How much 'caring' do nurses actually do nowadays?

[SLawsonB]

In a hospital ward and A&E etc

Because I have had the displeasure of being admitted twice in 2 months and noticed no caring at all from nurses

They were too busy with notes, ward round help, medication rounds, checking people over to assess them a lot

No bed changing or bed baths. Didn't help anyone with toileting at all, from what I saw

Is this usually the case now and it's all just down to HCAs?

Not a dig at nurses. I saw for myself that they were quite literally running from one task to the next

For someone who's not in the know though, it very much felt like being nursed was from the HCA ladies

I am interested in the job, a lot. But I wonder how accurate HCA work is to really get a feel for it - Because they're too different now and nurses pins are assumably at stake if they mess up etc? So the pressure is different

Partner of DS is an Band 6 A&E nurse, so junior sister. She is constantly on the move and rarely gets the chance to go to the loo, let alone chat at a nurses station. She has the opportunity for promotion but it would mean leaving A&E which she isn't keen to do.
Apparently, her colleagues say there are nurses who are cut out for the madness that is A&E and she is one of them.😂

@Iwasafool how on earth would consultant know 😂

@OldCutDiamond you understand we aren’t all like that though. I appreciate this was your personal experience but it’s not mine. It’s like saying all teachers are lazy. They aren’t but there some.
I’ve worked hard for the last 30 odd years as a nurse. I’ve got a prolapsed disc and high blood pressure undoubtedly because of the job. I rarely stand chatting at the nursing station, just don’t get the time.

It massively varies according to the workplace and role.

In some (often medical) wards there is one qualified nurse, agency nurses, associate nurses, student nurses and HCA.

In that situation the qualified nurse is there to manage, administer IVs, cannulate, draw bloods, liaise on ward rounds and provide advice for any other staff who have concerns about obs/wounds/fluid balance etc.

In A&E/ICU (and no doubt other areas I'm less familiar with) there is more opportunity for a wider range of hands on tasks or direct patient care although HCAs still do a huge amount.

It is often really enjoyable to do direct patient care, because at the same time you can gain so much information about how the patient is feeling, coping, skin integrity, pain management and just getting to know them.

HCA and carers, especially experienced ones do a highly skilled job with often very poor pay. At least now there is some progression available.

It's threads like this that make me want to quit nursing. Nurses getting slammed for "sitting idly at the nurses station" all being stereotyped and tarred with the same brush...some of you literally haven't the faintest idea what the job even entails including the OP.

I'm genuinely saddened by some of the bad experiences people have voiced, but at the same time... In every job there are a percentage of tossers who shouldn't be in the job.

Nurses are treated poorly in many departments by patients and their families alike and there's a lack of respect where there once was which just makes the job even more difficult.

In addition to that there are relatives and members of the public who believe we are there to be treated like a slave, I've been asked to fluff pillows by family members at the bedside or turn lights on or tidy up around their loved ones...of which I have no problem doing for the patient, but also family members are more than capable.

On the whole nurses do care, and absolutely bound to a duty of care through an insane amount of legal documentation because of the "suing culture" we all live in now.

As many other posters have stated, the roles have changed and increased in responsibility (not that pay reflects this) from hands on care in many areas.

@winniethepooped its so demoralising isn't it.

The amount of extra hours iv worked in the past week ( without pay) is bonkers.

But at least I have a clear idea now of what the public perceive as "caring". My role doesn't involve taking observations and washing patients so i guess i don't care enough 🙄

@IfOnlyOurEyesSawSouls I shall be unusually daring for me and say some of us absolutely do recognise the care you provide and the burdens on you. It’s not the whole public, I promise, despite being a regrettable portion of it.

@CeciledeVolangesdeNouveau bless you that is much appreciated.
I might not do bed baths and yes i have so much documentation to do , but i have always cared for my patients as though they were my closest loved ones .

Obviously not ideal, but why didn't you just ask where the sheets were and do it yourself?

I’ve always been cared for by nurses and HCAs actually better than by my closest loved ones! Although those at my local hospital are rushed off their feet they are consistently kind and polite, prolific with the terms of endearment (some don’t like them but when you’re tired, unwell and scared they’re welcome), explain what they’re doing and have saved my life multiple times, and if you press the call button someone will be there in a minute even if it’s a HCA who needs to take another minute to fetch a nurse who might need another to get a doctor to prescribe, you WILL get help.

A neighbour who works in nhs recently had their role extended to include hands on patient care.

He was raging that this was not the job he’d originally applied for and that “wiping arses is a job for nurses”!

From this thread it appears his thinking is in the majority.
Pretty shocking really and explains the widespread zero respect for nurses.

No disrespect to nurses, but that is nonsense, their training is very different to a doctors. It’s true they do some of the jobs a JHO would have done in the past - but mostly they’ve picked up more management and admin because care plans are more complex and the demand for paperwork is vast.

So don’t be fooled by uni sales talk

You know that not everyone has a family member who can stay with them, right?

And while obviously the NHS is stretched, there is some very good care so it’s daft to put off medical treatments you need.

@Passingthethyme don’t know really, seemed like an extra thing for someone to go and find when they were already flat out.
Didnt want to cause anymore inconvenience, they were so stretched.
Maybe it’s normal, I don’t change my sheets more frequently than every 5 days at home, I do them once a week, but it’s the fact that she was just sitting in the bed all day every day eating and sleeping etc, felt really unhygienic. I mean, she didn’t seem too bothered!

I commented recently on a post about my current role. I have been moved to run an escalation ward (B6) this is basically an area in the hospital used when we have run out of corridor beds, this 'ward' is a nightingale style and is mixed sex (suddenly we can mix sex 😮).
Often I am on my own or have HCA for up to 14 patients of mixed needs. For example fractured hips/head injury/pancreatitis or exacerbation of COPD.
We have zero infrastructure so no pharmacy, basic supplies or phlebotomy service.
I cannot do it all, I raise concerns and complete an incident report, I literally raise it with everyone who will listen. Nothing is done. I am told there is no funding for the area, it is exceptional circumstances and I have to have faith they will find me staff.

When I go to work now I feel physically sick and overwhelmed.
I am letting my patients down and it is embarrassing. I am the RN facing patients not my managers.
I feel so guilty that I am not able to help the frail patients wash, or give pain relief as soon as someone needs it.

I really do care, and my patients are so understanding, because, it is a straight ward they can literally see me running. It is not unusual for us to have to organise breakfast as no housekeeper is available.

I often go without a break and finish late and even then I never get my paperwork completed as I have no choice but to leave that.

Nurses are torn, most of us really care but our job is so complicated, we have to fill in gaps for physiotherapy/housekeeper/ward clerk and Drs.
I have been qualified over 20 years and I did used to be able to wash my patients but, patients are so sick with multiple illnesses and treatments that this is really not possible.
I don't know how much longer I can carry on. I love my job but hate what it has become.

What gold would that be?

If non clinical, that's understandable surely! Although the snide remark about nursing was wrong, it's not just a nurse's job

But not sure why he'd be saying that if he's otherwise an OT, physio, Dr, whatever else

At least in my local hospital it’s standard practice to change the beds daily but if you’re feeling too unwell but not actually passed out so they can do this by rolling you they won’t. This is because the sheets easily get detached and the beds are plastic underneath so they get a bit sweaty and clammy, partly, I imagine, also I’m betting the washing facilities are beyond industrial. I’m not usually the cleanest after a hospital stay but everything that counts - mainly sterilising sites for blood tests and resiting cannulae - is done fastidiously by the nurses.

@Allthecatseverywhereallatonce that sounds horrendous

Why don't you just move jobs within the Trust or one nearby if you have one?

It seems to be a sellers market for nurses. Plenty of empty vacancies so you can escape that specific madness of a mixed sex ward that doesn't even have someone ordering the food for them

Not to derail the thread, but a few people have mentioned that patients are much sicker nowadays, I had no idea. Why are people more seriously ill now and with what?

It’ll be partly due to increased life expectancy - lots of people with dementia, cancers etc - that we can paradoxically TREAT better but not CURE. It’ll also be partly due to pressure on services so only the sickest are admitted. And partly it’ll be due to improved treatment so e.g some of those incredibly sick children such as those who have been in recent lawsuits are kept alive for years long than they would have lasted say, twenty years ago.

Isn't part of the problem that the job title "nurse" came from the verb "to nurse" which is to do with looking after people (from Latin meaning nourish — e.g. wet-nurse).

So now even though nurses' jobs have changed, the only place the verb "to nurse" has changed is in hospitals. Everywhere else people nurse babies, have nursery nurses, nurse a hot drink...

I just don't think that people outside of a hospital bubble equate the word nurse with medicine rounds or paperwork.

What nurses do now is a key part of keeping hospitals running, and it's only normal and right that jobs evolve over time. But it's a bit like saying "That's Bob, he's a cook. He writes menus and recipes that are then made by kitchen assistants. He also orders in the ingredients. Cooks haven't actually made food since the 90s."

If you have visitors they can change your bed, bring you food, water etc. But not everyone does. I did spend 12 hours in a hospital bed asking for water before my next visitor arrived and went to find it for me. I think the staff I asked got side tracked, so it was forgotten, and they were rushed off their feet.

This is also because admission to hospital is only done when absolutely necessary. Many conditions and illnesses that would previously had lead to an admission are now managed in the community, which is how it should be. Evidence clearly shows that hospital stays / longer stays can be detrimental, particularly in older adults.
Therefore it means that those who are admitted will be the sicker patients.
I agree that there needs to be a shift on how we think about nursing and the role of the HCA. It's completely appropriate for "care" tasks to be completed by HCAs who have the appropriate training alongside compassion and dedication to their role. When people complain about seeing nurses hanging around the nurses station doing nothing, it's incredibly frustrating as they don't see all the key tasks that they have to do to keep the ward running and the patients safe and well.

People are living longer so developing multiple health issues which will have an impact on each other. Medical research has meant conditions are being treated now when previously patients would have died Genetics as part of diagnostics. As a society the notion of natural aging and dying are abhorrent so the expectations and demands for treatments have escalated. At the other end of the scale premature babies are being resuscitated at earlier and earlier gestations and are often left with multiple complex health issues requiring multi organ system support through out life.

The general population don't realise that the nurses station is our office. Seeing us standing /sitting around the station does not equate to not working; we're checking tests results, making referrals, updating notes or care plans. arranging discharges amongst a myriad of other things which keeps the unit running.
Personally, the term Nurse for RNs needs to change to reflect the advancement of the role. That's a discussion for another thread