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

So?

Rare are you sure about that. Bullying within the nhs is rife. Iv never seen adults in a workplace act so badly as they do within the nhs.

@MumChp yes I agree. At SOME hospitals. Not all obviously. Some hospitals don't have separate A+E departments for children either.
But some people seem to think they don't exist at all.
I was just letting them know.

@beckybarefoot I was just saying because some on here are saying that rooms can't possibly exist in a NHS A+E and therefore the OP was being a terrible entitled person.
(which she clearly wasn't as she has used the rooms before).

They do.
At some hospitals.
Often NHS can place 2-3 patients in each room. Most of the time NHS have more patients than beds and rooms.

congratulations

For people saying they don't believe there are "private rooms" in A+E should watch a few episodes of 24 Hours in A+E filmed at St George's in London.
This is an A+E that I have been to with my child.
There is a waiting area with seats plus beds with curtains for some treatments and YES small private rooms for treatment and/or waiting if needs be.
They exist. They are there. I have been in them.

I have taken my kids to the child's A&E half a dozen times... literally never once been given a room.

I don't even think the kids A&E here has 'rooms', it has a ward rooms with 2 beds in (your usually taken there to be discussed before discharge) but people wait in the waiting room. If your bad enough to need a bed you get moved onto a proper ward or if you where real bad you would be in the proper ICU area regardless of age.

Child A&E is just to relieve the pressure on A&E since most things kids are in child A&E for are accidents (broken bones, concussions, cuts), allergies or mild non immediate critical illnesses (vomiting bugs, fevers, dehydration, migraines etc...).

What had that got to do with anything? Apart from you saying it was worse for you.

You're lucky this question occurs to you 🙏

I was given a room straight away without asking op.
Definitely not unreasonable of you to ask, some staff are just vile and nasty.

Also YABU for asking for a room, YANBU for being upset at the nurse scoffing. The nurse shouldn't have scoffed, but you also shouldn't have asked for a room because you felt unwell. You're not the patient so if there were any cubicles, it's likely the nurse was saving it for a paediatric patient who may need it.

You sound like you go there quite a lot….

You poor thing OP that sounds awful. Of course it was fine to ask for a room and she shouldn't laugh. I think all you can do now is give her the benefit of the doubt. I hope things are getting better for you and your family.

Surely you know that she shouldnt have laughed.

As others have said she probably laughed in a 'are you serious, have you seen it in here' kind of way and not laughing at you personally. I don't get why you not being well comes in to at all. Was there not anyone else that could have taken your daughter if you were that unwell? Who needed a room/bed, you or your daughter? Paediatric A&E is for children and they are not interested in the health of the accompanying person with them. If you really have got a room in 9 times out of 10 visits, be thankful for that as it's rare.

Sometimes it feels like you’re not allowed to criticise the NHS any more doesn’t it op.. I am fully aware there are amazing people and have been treated by some exceptional people working for the NHS but I have encountered some horrors as well. I’ve encountered appalling, upsetting behaviour including a nurse laughing when asking me some questions post miscarriage. It’s a broad spectrum of people so we have to expect there will be some rude or unpleasant folk in there. But that does not mean this behaviour should be tolerated. You did the right thing by calling it out - nobody is entitled to disrespect somebody like that. She should have at least apologised. I hope you and DD are feeling better 💐

Exactly this. Patients yes. Random visitors rocking up demanding x, y and z on a busy day with few staff no. It was never a drink of water either, he always wanted a cup of tea as soon as his bum hit a seat

Some children have complex medical conditions. DD11 has a congenital heart defect and there was a point in her life where the longest we went without a trip to A&E was 11 days. There were times where she'd be discharged, and she would have another episode and be back in within 24 hours. The instructions we were given by her consultant was to go to A&E for obs and treatment if needed, whenever she had an episode of symptoms.

In the 2.5 months between DDs two open heart surgeries we ended up in A&E at least 15 times.

Have you ever hear the term " a wry laugh"? May I respectfully suggest that this may have been what it was?

Im sorry if this is wrong but im a teacher and there are some parents who come and speak to me all the time. I try to be endlessly patient but sometimes I might smile if something seemed a bit ridiculous in an exasperated way.

Is it possible you’re in a lot so it’s a similar situation?

she was probably shocked at your audacity

I don't think anyone seriously questions that this nurse laughed, but there is a legitimate question as to whether she was laughing at you or laughing at the situation. It's also questionable whether you were accurate in interpreting what might have been a rueful laugh about conditions in A&E that night as scoffing at you.

But if you are right, I would still cut a lot of slack because you just don't know what has gone before. You don't know whether, for instance, she's been having to work overtime due to being short staffed, and whether she's spent the night dealing with crisis after crisis. If you've been dealing with a succession of very ill or very badly injured children, possibly even dying children, with lots of demanding doctors, relatives, waiting patients etc, it may well be that you can't restrain an almost hysterical laugh at yet another person making demands of you. It's not great conduct, but it's not worth your while getting worked up about it.

🙄

It’s not a hotel. It’s laughable to think it is.