To think this nurse shouldn't have laughed / scoffed at me for asking for a room?

OP, she’s only human.

On this occasion she wasn’t able to hold in a laugh at someone asking for a private room.

She didn’t deserve you reprimanding her.

@Crokepark by "room" the OP probably meant bed. The beds are all mostly in individual rooms in the children's A+E departments I've been in - plus a few beds with curtains.
If you get a bed - it essentially is a room.

No, but op was and I for one believe she is in the best position to state what happened right in front of her face.

There's an awful amount of gaslighting going on here, not sure why but personally having a high medical needs child I have experienced more unacceptable and unprofessional behaviour from nurses than decent ones so I'm not in anyway surprised by what happened to op.

Nurses aren't saints, some are really lovely but a lot are just rude and I really don't care why, they need to be held accountable for poor behaviour.

YABU.

Maybe she watched the Channel 4 documentary last night about people waiting for up to 46 hours in a Fit to Sit area of A&E in hard back chairs.

@Whatevershallidowithmylife agreed. Also the fact that the daughter was triaged and found to not be an urgent case implies that it likely wasn’t an ‘emergency’ at all. Not denying breathing difficulties can be serious and should be looked at, but to turn up and expect a room over other poorly children is bizarre. Especially after your child has been triaged already and found to not be an urgent case.

I've never heard of getting your own room even in the children's a and e where I live. You would be lucky just to get a bed or get seen.

Were you there?

If there's a six hour wait in a&e I assume they might have been rather busy

@Seagrassbasket yes but that’s not the fault of the nurses and doctors working tirelessly is it? Of course we shouldn’t accept it but to poise the question directly at a nurse no doubt working her backside off is ludicrous.

Is there a reason you are there so often? It seems odd to have had a life threateningly ill child with such frequency. Does your DC have severe medical needs? If so that might have been a factor in your warranting a room on more visits than are typical.

I've never attended A&E at night, so I wouldn't;t know whether there are rooms available, but I can't think of any circumstances when I would ask for one. Surely, if there are such rooms, they are for patient use and not tired parents, and they would be allocated on clinical need?

Sorry but how entitled do you sound?! Everyone there will (should!!!) be having a life threatening emergency or have had a terrible accident. Count yourself lucky that you and your child were physically and mentally able to ‘sit in the plastic chairs’.

In fact, count yourself lucky that you’re physically and mentally able to be sat posting on Mumsnet after a trip to A&E. Many people who find themselves there (people who genuinely need to be seen urgently and can’t just wait until they see a GP) either end up admitted long term due to injuries, operated on, admitted overnight for observations or sadly don’t even make it home at all.

This is such a first world thing to be worried about.

Ok, well obviously without knowing the exact specifications of your A&E (our children's A&E is nothing like that) that would be my general response. I did agree she was rude for laughing in your face.

So did she laugh ha ha! directly at you personally, or did she just balk because she was incredulous that you actually thought there would be a room available at a struggling NHS department? It sort of makes a difference if you're going to complain and get her in trouble.

Then there must've been another reason why she reacted how she did.

Otherwise it doesn't make sense whatsoever, does it?

Unless she was telling the truth and she didn't scoff, but you thought she did?

I’m actually really surprised at the replies here. I was appalled last time I went to A&E and had to sit in the waiting room for hours. It used to be you got called through and waited in a cubicle. We shouldn’t be accepting this.

And no OP she shouldn’t have scoffed but as others have said it might not have been really aimed at you.

I was thinking the same. Why is the OP attending a and e so much?

Our children's A &E is the same. We're usually in a room waiting for the doctor but i do notice that not all the kids are. I think its probably based on the child being very ill or very young,. We've just had a very different experience at our new hospital though. I'm a bit gutted to be moving.

Laughing at someone for wanting an actual standard of care is appalling though. They're just desensitised to how shit it is I think.

If you get a room 9/10 it makes sense to assume they didn't have a room to give you on this day surely?

She shouldn't have been rude but she was probably laughing at the impossibility of the situation not at you. You were probably over sensitive due to your worry and tiredness also. I wouldn't think about this again.

@supertrainers

3 am - NHS 2024 stress, give her some credit.
She could maybe have done better but being a nurse at 3 am at A/E is sh*t

Well it wasn’t a funny question and I doubt she meant anything unpleasant by her reaction. It’s way more likely that it was a kind of, ‘oh chance would be a fine thing’ reaction from someone who is absolutely shattered and run off her feet.

Sorry you had such a bad time of it. Feeling unwell definitely makes you more sensitive than usual.

I hope she apologises properly next time you see her then because it really isn't OK to treat people like that stressed out or not.