Nurses-help me understand please!

My mum died aged 70 recently having been cared for by my stepdad..I'm so glad she didn't have to be cared for in hospital

This happened to my mum in Covid, inpatient for a UTI, not helped to get up, not allowed to visit or advocate for her because of Covid. Kicked out of hospital into an NHS care home for 8 days then sent home, weak,exhausted, not getting out of bed. She never got out of bed again. Go for it, do everything you can to get your mum out, better to get her home with special equipment and a nurse.

The quality of the handover will be poor if they barely have any contact with the patients. The last time I was in hospital the handovers went on for a long time but you only saw nursing staff twice a day. They didn't have a clue whether you were improving or not.

Ask yo speak to the matron or ward manager and make them aware.

7 years ago I complained directly to a hca, they were making the bed of the bed bound man in the bed next to my dad. The hca spent the time they were dealing with the man talking about her sex life on holiday. When they'd finished I said something to her about that conversation being inappropriate, her reply was it doesn't matter he's deaf. I replied maybe but I'm not and it shows a lack of respect for your patient. She scurried off.

Have you discussed the issue with the senior charge nurse? I'd also go to PALS.

Definitely call PALS and if no response the CQC. The CQC will raise an enquiry and notify the hospital executive team, expecting a response. By raising it with CQC it could add to Intel they already have and trigger a more in depth discussion. Saying this as an NHS manager who has also worked for CQC as an inspector.

See if you can get hold of an Occupational therapist or physiotherapist and express your concern that mum is not up and dressed each morning etc. There is a big push across the NHS to recognize the harm done to frail elderly patients by leaving them in bed and not encouraging them to do as much as they are able. There is often a shortage of therapists so this may be easier said than done. But definitely go to PALS as the ward will suddenly be rushing around trying to improve the situation. It should not need to happen that way round but sadly does

This is despicable and yes I agree, phone and email PALs and again speak to the nurse in charge or matron.
I worked as HCA on a rehabilitation ward and I was appalled at the lack of care interaction.
I would go round and ask each patient are they ok, is there anything I could do for them. Rather than sit on my backside and gossip and eat like the rest of the staff. Due to this I was bullied and made to feel like a trouble maker . Even on other wards the staff once they had basic wash and dress of patients would kind of hide and do nothing until the end of the shift when they would be a handover for the next lot of staff coming on duty. Again I was made to feel I was being unreasonable for saying,
why are you not checking on patients ?
Hence I left the NHS I can’t believe how rubbish some staff are. It doesn’t help that shifts are 12 hours and some staff will work 5 days a week, so they were tired and bad tempered! It shouldn’t be allowed to work those kind of back to back shifts. When there is enough staff to cover . The greedy ones wanting the money always got to pick and choose what shifts they wanted.
so sorry this is happening to your relative, as come one-else mentioned take in extra blankets and cardigan and sometimes I used towels as a scarf to keep patients warm especially the elderly.

I'm so sorry. You really need to complain about this appalling "care". My dm was so traumatised after being in a ward that when she was given a terminal diagnosis she became distraught at the thought of being on "that" ward again. We decided to care for her at home.
Please don't let your gran suffer for this shitty excuse for "nursing".
Complain, make a fuss
💐

In my hospital I saw a big sign with a phone number you can ring if you're not happy with the care you or someone is receiving for whatever reason.

Guessing this is for more immediate problems that are happening

Maybe there's one where you are?

I used to be a nurse obviously I dont know the circumstances but it may have been handover time?
So it might of looked like they were chatting but were handing over the care of the patients to the next shift

I would never have believed how shockingly poor "care" could be in an NHS hospital until I saw how my father was treated.

Elderly care nursing in hospitals is beyond appalling, my mum was at the mercy of these 'caregivers' through COVID so we couldn't even visit her, my once upbeat mum would be crying over facetime to me, until the staff couldn't be bothered to charge her phone for her, or her kindle, she was in a room on her own where she barely saw anyone. Pals were helpful in that I finally got to speak to a very rattled and annoyed ward manager who was furious that I hadn't spoken to her before reporting, you wouldn't answer the phone pet!
My mum shouldn't have died in hospital but she did, I think she just gave up with the isolation; they didn't replace her hearing aid batteries so she couldn't hear them so was treat like she had no capacity;
I try not to think about what her last months were like, the nursing staff weren't just neglectful, they were cruel, I hope they receive the same quality of care when they're in need.

The irony is my mum was a nurse and a very good one.

Sadly it can be common on wards and as others have said is often down to a poor culture across the board because nurses like me can’t fight the system despite trying to be as patient centred as possible. So we leave, like I did! I didn’t leave nursing but now work in the community rather than spending 12/13 hours a day trying to do everything for everyone and getting bitched about by my colleagues as a result and feeling like a failure as I knew my patients werent getting the best care they could.

Get the matron involved. S/he is likely to cover several wards so unlikely to be there in the scene itself, but push for a discussion (also PALS like others have said). You may wish to consider asking your mum if she gives her consent for you to look at her nursing notes. That should have details regarding pressure area checks etc.

Unfortunately, it does happen quite a bit.

My previous job was working with elderly people who were in (or coming out of) hospital. Spoke to thousands of people over a long period - and watched the huge decline of hospital and respite care over a period of just over a decade.

Some things I heard were appalling and almost beggared belief about how awful some hospital staff could be to patients. It’s frightening because you can feel too scared to complain just in case they take it out on your loved one.

Also, there’s often no communication between staff, no-one knows what’s going on or can give you a straight and consistent answer. In short, the whole system is broken and disjointed.

I spoke to many people would rather die than go into the local hospital (and sadly I could see why).

m a bank nurse so I see a lot of different wards and no, it's not a common occurrence but not unheard of. Just read MN.
It is the wards that are poorly run or don't have enough resources or a good matron. Very often the wards not being popular among staff. Some wards have more applications from nurses than others. A few nurses around wouldn't make it in other more specialised wards.

Double post.

Complain. Conplaim. Complain.

And I'm a nurse.

Absolutely complain - it worked for my Dad who was unlucky enough to be on a ward like this, they moved him in the end, and the other ward had a totally different culture - nurses were out on the ward, rather than being in the nurses station, patients were not ignored when they called out for a nurse, the dinner staff even read the instructions over the bed re low salt food!

Talk to your Gran's doctors and physio too, I found them very helpful with my Dad's issues.

As a PP has said, it's all about ward management and culture, I've seen totally different levels of care on different wards in the same hospital, and I've seen treatment of confused elderly patients which was cruel in its neglect.

It is shocking when it's bad, really cruel.

And that it’s despicable and she will come down there!