Anyone have experience of mental health wards? (TW suicide)

[Somethinggenericandforgettable]

Do patients on MH wards normally have a named nurse for a shift? A loved one is currently on a MH ward which has said a couple of times that they all "share" patients. Staff are also always too busy to talk and their discharge advice, to someone who was admitted with suicide ideation, was to "call the ward if there are any issues." Person attempted suicide within 24hr of discharge and it was a battle to get them readmitted to the ward.

I'm a nurse in adult nursing and although everyone shares care to an extent, each patient does have a named nurse. One who writes notes for that shift, who leads their care and is responsible for that person's health and wellbeing. I might have to ask who is writing the care plan and ask to speak to them 🤷‍♂️

Does anyone have any insight or advice? I'm in Scotland in case that matters.

Patients should have a named nurse, they don't necessarily always write their notes and their nurses may not be on shift. I do only have experience in England though!

Maybe we're crossing wires. When I say a named nurse I mean a nurse assigned to a patient for that shift.

The opacity(? opaqueness?) is so frustrating. It feels like being fobbed off. I want to be patient because nursing is hard. However I also want to support my loved one and ensure they are experiencing good care.

@Somethinggenericandforgettable Ah, no then, there isn't a new nurse assigned at every shift, they have the same named nurse throughout their admission. Ie if their named nurse is not on shift then they wouldn't be allocated another.

In my (sadly recent experience) you have an official named nurse for the duration of your stay, but also a named nurse is allocated to you each shift as well (may be one nurse to multiple patients though).

This is NHS in England

I'm currently an inpatient. I have a 'named nurse' who I have no idea what for as I've never spoken to her and I've been here 8 weeks.

Similar to my experience recently. Had a named nurse. Never met them. Was never aware of anyone being particularly responsible for me during any particular shift.

Yes, this was the practice when I was a mental health nurse, admittedly I haven't been one for ten years though. The allocated shift nurse was then responsible for making contact with that person during the shift and doing the notes in exactly the same way you describe in adult nursing.

Discharge advice used to be either crisis team details given, or home treatment team involvement if assessed as necessary as it's well known that suicide risk increases post-discharge.

Nursing is hard. But in mental health, patients definitely need an advocate and it sounds like you would be a good one.

I used to be a mental health nurse
Patients should have a named nurse and an associate nurse
They won't have a special named nurse for a shift because very often there is only one RMN on duty for a shift ,and they will have to do ward rounds, medication. Rounds ,Liaison with all Dr's, Ot,s etc etc answer endless phone calls
It is often left to Health care assistants to do 1:1 ,s with patients and report to the nurse in charge.

I work on a mental health ward. Everyone on shift - nurses and health care assistants, are allocated 2-3 patients for that shift. That person is responsible for offering 1:1 time linked to the care plan, making sure physical care is carried out if needed, going on visits, writing notes and communicating with the team to ensure needs are met. Each patient also has a named nurse for the duration of their stay and a key worker (usually a HCA).

I’m a MH nurse on an inpatient ward. Yes, technically patient has a named nurse, but in practice we all share patients across a shift. In MH so much is to do with rapport and not everyone gets on brilliantly with everyone else; sometimes a patient forms a particularly good bond with one member of staff and that person then does much of their care. MH wards are very fluid places with much of the care being really informal, it’s not like adult nursing which is far more task based, iyswim.
In practice this also goes for care plans. Ours are very collaborative and often formed during ward round/handover. On my current ward many of our care plans are actually written up by students due to their changing nature. A care plan might change substantially between morning and evening handover depending on what’s going on for that patient.
Have you tried contacting your loved one’s psychiatrist? Psychiatrists are usually happy to have relatives join ward rounds and that might give you a better idea of what’s going on/what the plan is. Us MH nurses do try to keep relatives in the loop but, as you appreciate, wards can get very busy. Attending ward round with the psychiatrist and the nurse in charge is usually a good idea for this reason.

Thank you to every one of you who responded, @JennieTheZebra that's been especially helpful. Managed to speak to both a nurse and psychiatrist yesterday.