To think you never do this a healthcare professional

[GladPoet]

I work in mental health and we have patients on 1-1 ie someone with them at all times. A colleague was sat with a patient and left them go to the toilet. He claimed he was desperate and he had contacted the office phone but due to the nature of where we work all others staff we busy. Surely whatever the situation is you don’t leave a a patient he thinks it’s okay as they were sleeping

I suppose it depends on how the patient is and what level of observation they need. Some people just need eye kept on them whilst others might need 2 or more people with them everywhere (including following them into the toilet).

Also a lot of places are short staffed these days....you have to just do the best you can.

There needs sto be a better protocol in place

What was your colleague supposed to do? it sounds like there needs to be much much better procedures in place to allow staff a comfort break when needed.

So what was the alternative, was he just to soil himself?

Have you posted about this before?

It's very familiar.

Of course he shouldn’t HAVE to leave the patient but he was put in an impossible position.
Option 1- leave a sleeping patient that is of low risk of coming to harm due to the sleeping state. (Hope he stays sleeping)
Option 2- Shit himself and then sit in the shitty clothes until the end of his shift as he is also not allowed to leave to change?

The patient was sleeping so presumably a low risk for the few minutes the colleague was away in the loo. Your colleague is only human. If no one was available and your colleague was desperate what should they have done? Woken the patient up to take them to the loo with them? Worn a nappy or a catheter?

If it's really that necessary to have 1:1 at every single second of the day and night then there needs to be more staff available, or even 2 staff on duty per patient. Otherwise each staff member will just have to assess the least risky time to take a few minutes to nip to the toilet.

My DH has been taken to a safe place (I think that’s what it was called) in a psychiatric unit and I was very relieved knowing he wasn’t going to be left alone. It was a lifesaver for both of us - literally for him and metaphorically for me. It was so so valuable to give us breathing space.

There needs to be a better system in place to provide the level of protection these patients require while allowing the staff to also meet their needs like loo breaks and time to eat.

During Covid I was on a floor of 30 patients, including one to ones, with one other member of staff for a 12 hour shift. If something had happened then the blame is with the company for not having something in place to protect the staff. We have human rights too, and got forbid we need a shite or a glass of water

You don't leave the patient.

I'm an anaesthetist. I can't go to the loo unless another anaesthetist comes and relieves me. I've had some pretty major period disasters over the years (clean scrubs and all) but it's the job. The consequences for me/ my registration if the patient were to come to harm if I'd left them would be horrendous.

I'd imagine the same applies here.

We lost 26 patients btw which says a lot about the facility. Nothings been changed about the way it’s being run though

Well when there’s a patient suicide your healthcare professional colleague might get a wake up call. Was he on 1:1 observations without a break for the whole shift? No excuse for what he did. If he has a problem controlling his bladder and bowels that means he puts patients at risk then maybe he needs to get another job.

Whether you agree with it or not, the standards for patients in surgery are different from patients in mental health facilities. Presumably as an anaesthetist you aren’t given sole responsibility of 15 patients and not relieved for 12 hours at a time with no breaks? Having the occasional period disaster is not the same as not being able to eat, drink or use the bathroom for every single one of your shifts

If you work in MH then why are you asking here? You'll have more training and experience to know if it's right than the opinions of MN users.

Clearly there needs to be a robust system in place to enable essential calls of nature.

Sorry, but no. Using silly hyperbolic language doesn’t justify now allowing staff to have a 2 minute toilet break in a 12 hour shift. Not being able to hold your bladder and bowels for 12 hours at a time does not mean you ‘have a problem with controlling them’. It means you’re a normal human being who needs to use the loo a few times a day.

I'm sure you've posted this at least 6 times over the last couple of years.

I take it you're a healthcare assistant in this facility? You need to bring up with management that there is no way for 1:1 on duty staff to contact another member of staff should assistance be required. They need to find a suitable workaround.

What else could the staff member of done? I don’t blame the staff member one bit.

He was was correct. If something has happened while he went to the loo it would have been the fault of whoever is running the place. People need to go to the bloody toilet! It's a basic fundamental right

You need to bring up with management that there is no way for 1:1 on duty staff to contact another member of staff should assistance be required

This, regardless of toilet breaks - which the staff member should have - presumably the patient is a risk to themselves or others, if they had a crisis and were actively unsafe there needs to be a way for the staff member to get help.

Needing the loo doesn’t mean you have a “problem controlling your bladder/ bowels”

When on 1:1 duty there should always be support available from other staff because the patient might become aggressive, requiring 2:1 monitoring. Toilet breaks should always be possible. It’s a basic human right.
If anything happened it would be on the employer.

Well while these jobs are still done by humans, they're going to occasionally need to do human things like use the toilet. This should be factored in to rotas etc to allow for staff members to use the damned toilet when they need to.
You can punish people all you like for being human, doesn't change them being human, or remove the responsibility of the people running the services to allow for the fact that the humans they employ are humans with normal human needs, healthcare generally work 12 hour shifts, you don't have a 'problem' if you need to use the toilet in 12 hours and demanding people don't use the toilet in 12 hours or they should get another job will just result in less and less people actually doing the job, making the situation worse.
It's attitudes like this that allow them to make unrealistic and unreasonable demands and then blame someone else when it goes wrong.
It's not right that the staff member had to leave someone needing 1-1 care alone, but they shouldn't have had to make that choice in the first place.