Do nursing staff not wash patients anymore or change sheets?

I’m sorry your daughter is unwell and I hope she’s better soon.

Before going to PALS as someone else suggested 🙄 Have you actually spoken to them? Asked them? Your daughter is an adult so they may have checked with her when you weren’t there if she wanted a wash and she may have said no.
unless she is completely unable to move, not getting up to go to the toilet, and unable to communicate, it’s not unusual to not check pressure area care on a younger patient. Just speak to the next hcp who comes in the room. Ask if your daughter can have a bowel to wash with and some fresh sheets. Is your daughter feeling up to that though? If she has capacity they can’t force her.

Agree
Making an occupied bed Is one of the first things you learn as a nursing student

just for info and in case you maybe haven't noticed @keepswimming38

As you enter the ward, by the nurses station, there should be a whiteboard detailing

Key Staff Names: The names of the ward manager, senior sister/charge nurse, and sometimes the doctor in charge are displayed.
Named Nurse: Every patient is assigned a named nurse for their care, who often writes their name on a board at the patient's bedside.

There may even be a timetable indicating when each of the principal most senior staff are in ward.

These are the people it would be useful to address your concerns to.

Especially, in this day and age, it is vital you advocate for your daughter and take them to task.

Wishing you and your daughter all the best @keepswimming38

From reading some of these posts, it's clear that some don't understand what it's like to be very ill in hospital and unable, for various reasons, to be unable to carry out personal care. Or to advocate for oneself. 🙄

This is just not true, Ive been a nurse for 30 years. However in some wards standards do seem to have gone downhill in ways previous matrons and ward sisters would not have stood for. It is mostly HCA's who would do this, ask for some help but agree this should not need pointing out.

Crikey, Barnsley General comes out well here. I don't recognise any of these horror stories. I was well looked after 25 years ago when DD was born.

If course she is bed bound! She is seriously ill she cant move.

My son picked up meningitis (believed through changing his son’s nappies) and was, like your daughter, incredibly ill. It was a scary moment, more than when he had his motorcycle accident, now he was a father.
My DIL stayed with him when possible and did most of the hygiene care by her choice (she trained as a nurse, just didn’t finish the course). She said the nurses were actually very run off their feet.

Our grandson has been in and out of hospital in the last two weeks, my DIL and myself staying with him (I am exhausted).

The doctor actually changed my grandsons sheets when I asked if I could get a fresh set for him. She was an amazing professional and super supportive.

Hope your daughter is home soon, even though she will have a long recovery ahead of her, just to warn you. My son gets horrendous migraines still three years later, although they are getting further apart.

Both my aged parents were left muddy & crusted in blood for a week recently in Chelsea & Westminster.

Distinctly whiffy too.

We had to send private HCA in to clean and feed them when family couldn’t get there. NHS staff loved it.

Because we’ve got to cut our wage bill
by 50%

The OP’s daughter is 20. She is an adult.

It’s like any job- you get amazing nurses and terrible nurses. I always try and stick up for nurses as my mum was one but I have witnessed terrible care when DH nearly died and was in hospital for a long time. But that doesn’t mean it’s normal. It m so sorry your dd is ill op. This must be a very stressful time for you and it doesn’t sound like she is getting the care from the hospital she deserves. Thank goodness you are with her.

Advocate for herself while ill with meningitis! Get real. Come on look it up! Best wishes to your daughter, I hope she makes a full recovery.

Having been in hospital recently, yes, they do. But only when you’re well enough. I was there 2-3 days before I was well enough to sit up and get out of bed. The HCAs were very helpful and they changed my bed then.

The reality is that they may perceive her as still too unwell if she’s not able to sit up much yet. They may also assume because of her age that you’re doing it.

They definitely are. It's just a 2 person job and a lot of the time they struggle to find a 2nd person who is free.

when you say bed bound do you mean literally unable to get out of bed to use the toilet? In which case are you having to help roll her onto a bedpan, wipe her bottom etc? What does she do overnight when I’m guessing you aren’t there? Or is she extremely weak but able to walk to the toilet? If the former and she is truly bed bound then it is clearly unacceptable. If she is able to transfer and toilet independently then it’s a bit more understandable, they may ask her if she has any concerns with her skin / wants to be checked for example. If you are concerned ask to speak with her nurse. Wishing your dd a speedy recovery.

There is a technique for changing sheets while the patient is in the bed - perhaps nurses are no longer taught it?

Is this because of lack of applicants or assessed as needing fewer staff?

Oh ffs, she is a very unwell patient in hospital. She’s not in a work meeting.

I wouldn’t know how to change sheets for a bed bound person or change a t shirt for someone with a cannula in. If you have to roll an adult to change sheets isn’t that a 2 person job

And for posters saying it’s usually a parent’s responsibility to wash their child, OP’s daughter is 20 so will be on an adult’s ward, it’s not like she is a 4yo on a child’s ward.

They don’t do this for children who have a parent with them, the assumption is the parent will help their child.

In adult nursing you’d get more help if needed.

Love a nurse bashing thread 🙄 im a nurse of twenty plus years and helped wash thousands of patients over the years.

As a patient or parent of a patient, it is very hard to care in the moment about why things are so bad from patient point of view. Being left without water or in unclean sheets is all they care about.

I recently had over 2 weeks in hospital on truma and orthopedic wards. The standard of nursing and HCA care varied each shift change and each day. Ranged from the exceptional to down right unsafe. Too current to go into details.

Please don't be put off advocating for your daughter.

It's a little bit inattentive. However at this age I would literally have to have been unconscious before I allowed somebody to wash me. Is she really not able to move? If they bought her a bowl and soap would she be able to wash herself?

They should be changing the bed or giving you sheets to do it. If she's able to at least shuffle and adjust her position then no she shouldn't need to suffer the indignity of being checked for bed sores.

Ultimately OP they'll be busy and may have overlooked how poorly she is. Rather than complaining on MN why don't you just ask them?

Agree
I've been a nurse for more than 25 years
I will muck in with personal care
But I object to nursing being called a "vocation " as it justifies low wages and poor treatment because "it's a calling ".