Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

Can someone explain that business about sanitary products and hospital workers

272 replies

Ohmycron · 23/01/2022 16:43

I don’t understand why they just can’t take a big pack in in case they run short like everyone else does

Have I missed something.

OP posts:
Bigoakbeam · 23/01/2022 16:57

If I was on a very heavy period I would shove a new pad into the top of my tights or down the side of my bra or something, so I'm prepared for later on.

Crazycatlady83 · 23/01/2022 16:58

If HCP say they need it, then I can't see why they would ask for something if they didn't. Relative to someone's comfort on shift (which I can only imagine is bloody hard work to say the least), it seems a very small cost. So if they want it, I hope they get it!

CorrBlimeyGG · 23/01/2022 16:58

I work in a school where we are utterly awash with sanitary protection that everyone reckons all the kids need and take up is so minimal

Do you think the students might find other staff more approachable than yourself, if they need supplies? Perhaps, despite your obvious open, caring nature, you might not be aware of what goes on in other people's lives?

TheFairyCaravan · 23/01/2022 16:59

@Ohmycron

Really? Seems unlikely !! Surely you take a piss somewhere
No, it’s true. Both DS2 and DDIL are nurses, they rarely get time for a wee. It’s disgusting.
Crazycatlady83 · 23/01/2022 17:00

@TheFairyCaravan this needs to be addressed, surely? Seems like so many HCP don't have the time even for the loo - they will make themselves unwell

tiredanddangerous · 23/01/2022 17:01

Because in a hospital your locker can easily be a 5 minute walk away from where you're working, and scrubs don't have pockets.

EinsteinaGogo · 23/01/2022 17:01

OP - have you been drinking?

LizzyBennett · 23/01/2022 17:01

I have a cool so it's not an issue for me, but I can see where it can be a problem.

I work cross site but only have a locker in my main hospital. In one of the others I have to use the communal lockers and changing room which is two floors away. I work in an operating department so can bring my handbag inside for obvious reasons. If I need the loo, I use the nearest one but if I needed sanitary products the two floor trek would be a problem. If I'm scrubbed then I need to find someone to scrub in to replace me and do their checks before I can leave the table. At that stage it's probably impossible to get to my locker, rummage around to find what I need and get to the loo without an embarrassing accident. men

For the surgeons I work with it's the same except that their bags might be a10 minute walk away in the other side of the building.

I've seen women I've worked with, particularly peri menopausal women who are flooding, bleed through on quite a few occasions.

TulipsGarden · 23/01/2022 17:01

Lockers are often nowhere near where they're working, and they are extremely busy and can't just mooch off for a walk to their locker and to use the loo for 10 minutes like you might in an office job.

If there were sanitary products available in all bathrooms it would make life a lot easier, and save time and discomfort/embarrassment when they feel they might leak. As a pp says, if men bled every month you can bet your arse there would be everything required in every bathroom in the land.

EinsteinaGogo · 23/01/2022 17:02

@Ohmycron

Really? Seems unlikely !! Surely you take a piss somewhere

Such eloquence.

I imagine you don't work, OP, so are never far away from your essentials 💕

GloriaPunniford · 23/01/2022 17:02

I’m a theatre nurse and my locker is in department A.

During my shift I get deployed to department B which is at least a five minute walk away. It’s an emergency so I have to run over there. No time to stop to grab my bag, but even if I did I have no locker in the other department so my items are at risk.

It’s a major orthopaedic case so I have to scrub up including lead X-ray vest. I suffer from a gynae condition so I’m prone to flooding.

Having sanpro in all toilets would make my day much easier. It would also save valuable time for my colleagues and for the patients.

Thinkbiglittleone · 23/01/2022 17:04

@Bigoakbeam

If I was on a very heavy period I would shove a new pad into the top of my tights or down the side of my bra or something, so I'm prepared for later on.
Of course this would be the practical thing to do, but the issue is, our NHS staff should never be in a position where this is the answer. I know there are a lot of work places were every second has to be accounted for and staff are monitored on toilet breaks, but if a lady needs to go the toilet for a sanitary change that should not need an explanation or a time limit.
whysitspicey · 23/01/2022 17:04

@simonisnotme

Im not convinced that they are so busy all the time that they cant go for a wee
Then you have zero experience of working in a busy hospital then. My clinic list runs from 8:30 to 1pm with back to back 15 minute appointments. In that 15 minutes the patient has to be talked through the prodedure, have the procedure often involving getting changed and then I have to do a written report on their records, often they are going back to ward so it has to be immediate. Then the next patient comes in for their turn. The only chance I get to go for a wee before lunchtime is if an outpatient patient doesn't turn up for their appointment. I get 30 minutes exactly before it starts all over again for the next half of the afternoon.
LizzyBennett · 23/01/2022 17:05

Sorry for all the typos - I hope that message is still legible

Original poster
Ohmycron · 23/01/2022 17:05

@EinsteinaGogo I don’t work? What? 30 years

OP posts:
TheFairyCaravan · 23/01/2022 17:06

[quote Crazycatlady83]@TheFairyCaravan this needs to be addressed, surely? Seems like so many HCP don't have the time even for the loo - they will make themselves unwell[/quote]
I totally agree. Our HCPs are treated really poorly.

Sprogonthetyne · 23/01/2022 17:07

I haven't read the articles your talking about but when my mum was a theatre nurse she worked for a trust, so could be sent to any one of three hospitals. Her locker was at her closest hospital, where she worked most often, but she was regularly at a hospital 20 miles away. She would take stuff for that day, but wouldn't have a permanent locker at the other hospitals to leave spares in.

More importantly as she was in theater her scrubs could not leave the department so she would have to change completely before been able to get to the locker room, then change into new scrubs to come back to work (there were toilets in the department, but bags and personal items couldn't come in, so the lockers were the other side of the changing room)

EinsteinaGogo · 23/01/2022 17:07

No, surely not 😍

MarshmallowSwede · 23/01/2022 17:09

This is sad.. women should be allowed to change their pads or tampons as needed. Hat if she is bleeding heavy? And is no one worried about toxic shock syndrome?

Rupertpenrysmistress · 23/01/2022 17:11

It's more to do with being moved wards/departments or having to accompany patients somewhere so you can't take a bag or access it easily. At the moment we have patients in areas that are not wards, you cannot take a bag as their is literally nowhere safe to leave it.

LuluBlakey1 · 23/01/2022 17:11

It's the same for many workers- hospital staff are no different. Teachers, for example- can go from 8.45am-1.pm and end up with no break. Hospital staff have plenty of places they can keep stuff- most nurses have pockets in their top, or their trousers have pockets, or they can wear a t shirt underneath with a pocket. Or you can wear a tampon and a pad. It's trivial fuss and drama when there are so many much bigger things we need to worry about.

Maireas · 23/01/2022 17:13

@Ohmycron

I work in a school where we are utterly awash with sanitary protection that everyone reckons all the kids need and take up is so minimal
Well, I'm a teacher in a big school and we're not "awash" with sanpro. Some girls have period poverty, and it's a real issue. Some girls stay at home when they're on a period. Anyway, if providing it makes the working lives of healthcare workers any easier at all, then that should happen, and free of charge.
Thhhhheeeeelong · 23/01/2022 17:14

I work from home and sometimes back to back on calls and struggle with toilet breaks on some days and the toilet is 2 meters away from me so I'd say someone very busy in a hospital 100% needs sanitary products available in the toilet.

mollycobbles · 23/01/2022 17:15

I’m a teacher and we have free pads and tampons in the staff room toilet.

I’ll guess that I’m not as busy as an nurse, and yet I still find this incredibly helpful. Sometimes four hours without a break is too long (three lessons, registration and break duty) in terms of sanitary protection, so I need to be quick.
Of course there should be provision for this in hospitals if at all possible.

Maireas · 23/01/2022 17:16

@Crazycatlady83

If HCP say they need it, then I can't see why they would ask for something if they didn't. Relative to someone's comfort on shift (which I can only imagine is bloody hard work to say the least), it seems a very small cost. So if they want it, I hope they get it!
Exactly this.
Swipe left for the next trending thread