Do nursing staff not wash patients anymore or change sheets?

My mum got great care after her stroke, we did help with feeding so HCAs could spend more time with patients who had no one to assist.
FiL has had good care too.

My DD and her team constantly give great care, often in the face of violent and aggressive patients and relatives, they cannot turn people away, she recently had time off after being attacked.

You should worry about these people not the medical staff.

We only every get the horror stories in the media, all the people who get good care, aren't newsworthy.

In a postnatal ward a day after having a caesarian a nurse told me to go to the bathroom on my own and remove the catheter myself!!
The nurse said she didn't have time to do it.
At that point my mother arrived. A retired matron with 40 + years of nursing experience. She listened to this exchange with a face like thunder.
She disappeared and then returned with the Senior Nurse on duty. Suffice to say the subsequent "dressing down" both received was done succinctly but professionally. The wierd thing was that on subsequent days the senior nurse and others actually sought her out for advice on some very basic things related to patient care. My mum was of the opinion that something was lacking in the training of these nurses. Too much technical knowledge and not enough common sense.

It sounds like OP's daughter isn't well enough to wash herself.

When I was in hospital I was expected to wash myself. Beds were changed but sometimes I had to ask/check.

We need to raise the bar and not accept poor standards.

I am a hospital consultant of many years. When I read about poor practice by medical colleagues, I always condemn bad behaviour. I do not automatically defend doctors who get it wrong. If they have failed to reach professional standards, they must be pulled up on it. There is no excuse for rudeness or irritability. They must treat people with respect, however stressful their day has been. I also believe the same of nursing colleagues. I am lucky and have worked with brilliant nurses. They would expect patients to be fed, comfortable and clean.

Of course there is a staffing issue. Many hospitals including mine have put a ban on agency staff. However, there is still a difference between wards with the same staffing. I cannot emphasise enough the difference it makes if a war is well led. If there is a strong, charismatic but firm ward manager or matron, it has a huge impact on standards. Good leadership can lead to better care for patients, even with the same number of staff. It is not just about numbers of staff, though of course impossible workload can impact on care. It is about professional integrity and caring about patients, and that culture comes from the top. The great nurses I know, would not stand for poor quality care and would somehow make good basic nursing happen. Staff morale is everything, and matrons who work on this, have better performing wards.

Hygiene is crucial in hospitals. Without this, infections run rife which impacts on mortality and morbidity.

I would definitely raise this OP. your daughter deserves clean sheets and good care. Good nursing care is more important than all the clever meds and interventions in the world.

Unfortunately, we live in a time where patients with advocates end up getting better treatment than those are on their own. A sobering thought when we think of our ageing population.

I think it's pot luck, there's no one seemingly in charge anymore, so if you have a ward where there is good care you're just lucky, I've seen the best and the worst, it's so inconsistent, but I think it's up to you to ask for washing bed sheet changing etc. if it's not being done routinely, you might get some huffing and puffing though depending on who you ask.

I dunno what sort of course your friend did but certainly where I live that level of training would not be adequate for nursing . I qualified in 2013 with a degree and had to go into college 9-5 for 5 days a week and the course was 4 years. It was mandatory attendance and you were monitored very closely to ensure you attended all lectures whereas other college students could just skip class. Half of the time we were in the hospital working full time as well during our training and for the last 9 months we were in hospitals the entire time as an internship like doctors. Of course no one ever complains about doctors or other allied healthcare professionals having degrees. It’s always people who know zero about nursing who seem to focus on nurses having degrees for some reason.

What is actual nursing to you though ? Because it’s certainly not sweeping floors and bringing tea . Although I will say as a nurse you do end up spending half the evening and night making toast because the hospital won’t hire people to do it and you end up picking up the slack for jobs that are absolutely not nursing .

My recent experience in hospital has been dreadful. The looking after the patient side of nursing has gone. Most spend 90% of their shift sat at the nurses station chatting. I was waiting for morphine, that the doctor had prescribed an hour earlier. 2 nurses and 3 patients, in a room like an add on bit for a&e. I was visibly in agony. After asking again and again. She eventually went to get the Morphine. Even when in nurses hand she’s still chatting about what they’re having for tea, going on holiday etc for about another 20 minutes. It took my husband shouting “ my wife’s in agony here” for them to wrap up the conversation.

Exactly.

One of the first actions they perform after admittance is inserting a cannula. This is just in case the patient needs an IV drug urgently and it saves the doctor having to do it later when time is short.

I am so sorry this was your experience. It is such a hard time and they need to staff the postnatal units better so that women are supported at the start of motherhood.

I’m sorry that happened to you. The postnatal ward to a tough place. It seems they need to about double the staffing.

What are you talking about people usually have cannulas in their whole hospital stays it doesn't mean they are continuously attached to a drip

Last time I was in hospital I was sat in A&E for 15 hour before a bed was available. Taken up to the ward finally and wheeled to a bed. It had a bare mattress with a pile of bedding sat on it. I felt too ill by that time to try to make the bed so just lay on it and hubby had to make it when he came for visiting.
I was told on admission I needed strong IV antibiotics, by the time he came in I had been in hospital 20 hours with no medication whatsoever. When he queried it he was told I had missed the drugs round and would have to wait til the following morning. I felt dreadful and could literally see the infection spreading. I don't know where he found one but he came back almost dragging a doctor who then went into full blown panic mode and sorted IV etc. Hubby said the nurses had all been clustered round the nurses station eating Quality Street.
I was in hospital for five days, my bed was never changed and I was not offered a wash until I could get up after 3 days and stagger to the toilet.
At one stage the alarm went off on my drip and the cleaner came along, turned the alarm off and sorted the kink in the tube.

Maybe they are assuming you are doing it. Most paediatric patients have parents with them who mostly do it. Although I always offer to help
them/ change sheets if they want it.

No Hope Service-sadly but very accurate. I was left in my own diarrhea for hours after my C section few years ago. I had side effects of anesthesia and smell was horrendous. 3 members of staff checked me under sheets and said I'm fine. I thought I'm going mental as I was literally smelling poo. Luckily night shift nurse noticed it and cleaned, she was very furious on her collegues as diarrhea went in to my dressing and caused infection ....

I work on a ward for rehabilitation of elderly patients (I’m admin not clinical). All our patients are assisted with personal care, or it is done for them if they are unable, every morning. Beds are changed every day without fail. The ward is constantly cleaned and is spotless. Our Ward Manager runs a very tight ship!
I assumed this was the norm - am saddened it is not.
I hope your daughter recovers very quickly

What did you think the cannula was for? He wasn't just sitting there with a cannula for fun. He had insulin, a saline solution, antibiotics all going in the arm, and a catheter out of his bladder to collect urine. It's obvious to me that the cannula was performing a function.
Edited to add, this was a regular occurrence when he was young.

Are you for real?

I gave birth at St Thomas’s. Had a c-section and also had pre and post natal depression. I wasn’t in a good way and felt completely overwhelmed.

An angel of a HCA came into my room and told me she was going to take me into the shower room and give me a wash. She showered me whilst I sat on the chair, washed my hair, got me dried and dressed, change my sheets, changed my dressing.

She was so wonderful. I tear up just thinking about how much she went out of her way to take care of me whilst all the nurses and doctors were so busy.

Nurse said one was needed looked at us and said we could do it - seemed serious about that tried to hand sis medication. Mum was a no I don't think so - and then there was a long pause and was a well supposed I could from nurse.

I'd already just taken Mum very unsteadily to the toilet as staff insisted they were too busy and I could do it - I'd literally just got to hospital after hours of travel with luggage and hadn't seen mum in person for over a year. So first thing I was doing was working out hospital wheel chairs and pulling down her trousers and pants down as she couldn't and sorting her.

That I felt I could do but suppositories I was WTF.

DH said his Uncle did that and personal care for his GM at their house in end as they both prefered that to carers and some nurses that came in but bit different situation to hopsital situation to say the least.

I was left in bloody sheets. They kept giving me those disposable Puppy Pad sheets to put over the blood instead of changing the sheets. When I complained I was essentially called a liar as they said the staff who manage the ward wouldn’t allow that.
I said both my partner and his father saw it. But nope, we were all liars 🙄

I was asked if I wanted my sheets changed everyday when I was in hospital with DS after he was born. They didn't need to be changed everyday, but the offer was there. I changed DS's sheets in his cot, because sheets and blankets for the cots were available in a cupboard on the ward. I was able to wash myself, DS didn't get his first bath until we get home, I just wiped him down.

What a shitty post 🙄

OP, I hope your daughter makes a full recovery and the hospital stay is as short as possible. 💐

You know, it really depends on the senior nurse in charge and if they demand that the other nurses only function as managers. The tasks OP is mentioning are all handled by HCAs in regular wards (I was in neurological); I’m not sure how it’s handled in infectious diseases, but I would imagine it’s still HCAs changing the beds and helping with washing. So I’m not sure what’s going on with your DD; they’d come around every morning after breakfast to ask about changing the sheets and if anyone needed help washing. Usually they ask that visiting hours don’t start until 10/11 because they’re doing breakfast and then personal care for patients. Please ask someone if this isn’t being done.

The thing about the senior nurse though… I had absolutely lovely nurses when I was in, but one senior in charge was just an absolute nightmare. Bells would be going off from several rooms and a bunch of nurses were just sitting at the desk, but because the OFFICIAL hierarchy is - you ring the bell, the HCA comes to turn it off and check if it’s something they can do (bed change, cup of tea), and if not, they get a nurse. I got out of bed to ask for a cup of tea and my favourite nurse was just sitting at the desk and started asking me, “Just milk, right?” And she cut him off, looked at me like I was shite on her shoe, and said the tea round would be there soon. 😂 You could always tell when she was on shift because bells would constantly be ringing and go on ringing for about twice as long as they did on normal days/nights when both nurses and HCAs pitched in.