

[KnitsBakesAndReads]

Not at all unreasonable OP. The nurse who refused to give your daughter pain relief even though it'd been prescribed by the anaesthetist was clearly in the wrong. It's not okay to leave any patient crying in pain when appropriate analgesia has been prescribed, but it's even worse when the patient is a young child who's probably also confused and afraid.

I agree with everyone who's suggested contacting PALS. Hope your DD is doing better now.

[TreadSoftlyOnMyDreams]

So if the morphine had not been dispensed what's your estimate on the time from your DD leaving the recovery room [usually 30-60 mins] to discharge? It sounds stupidly quick especially after a general anesthetic. I'd be fuming in your shoes.

I'd complain. Say nothing about the recovery nurse other than meds were prescribed by the anesthetist and dispensed as instructed, but you fell foul of the ward sister who treated you both as an inconvenience, made it clear that she felt that the medication was unnecessessary and that you were effectively bed blocking

[DailyHateMailAreCunts]

Out of interest was there something else DD could have had instead of morphine?
Like Bonjela or something or co-codamol?
We seem to be doing okay today on ice lollies.

[AyeAmarok]

DisgraceToTheYChromosome so no minus for the nurse who did not give the medication that the doctor had prescribed because she decided she knew better?!

[Newmanwannabe]

Dreadful care. So what if you discharge is delayed. It is what it is. I'm a midwife, and never hold back on post birth drugs (where necessary). I feel sorry for the anaesthetic nurse feeling so bullied in her role. Patient care should not be compromised by protocol.

[stairway]

I'm a student nurse and this kind of thing worries me about my chosen profession. Giving effective pain releif is key to a nurses job so we are told. We were also told nursing is the worse career for bullying.
Please don't get the anaesthetic nurse in trouble as we need more nurses like her IMO.

[lougle]

I don't think it was unreasonable for the recovery nurse to conclude that your DD needed to wake up and calm down. The emergent phase is really distressing for some patients and stress worsens pain (then pain worsens stress!). I think giving a few minutes to see if she would calm was perfectly reasonable.

I do think the anaesthetic nurse was wrong. Once your DD was out of theatre, she had been given over to the care of the recovery nurse. It shouldn't happen, but what if the recovery nurse had given her the oramorph but hadn't yet signed for it? She would have been double dosed. At the very least, the anaesthetic nurse should have asked the recovery nurse if she could help by getting some oramorph. It's basic courtesy. Also, oramorph is likely to have been prescribed PRN (as required) so the recovery nurse wasn't wrong not to give it.

The anaesthetic nurse was very wrong to tell you that she had been told off.

[DailyHateMailAreCunts]

Right sent my email to PALS.

I decided that ALL the staff allowed internal pressures and targets to impact on DD care and that has negatively affected my opinion.

I do sympathise with the anaesthetic nurse, more so than the recovery or ward nurse, but if she hadn't forgotten herself for that moment in the car park and tell me what she had, I wouldn't be so annoyed now. I'd have just left thinking that the ward nurse was a bit arsey (probably because she was so busy)
I don't know if the recovery nurse was right/wrong but my instinct tells me she was a bit apathetic. She wasn't very reassuring and the least she could have done is give DD face a wash.

Hope I don't have to go through anything like this again! What a faff just to have some teeth taken out.
My dentist recommended my wisdom teeth come out. I think they can stay put!