Can someone explain that business about sanitary products and hospital workers

[Ohmycron]

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.

I think the absolute lack of empathy shown by some on this thread is astounding.

@Ohmycron

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.

Personally, I work in an office so I can take a "big pack" in my handbag and carry it about with me so I can take it to whichever loo I happen to be visiting.

What would you have my friend, who's an anaesthetist and wears scrubs type clothing and has to work in various departments of the hospital, do with her "big pack just in case she runs out"? Why is it problematic to you that someone has suggested there should be some available in each staff loo because she generally only has time to dash to the closest loo not all over the hospital to her locker to retrieve a fresh tampon or pad?

I'm sure it is cheaper to provide a backup supply of pads than employ more staff so that NHS staff have time to have adequate breaks, tbf, if it's the cost you're worried about...

Hospital here have staff loos on the wards. It wouldn’t be difficult to leave sanpro in staff loos.

Hospitals have to be designed to cater for female staff who make up a hefty percentage of the work force.

I know my friend and her team who worked on one ward kept a box at the nurses station with a mix of sanpro everyone could dip into with a simple use and replace system. So if you dipped in you’d bring pads back the next time.

Thankfully things like period pants as back up are easing these issues for us women but we still need better consideration for our needs.

Ultimately though the real issue here is staffing. I’m schools, in hospitals etc. we need the spare staff members to cover so everyone can have a break, keep their health/hygiene in check, pray of that their thing or even just be there for emergencies. Surely this is the most logical thing to do?

They should be in staff toilets, most people would use their own I'm sure that suits their preference, but for those that need it, fab. Hospitals buy san pro anyway for patients, the cost is minimal it's not like they are proposing popping into boots to buy a top brand, it'll be the cheap preferred generic brand they buy in bulk, just a case of a few being popped into the loos. Plenty end up using the toilet away from their ward/usual place of work, sometimes when on the way back from an errand is the only time you can escape! Also as with all of us it can creep up on you and when dealing with people all day it's not ideal to be bleeding through (also not sanitary in what tries to be a clean setting) if you don't have any on you.

@simonisnotme

Im not convinced that they are so busy all the time that they cant go for a wee

Hospitals are huge, and staff often work a long way from their locker. Under such pressure they don't even get time for meal breaks

Those people who think its a waste of money, if you were a patient in a hospital, wouldn't you want to know that the staff were concentrating on their job of looking after you, not trying to workout where and when they can get hold of some sanitary protection and worrying if they're bleeding through their clothes?

I was a mature entrant to medicine, and still haven't got over how hard all hospital staff work, and how badly they are treated by their employers, compared to my life before medicine. I would OFTEN work twelve hour shifts and not have time for a toilet break, but that was fine, because I didn't have time to drink anything either.

Supplying sanpro would be a small, inexpensive thing to do that might make life slightly easier for women who are working their arses off.

@simonisnotme

Im not convinced that they are so busy all the time that they cant go for a wee

Come and do a shift with me. You may change your mind

@Seeline

Also they have to keep stuff in lockers which aren't necessarily near where they are actually working - especially eg doctors covering multiple wards, so can't access any personal items quickly.

This

Personally- If called to a ward I'm a good 10 min walk from all my personal items, never mind the fact I usually only get to piss about 4 hours after I first needed one. And no, no lunch breaks.

@simonisnotme

Im not convinced that they are so busy all the time that they cant go for a wee

During my ICU days (years/decades) I regularly didn't have time to wee from leaving the house at 6am to getting home at 9:30pm.

I'm my newer role, I try to wee before I leave to come home otherwise the drive home is hairy (middle aged bladder).

Absolutely nothing to do with time management, mainly being unable to walk away from a patient who would die within 60 seconds of a syringe of medication running out. Multiply that by up to 15 syringes running simultaneously plus antibiotics/dialysis/physio/feeds/normal cares/position changes/blood gases/family updates/blah blah blah...

I can’t believe some of the comments on here. Nice to know that female HCPs have the support of their fellow Mumsnetters. Not.

@simonisnotme

Im not convinced that they are so busy all the time that they cant go for a wee

I'm not convinced you've ever been an NHS worker, but yet here you are, spouting shit. yes, if you've got too much patient and not enough nurse, you're not going to find time to go to toiket

I leave tampons and pads in my tunic pockets don't care if it's not strictly the rules , like fuck am I going to bleed out onto my uniform because I have to go to the lockers.

@QuantumHypothesis

I can’t believe some of the comments on here. Nice to know that female HCPs have the support of their fellow Mumsnetters. Not.

How many of them vote Tory as they 'know what a woman is'. Fat lot of good that knowledge is doing here eh?!

The hospital I used to work in had a site that must have been 3/4 of a mile from one end to the other. I used to work about 2/3 of the way from one end and parked in the car park up the other end so I could fit a mile's walk into my day (desk worker!).

When I worked in hospitality it wasn't ideal but if I was desperate no one was actually going to die if they waited an extra 2 minutes while I popped to the (nearby) loo, picking up my (nearby) bag en route. It would have been a very different story if I had needed a 22 minute break to allow for a half mile walk to my bag and back!

@drinkingwineoutofamug

It's ok. Next time I'm in the middle of an arrest call. I will just walk out of the situation to go change/insert my pad/tampon. It's not that simple.

As previous poster - mental health - explained, in some situations it is not feasible to leave , even if it's for 5 mins.

No a theatre nurse in the middle of an operation can't just leave.

Christ we had to fight for ppe , now we fight for sanpro.

I do wonder if the same people saying that they don't believe that some don't get chance for a toilet break in a shift would also be the same ones complaining when left by a HCP for the 20 mins it might take to get to a locker, get the sanpro, change, observe hygiene and get back to the patient. Or the same ones complaining about the response time of police officers, or how long their dad has been left by the carers wanting the toilet.

Ultimately the fact is that some people find it inconvenient and distasteful that other people in service of the public are actually human beings with the imperfections that brings, like needing food, the toilet and menstruation.

@CharlotteRose90 you’re not a midwife are you? Anything kept in my top scrub pocket falls out as soon as I bend over. When I’m following a woman round the birthing pool it’s pretty regularly. And most women don’t appreciate tampons and pads raining down on them during Labour.

And scrub trousers regularly just have flappy bits of material where pockets once lived. I really think if you haven’t done the job/worn the uniform/walked the walk then you just don’t have a clue.

I’d regularly get up, have a wee then work 13 hours and go home only to realise when I went for a wee that resembled lucozade that I hadn’t been to the toilet since that first morning wee.

My locker was two floors down. It was a 6 minute walk there and a 6 minute walk back. Throw in the actual toilet stop and it was a minimum of 15 minutes away from a labouring woman. Who would often complain that I had disappeared, and that was if I could get a colleague to keep an eye on them. To be fair them most were genuinely horrified when I explained what I had been doing. Same way they were horrified at how much it cost us to park, that we weren’t allowed to park on-site and discouraged from parking in a particular radius of the hospital and that at 5.30pm I was just getting to go for my ‘lunch’.

The lack of emotional intelligence on this thread is staggering.

I've never worked in a hospital, I have worked in retail where, yes you did get scheduled breaks, but every second you were off the shop floor was timed and you never felt you could ask to go to the toilet in between times. Even then, that's just not comparable to the conditions health staff are working in.

My dad had a period of very poor health, spent the best part of a year in hospital, regular emergency operations and extended stays in intensive care. So I did get a reasonable impression of how the staff worked. I've never forgotten it, he was cared for 24/7, especially in ICU, his bedside never left by a nurse, without that he wouldn't be alive. They're doing jobs no one in society wants to do, cleaning up other peoples bodily fluids and working through all festive seasons when we're all sat at home. I would never grudge them access to sanitary products, they deserve a bit of dignity at work, not just expected to shove a pad in their bra while handling patients and cleaning up all sorts.

A lot of people are completely deluded about the state of the NHS right now!

@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.

And then when that one is soaked through after an hour?

@Ohmycron

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

Have lost count of the number of times I’ve been in theatre working solo doing a long case where I’ve had to chose either to just hope that the surgical gown I’ve put on over my scrubs ‘to keep warm’ really is waterproof or to call my boss in from home so I can go and sort out what looks like the scene of a massacre! It’s not always the lack of products but the lack of opportunity to use those products. In my specialty (anaesthetics/icu) it really isn’t terribly uncommon to barely have time to wee in a 13hr shift (and certainly not to be able to do it when you really need to). I suspect most of us deploy belt and braces, but some days that just isn’t enough.

I worked in hospitals. My uniform had pockets. Big enough for phones. And pads too. Yes by all means put some out. But stop making out everybody is a martyr. Of course they go to the toilet. Honestly!

I don’t work as an HCP. But I can completely understand why they would need sanpro in the toilets.

I cannot believe how thick some people on this thread are: how they cannot see why an HCP cannot just saunter back to their locker to get a tampon or whatever

@SomeOwlsCoo

I've worked in healthcare. It was quite common to work through our breaks, not have time to go to the toilet, staff room was at the other end of the building and management would question why we were going there when it wasn't our break.

Totally this. If someone hasn't worked in a busy ward environment then they just wouldn't get it. Understaffed, call bells keep ringing, personal belongings not nearby.

I really think the bigger issue here is the lack of time for proper breaks. Solve that and you solve the san pro problem that some women are experiencing. People need breaks for lots of medical reasons IBD, bladder problems, diabetes, ME, christ just dehydration and hunger!

Wow! I don't understand why we wouldn't ALL be supporting an idea that would make life more comfortable for so many women.

I have heavy periods and have to ask people to cover for me in the classroom and sometimes there is nobody. It's not easy, but I can't imagine how tricky this would be with the locker so far away/ restrictions in what can be carried on one's person and no real breaks on a reallylong shift! Where has everyone's empathy gone?

If your periods aren't so heavy that you are constantly bleeding through, I still think you might have friends or family members for whom this is an issue. It might become an issue for you one day. Why not make sanitary products available AND work on the issue of not enough breaks. We should be supportive of each other, surely?

There's too much of that, "well it doesn't affect me, so it's not a problem!" from a few posters on here and suggestions of how they would handle this difficulty so much better than others.