To think NHS do gooders need to realise that the patient is not always right

[oggieogggie]

I've had a right few weeks of it. I'm an auxilliary nurse and my morning normally starts by taking breakfasts around the ward. Picture the scene if you will - a trolley full of cereal, bowls and milk and a pot of hot porridge.

I walk into room one = "would you like breakfast this morning?" patient (full mental capacity) says "well before all that I'd like you to fix my TV. I cant get the channel to turn over." I say "well I'll see to that after breakfast, would you like some cereal?" he says "not until my TV is fixed ... can't you just do it, it will only take a minute (so everyone else should wait until YOUR TV is functioning before they get their breakfast and you don't see that as selfish at all?) I don't say this - I remain professional.

Imagine a few more patients who decide that their TV/Slippers/Laptop chargers etc are more important and then the unfortunate patients who receive cold porridge as a result -

Next I take a tray of hot toast around = One patient demands "I want it buttering and cutting into thin strips." I explain that she will either have to press the buzzer for someone else to come and do it or wait until I have finished delivering toast before it gets cold. "But I want it NOW!" she demands. Ok, so it's fine that everyone else will receive cold toast? that's ok with you is it?

Imagine more of the same throughout the day

"I can't get my phone working!" = well I'm taking care of a rather ill patient at the moment, it will have to wait." "that's it!! I'm making a complaint!!"

"I want you to wash me." = "I will help you but you have to wash what you can yourself." = "why?? its what you get paid for!!!" no actually - I get paid to help people back to independence and to care for those who genuinely can't do it themselves ... " - "Ive had no sleep!! I want you to wash me! I can barely move I'm in so much pain!!" (well walking down the stairs for a fag 10 minutes ago must have been agony then eh?)

I'm sorry, but could it not be said that sometimes, just sometimes certain patients are not always right and that as staff members we should not live in fear of one of these people complaining that we're not jumping through hoops to keep them happy? And no I've never had a complaint against me - I do that nursey thing of taking the abuse and maintaining a smile. Just lately I can't quite shake the notion that the NHS (and Britain in general) is so bothered about political correctness and ultimate customer satisfaction that it's actually counter productive. Why are we all so polite??!

I had a run in with a staff nurse who wanted my stepdaughter catheterised because it was easier than getting three nurses to log roll her onto a bed pan. We refused and told her she'd be getting three nurses to log roll because catheterising a young pubescent girl is very embarrassing for that child, was a clinically inappropriate use of a catheter and a temporary situation anyway. She actually stood there and rolled her eyes at us. My stepson couldn't actually believe a nurse had just done that. He was incredulous.

I took her aside, told her that I was a senior nurse and perfectly aware of the protocols for catheterisation and asked her why she felt it apropriate to make such dismissive facial gestures.

I have also had wonderful care from nurses who have given of themselves to help me. I will never forget them either.

Kudzu the helpline I think was set up by Mind. The 'team' isn't huge considering the amount of work they are taking on.

www.wbhelpline.org.uk/about-us/the-team/

I hope they can help. Good luck.

The good nurses greatly outnumber the poor ones, but the damage one or two poor nurses can do in a short space of time is incredibly serious.

And after what I've read on here I'm grateful that my mother is in one of those pilot scheme areas where they are encouraging the elderly to get care at home (and funding it)

You wait until you have elderly dependents who are doubly incontinent, cannot move themselves and have senile dementia. No amount of care in the home can deal with that.

The pil are in what looks on the face of it to be a pretty grotty care home (still £7K/month though). However, the staff are lovely. Really kind and so patient. The qualified nurses are really top notch - and all the care workers take their lead from them.

Thanks Horse

I am posting while lying in a Spire private hospital after an operation.

The team in the recovery room decided to ignore the anaesthetist's instructions regarding pain relief, so I suffered a lot unnecessarily despite my efforts to protest (I have just had a jaw operation so it's hard to speak).

I then discovered they had made no arrangements to feed any of the jaw patients (full list yesterday evening) with medically suitable food. I was offered toast or sandwiches, when the consultant specified soup and scrambled egg. Clearly I can't be expected to chew right now. Eventually I was given a sugary yoghurt (I am supposed to avoid sugar) which was all they had, and at 11.15 I was offered soup by the nurse but by then I was too tired to eat. I have therefore only had one yoghurt in 24 hours now and nothing else.I feel just dire.

So it's not just the NHS. Crap nursing exists everywhere .

Sorry to read that BoffinMum. We often get mop up patients transferred from the private sector and their complications due to poor care would surprise a lot of folks who have a very rose tinted glasses view of private medicine.

I hope you feel better soon and can find somebody to advocate for you raise hell. I would advise you to ask for a full written clinical justification for their off piste recovery decisions. After all, nurses MUST be able to justify their actions - according to their own code of conduct.

Oh dear Boffin - I guess you could email them your complaint from the hospital bed...

Why on earth would they want to give jaw patients solid food to eat?

I know, it beggars belief. This place is like a badly run Travelodge, except Travelodges are cleaner and have better amenities. It used to be a BUPA hospital and a lot kinder.

BoffinMum But you have the ultimate weapon, upon discharge you can either withold payment or write to your insurers with a copy to the CEO noting why you feel all or a proportion of the payment should be withheld. I'd just write a note now and ask for it to be taken immediately to the duty manager.

I have been fed now, though, although they tried to give me toast again. Food arrived at 8.30am, 2.5 hours after we were woken up.

I will raise it with BUPA, who already have the contracts team involved because I am covered for a single room but they tried to put me in a shared room of four and charge BUPA the same price. To be fair BUPA were absolutely excellent and very sympathetic, could not do enough.

This must be what US medicine feels like.

I haven't heard the term "auxillary nurse" for many years so Im a bit that this is a windup.

The hospitals Ive worked in employ HCA and have done for many years.

The OP doesn't sound particularly suited to dealing with vulnerable ,tired,ill people - sometimes they are demanding because they are vulnerable, tired and ill and very, very anxious.

Good nurses and HCA know this and know that often the 30 seconds it takes to fetch a glass of cold water/butter toast saves hours of stress, anxiety and complaints later.
BUT - it is also every ones job to do these small but important things.

Boffin am totally shocked that you are not being offered adequate diet - have you seen a dietician, been offered supplementary drinks ? (not amazing but they are useful if you cant chew)

Yes, auxiliary nurses haven't exisisted for years and years. Though I guess if you used to be one and are now a HCSW or NA you Might still call yourself an auxiliary.

What I think would help.

Distinct uniform for senior nurses
Distinct uniform for junior nurses
Distinct uniform for HCAs
Distinct uniform for other staff

A notice board setting out everyone's role and duties.

I have many times been approached by someone in hospitals speaking knowledgeably and have been very unsure with whom I am dealing because it isn't clear and it seems to me hospitals go out of their way to keep this sort of stuff as unclear as possible because it makes pinning blame for serious mistakes harder. The response is "everyone wears a badge". It is rude to squint to look at a tiny badge and one shouldn't have to. There should very clear information about who is who and who one is dealing with and precisely what they are responsible for.

Near
Where I work the uniforms are distinctive.
Basic manners to introduce yourself to patients - often I am seeing areas that have lanyards with "Sister, Nurse, Doctor" etc on as well .

I think the thing is you see so many people in the end it's just a blur, what you do expect is that everyone passes information on to the relevant person. A coloured lanyard would probably be adequate, or an extra badge with a clear colour code. I think you should also allocate one nurse per room to do all the jobs rather than nurses doing one job for lots of different rooms/wards.

The problem is though, if one analyses the OP's first post it seems to be a post about an HCP complaining about having to provide the most basic standards and expectations for the patient.

Most people in hospital are not as comfortable as they are at home, they do not have the same degree of privacy, they are often relatively immobile, they usually are eating food that compromises their desires at times they wouldn't usually eat and when often they don't fancy it. They can't have a cup of tea when they are thirsty or reach their slippers if they need the loo for themselves, providing they can get up for the loo.

Correct me if I'm wrong but don't patients in hospital have to pay for the TV? Is so, I think they are entitled to have a working TV.

If a patient wants their slippers, shouldn't there be someone available to get them.

If a patient is offered toast, shouldn't there be butter available and if the patient can't spread it (stroke, or other phsical problem), shouldn't it be buttered and cut for them?

None of these things are the sole responsibility of one HCA but as far as I am concerned they all basic human rights (well perhaps not the TV - but actually in hospital, isolated from home and family I think it is on balance a human right to keep up with the news) and every patient has the right to expect that at least.

There is a rot at the heart of the NHS and I don't know exactly where that rot has it's roots but it's there and it needs to be cut out because the service no longer seems fit for purpose.

My dd was an inpatient in 2008. She had to have an Xray after surgery. Can a nurse please explain why a qualified nurse had to walk to Xray with us and a porter, sit and wait with us, and walk back with her sole purpose being to carry my daughter's notes and hand them to Xray. Surely the porter or I could have done that. It took about an hour in total and how any nurse can claim to be overworked when time is being wasted in such a fashion I completely and utterly fail to understand.

Nearthewindy - the nurse would have gone to x-Ray with your dd in case she developed complications/medical problems whilst in the x-ray department. It was safeguarding your dd.

And I am sure if your dd had suffered respiratory problems etc whilst in x-Ray and there was no qualified nurse available you would be the first to complain.

It seems like the basic problem is management thinks it is acceptable to have 1 qualified nurse to about 16 patients with maybe 1 HCA if they are lucky.

So the nurses and other carers are under huge pressure and are pretty much forced to cut corners in order to try and maintain some level of safety.

I think patients also have massively unrealistic expectations which is partly down to the media and politicians and party because of the 'me me me' society we live in.

Why would my dd have suffered respiratory problems though? She had had surgery to manipulate a broken leg early that morning. The nursing staff barely checked on her once she was back on the ward and what could the nurse have done in any event - it's not like she took a nebuliser to Xray with her. My dd had no history of respiratory problems.

She could have suffered from a PE post surgery, which could have resulted in death, so the poor maligned nurse who escorted your dd to x-Ray was actually doing her job properly.

I would not have been happy if my dd did not have a nurse escort for a post operative procedure that meant she was taken off the ward.

And also the nurses on the ward paid absolutely no attention that morning to a girl the same age who had her arm set during the night, whose mother didn't stay and who was literally left after she came round. No one gave her a drink, breakfast, found her a book or toy, offered the toilet, etc. They left her crying and that was after a bight when three of them giggled and gossiped at the work station and I heard too much info about theoir partners, etc. Absolutely disgusting if you ask me. A lost of time was wasted whilst people weren't properly cared for. I saw no evidence of under staffing or hard work. I saw a lot of idle chatter, unprofessionalism and very poor communication.