Do nursing staff not wash patients anymore or change sheets?

Thanks. This needs to be repeatedly spelled out to people.

It’s distressing to see the public turn on overworked staff for slipping standards (eg saying they just want to be managers / they’re overqualified with degrees / they’re lazy and sit on their phones all day). When in fact it’s a staff shortage issue.

It’s misdirection and a very handy narrative for those who want to continue cutting taxes and underfunding public services. It happens across the public sector.

That's awful. I hope she gets well soon ❤️

It sounds like there can be variation in what help is offered. Ive spent many weeks in hospital over the last few years both on general and surgical wards and in ICU. Sheets were changed regularly, usually every other day, and more often when needed. The help given with washing varied depending on my capability but I was always able to wash (or be washed) every day. I progressed from full all over bed baths, to washing my face in bed with a bowl, to being able to shower with assistance, and finally to independent washing and showering when I recovered enough to manage it safely without risk of falling. There were only a couple of occasions when I was missed at wash time but a nurse or health care assistant brought a bowl and towel no problem when I asked.

A trust my colleague used to work in bristol rationed changing the sheets to save money.
With the excuse... you don't change your bedding everyday, so would top and tail the sheets.
Of course the manager got lots of kudos for this "super " idea.
Sigh

100%, they ruined nursing when they made it a degree. HCA do more "nursing". I was shocked that nurses can't actually take blood or do canulas without extra training. I've been on wards were HCA could and some nurses couldn't.

It is a profession not a vocation. I am happy to do washes and bed changes, but there is far more to nursing now than basic patient care.

Im a senior staff nurse and yesterday I washed 9 patients, showered 3, bed bathed 6 (all assistance of 2+ and 3 were dying). I changed their sheets whilst washing them, plus changed them again if it was required throughout the shift. I applied cream to their pressure areas. Brushed all their teeth and plaited their hair so they wouldn't get tangled whilst bed bound. I changed a stoma bag and helped a man out to his daughters car because she was worried about getting him in. I had my wrist twisted and a walking stick raised to my head and gently led them both back to bed and stayed while they calmed down. I was technically supposed to not be patient facing today because I needed to ensure there was enough staff to keep us safe for the next week and answer complaints and incident reports and teach so I ended up staying 3 hours after my already 12 hour shift to get everything done because we were down 2 staff.
Also most trusts have electronic notes and precriptions so nurses on computers are generally documenting their care.

I'm not denying that poor care exists, I've certainly seen it but in the vast majority of wards that I've worked in (3 as staff and probably about 50 as agency/bank) all across Scotland patients are generally supported to wash daily, if I'm honest borderline obsessively. I'm proudly degree qualified and I couldn't work to the level of critical thinking that I am required to everyday without my degree, nursing as a role has changed massively over the past 30 years.

How rude are you.

I've just retired after 37 years in the NHS and this is not true at all.
Nurses still go into training to nurse patients, unfortunately the role has been changed so much that I've known band 5, newly qualified nurses left in charge of wards.
Trusts are employing more and more Band 4 HCA, and this is erroding the role of the nurse.

I gave my all to the NHS, to the point where I completely burned out and it cost me my physical health. Ive seen several colleagues in the same boat.
Would I do it all again, not a chance.

I'm sorry your experience was lacking OP, ask the staff if they can assist your daughter, they probably assume you have helped since you are there, as a lot of young women do prefer their family to help. There is no excuse for the unclean sheets.

FindingMeno No buzzer sounds like it’s not a proper ward but likely a day admissions unit, that’s been repurposed. Really it should be empty and closed for the day around 7pm, but is being used for emergency overspill. Two experiences of this that were both truly traumatic. They aren’t set up to take overnight patients. Designed for a few hours of post op. Both times they were full to busting.

Very frightening. Thank goodness she has someone to advocate for her!

our hospital has been told it needs to reduce its wage bill by 50%. Also a complete ban on bank staff. So if someone calls in sick they no longer replace that person with a bank nurse/HCA

Cost cutting. Lots of north western health trusts - actually all the ones I know of - are in dire financial measures.

Still being told to save money. Have you not heard that all recruitment has stopped due to cost? There’s been a few threads about it.

I was in an NHS hospital in 1991 for a few nights and when I asked whether I could have a bath and a hair wash, the nurses had to remove junk and pot plants from the bath that no-one ever seemed to use. This was a large mixed ward. So I don't think that patient hygiene has necessarily become less of a priority over the years!

I’ve read the thread and it seems the consensus (from people who know the issue first hand) is HCA shortages. Is this due to lack of funding / poor resourcing decisions or a lack of people willing to fill those posts (for example due to tighter immigration restrictions)?

This
The trust I work at have stopped all agency staff
The problem is a lot of agency staff in speciality areas have worked there previously and are very experienced
Have had to resigned their permanent post and do agency because of child care etc
I know of wards even cutting back staff.
And newly qualified nurses not being given preceptorship ...
To quote the 8c over emergency care where I work "because they are on the register ".

My mum was on a ward for a couple of weeks last month. By the time I arrived for visiting every morning she had been washed and her bed sheets changed. This is a hospital in Essex if relevant.
I hope your daughter makes a speedy recovery x

Oh yes ... good ol .. end pj paralysis

They will very very short staffed over the school holidays.

We’ve recently lost a nurse and HCA per shift but been given an extra 9 patients. We’re at breaking point.

It’s always like this on mumsnet@Holdonforsummer

We are on day 9 of being in hospital with my child and I agree, they seemed put out yesterday when I asked for new sheets for her bed. As she's a teenager I am staying with her and able to support her self care but when my parents have been in hospital recently too there seemed a real lack of this. I presume it's cost cutting and less staff available.

Fingers crossed for a speedy recovery for your daughter.
My experience with acute hospital care is that nurses do observations, sort out medication, answer relatives questions, update paperwork on the computer. Because they have to do this for so many patients, plus if a patient worsens, they wouldn’t have time to wash patients. This is what the HCAs do, but there aren’t many of them compared to the number of the patients on the ward. Plus they have to answer relatives’ questions.
The cleaners spent most of their time cleaning the floors. Not saying that isn’t important, but it always looks strange with a sparkling floor but dirty toilets (I know it only takes one person to mess up a just cleaned toilet but I always though you need to shift the priority from floors to bathrooms).
There does seem to be a lack of basic care. I don’t see how relatives could be expected to give care - even if they were willing and able, they wouldn’t necessarily know what needs to be done next and when food will come etc. I wonder if there are differences in expectations of relatives e.g on a women only ward I’m assuming that there wouldn’t be an expectation of personal care by husbands.

Wow, the nurse bashing on here is unoleasant.

In recent admissions of a LO I have observed patients consistently asking for water with noone on the ward having any at all, a lady soiling herself because she had been asking for help and noone returned, an older gent laying in a soiled pad for hours, and falls when noone has been around to respond to calls for help.
It is actually terrifying.
Even if a visitor is there, they are not necessarily able to physically help with some things.
This is an absolute crisis.
I also noticed on my last hospital experience that the patients didn't have buzzers to press when they needed help. I don't know if this is a general thing now?

I see you did not take note of anything I said about pt/ staff numbers. Nor of what we are paid for this level of work. It is Victorian.

Oh and the other day I was banking elsewhere and discovered half an hour past breakfast time that we were doing housekeeping that day too. I had to spend an hour dishing out breakfast. That was an hour I could have done 2- 4 washes in. It was only because I was asking that they got it at all. None of us knew the routines.

Unfortunately 3/4 healthcare per ward is becoming normal. I did have a more sedate shift one day last month with 6 of us on, it was bliss.