Nurses stuck at work as no-one to relieve them.

[Bristolbanshee777]

Have you seen this? Nurses in Glasgow were forced to work 24 hour shifts as there were no qualified nurses available to relieve them. This is a disgrace.

www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/10048287/nurses-scotland-working-24-hour-shifts-nhs-meltdown/

That's hideous but I can see it happening in my trust too

It’s not really a new thing and not exclusive to nurses.

Sorry, but they are complicit in their own tragedy. I work in the hospital and it is the hospital's responsibility to provide employees for the shift. If there weren't enough midwives for the next shift I would contact my supervisor/dorector of nursing/midwifery/whoever is on call and expect them to come and deal with the mess. And then go home. That's part of the high responsibilities of managers and directors, not lowly employees.

If nurses keep doing overtime and covering for lack of other staff they are perpetuating the situation.

I don't blame them for striking. And not surprised that so many of them are leaving the profession.

Imagine checking drugs when you've been on shift for 24 hours. From what I've heard they don't even get breaks on their 12 hour shifts. NHS is beyond repair.

I work in a care home and this happens quite often with us also.

Where else has this happened? It's new to me, I can't imagine how terrifying it would be after working 20 hours to need to do a drug calculation.

I doubt the hospital managers are twiddling their thumbs.

A covid outbreak can take out a huge chunk of the workforce, sickness is high and if you already have masses of vacancies it's not always possible to cover with agency. Some areas of the country also have more access to agency staff than others.

It's an awful decision to be faced with staying and being so tired you're unsafe and leaving knowing people just won't get essential care.

I understand how that could work in many industries, but this approach would mean walking out and leaving people alone in health and social care. It's not that simple to find cover and it's not something that any staff member could consider doing. It's not the managers fault either, if it could be covered it would have been 99 times out of 100.

I’m a (non-consultant) hospital doctor. It doesn’t happen frequently but it’s certainly not a new thing. It gets harder as you get older that’s for sure! Consultants doing 72hr weekends are often in and working for huge chunks of that time.

This is a ridiculous situation.

It is the responsibility of the underworked, overpaid managers to maintain safe staffing levels.
They should have access to Bank Staff or Agency Staff - because they should have these systems set up.

I suspect it's a manager higher up that won't sign off on the extra budget requirements. 🙄But that's not the staff member's problem.

As others have said, staff should do the shift and go home. If there was an 'untoward incident' because staff made a mistake due to tiredness, it would be the staff member's head on the block, not the managers.

There is too much 'covering up' for these pen-pushers IMO.

It’s not a new thing. As a nurse you are ultimately accountable for the patients in your care and it isn’t as simple as just walking out.

Agency nurses can be booked and cancel at the last minute, people go sick. It happens. It’s awful but not as easy as just finding staff.

Having waking senior nurse cover can help because they can look to redeploying staff from other wards, units as well as covering themselves but it’s bloody scary when you are asked to manage a ward of a different specialty.

Agree that by staying, they’re just perpetuating the problem. They should leave, they’re not prisoners. They have their own lives, children etc. to attend to!

Do you work front line patient facing?

One of my friends is a senior staff nurse. She went into work as rostered yesterday morning for her early shift, having got up at 5.30am, did the morning drug round, and then was sent home as they needed her to come back last night to a night shift.

There are simply not enough nurses. The Tories have broken everything.

It's terrible, this has always been an issue for years (ex nurse) but it seems to be getting worse and worse. Those poor nurses are trapped in this awful situation where if they leave - they will lose their job and their nursing pin, they will be leaving their colleagues in a worse situation and ethically they will be leaving their patients in a really dangerous position. The pp who said they are complicit- they are in the sense they can leave completely. But they will lose their job, profession and if you are someone who feels such a strong calling to help others that you are willing to work long gruelling shifts for less money than most comparable other jobs... do you think you will then feel you can abandon those patients and colleagues when they need you most? Which leaves them in the vulnerable position they are in now being overworked,underpaid and left to deal with the psychological trauma of working in a health service which has become so understaffed and underfunded to look after patients to the extent they would want to is nigh on impossible. Something needs to change but I definitely would suggest that calling the staff on the ground complicit suggests you have no real idea of what they are facing and how powerless they are to an extent given the ties and responsibilities of their profession.

They should have access to Bank Staff or Agency Staff - because they should have these systems set

There are nowhere near enough bank or agency midwives. My friend is a midwife and there are just no staff. If they don't stay over time then people would be having babies without a midwife. Where there used to be 5 midwives working a shift they now usually have 2.

They can't magic staff out of nowhere. Sickness rates are sky high and staff are leaving because it's unsafe and not manageable.

I agree. Just to clarify, though, this particular incident happened in Scotland where health is a devolved matter. The SNP are entirely responsible for the Scottish NHS. And Nicola Sturgeon keeps gloating about how Scotland's health service is so much better than England and Wales!

Yes, I have nurse friends who have worked insane shifts because there's no one else, and they can't just leave their patients. So wrong that they should be forced into this position.

I must admit I don't understand why the nurses first port if call wasn't work to rule. Whilst I understand it's difficult to just go home when people need care it seems to me to be the best way to show just how bad things are and to get something done.

If all nurses told managers that from Monday this was going to happen they would have to get agency staff in,

Yes

I remember working in a 24 hour job role (homeless hostel, v busy, new arrivals welcolmed 24/7, awake night staff needed). If there was sickness, the two of us on days would split the night shift. So shift finished at 10, one of us would go home and sleep until 2/3am ish and the return and relieve co worker who would then return at 7am as you would both be on shift from 7am. This was not uncommon. I was young then so we managed.

However, no drug runs etc. But we did need to be alert to violence, knives, heroin overdoses and so on.

It’s just awful atm and I really feel for HCP, and support their strikes.

I've been worked from 07.30 until midnight untill an agency nurse took over

I laughed at the comment,'the tories have broken everything'.

My DM should still be working now. She retired 15 years early from nurses due to bullying. The NHS is rife with bullying. I know this as I also have a close family member who works in HR within the NHS.

I'd love to see the statistics on bullying in the NHS. My DM is not the only person she knows to leave the NHS due to bullying. Many went private, and some retired.

If wokeness, bullying etc weren't present to such extreme, they'd be less management needs, reduced unnecessary training initiatives, bullying would be dealt with effectively, they'd be less sickness and maybe a nicer environment. But hey... blame the tories 🤣

And those nurses who aren't part of the bullying culture, who are pulling out the stops to ensure patient care is available, putting their lives on hold. They are our true hero's & heroines!

A nurse leaving after her shift wouldn't be "leaving patients with no care". The hpospital is leaving patients with no care. A nurse leaving after her shift is not "leaving her colleagues understaffed". The hospital is leaving the nurses understaffed. One can sympathise, and be outraged, and despair at the shortages without being made to feel responsible for them and sacrifice their own wellbeing, safety and mental health working untenable and dangerous hours. A country like the UK has employee rights and unions. I have left a shift where there was not enough staff for the next one. I called the charge nurse on call, explained the situation and left her there to solve it as is her duty. I stayed an extra hour to explain the situation and place an incident report and I claimed that as overtime.

It can be done. if every nurse did this, the situation would not have got to this point.

You wonder why these situations happen almost only exclusively in mainly female professions? Because many women have this belief they have to sacrifice themselves to cover other people's and organisations' fuckups, for very little reward, and putting themselves (and the patients) at risk due to overwork. The belief that "it is their duty" and that "they can't leave". Well guess what, it's not your duty, and you can leave. And the hospital cannot sack you.

There ARE nurses available, and midwives. Some have left the profession, are working less hours, or privately, because they are burnt out and fed up of being treated like slaves. There are plenty of nurses in other countries too. Offer them really good packagess and surprise, surprise, they will come back, or immigrate. Keep paying them shit and treating them like shit, and using them until they die of exhaustion and... what happens? What is happening right now with the NHS in the UK.

Australia started having a crisis with their midwives. Last year they offered amazing conditions to student nurses and midwives and agency staff. Guess what? Their crisis has "miraculously" solved itself. In fact, half of the NHS nurses and half of the New Zealand midwives have emigrated there.

There ARE things a government can do to overcome a crisis in the most basic of human rights. If they are not doing it is because they haven't felt the need to do it. Make them.

It's a tough one. Of course it's outrageous but to say nurses should be tougher and just leave is a big ask. I worked on a psychiatric secure unit. Occasionally l would be restraining a violent or psychotic patient. It would have been dangerous to just leave because my shift had ended. I also worked as window fitter. Sometimes it wouldn't run smoothly and it was a case of 'job and finish'.....but this isn't exceptional clinical circumstances. This is something else. I really dontbknow what the answer is but I would struggle to just abandon patients possibly risking lives.