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??!

Just wanted to say I am home now, DH made me a lunch of soft potato farls and soup, plus an Innocent smoothie, and I have perked up a little after having decent food. Also I can take the diclofenac now in a timely manner as I am getting food in a timely manner. Also we realised someone at the hospital had crossed out the prescription for Tramodol without asking the consultant so I hadn't been on the right painkillers either. So DH has sorted me out properly and made sure I am getting them.

They made us wait 1 hour 40 minutes for the meds, mind you. When DH went to ask about the delay, as the kids were cooped up with us all that time and getting restless, they were borderline rude to him, as though he and I were a massive inconvenience.

I noticed a lot of laughing loudly and gossiping at the nurse's station, and they didn't check me at all in the last two hours I was there.

Boffin - did you get the diclofenac as a suppository? It would be better for you in view of the type of surgery you have had.

Hope you are feeling better soon.

These threads always make me so sad. In 32 years of working as a nurse I never had time to gossip at the nurses station etc.

I'm sorry about you're experience boffinmum is the last thing you need! There's often delays with meds though because they have to wait for a doctor to sign it off, then the pharmacy which is often backed up to organise it, sort it and drop it off to the right place. Not excusing it btw.

It was signed off yesterday, and there are only about 20 patients in the hospital at the moment - it is unusually empty. IMO no excuse.

Aged knees I have met nurses like you and being looked after by them can be life changing as it gives patients hope and dignity.

I can use one side of my mouth if I am careful so I can chew very soft things and swallow the tablets.

I think the saddest thing was that the nurses and auxiliary staff never asked me about who I was, the person rather than the patient. They didn't care whether I had kids, what my doctorate was in (normal small talk question around here), whether I was worried about the operation, when I was due visitors and who they were, nothing. I felt like a slab of meat at the butchers being processed. Before I had the operation I tried to be friendly to them but they were quite disinterested and frankly cold, and slightly impatient. They obviously all hate working there.

You sound like you have compassion fatigue and it is quite worrying. A ward full of staff with your adversarial attitude towards patients can easily add up to a mid staffs situation. I speak as someone who has cared for patients myself. I know it's tough, but isn't it your job to care for patients? If you don't care anymore, you're in the wrong job.

Hear hear Tossed Salad. This happens to teachers too and it's really important people move on.

Yes the nurse who accompanied your DD was there to maintain her safety - PE or even fat embolism can occur after a fracture.
Also if it was out of hours an RN has to accompany the patient to xray, CT,MRI as there are very few other staff about.
To suggest he/she was deliberately wasting time is a clear misunderstanding of the nurses responsibilities..

It is not unusual to be called to a cardiac arrest in xray - can you imagine sending a post op patient to xray without an RN and they had a bleed or vomited and aspirated?

I doubt Boffin that any one made you wait on purpose - usually nurses are desperate to get medications and discharge the patient but until the Dr has written the ttos they cant go to pharmacy.
We are stuck between angry and frustrated patients and stressed, overworked Drs who might be covering several wards and A&E admissions for their speciality. BTW if you were about to go home you would have probably been moved to 4 hourly obs , you don't go from 2 hourly obs to straight home!

Would you not do a final set of obs as the patient was about to leave? I can't remember what is usual.

Nearthewindymill

There are rare but often fatal complications that can result after bone fracture. There are rare and often fatal complications from many illnesses and conditions. That may why a nurse accompanied you- because your daughter may have been your daughter but she was also the responsibility of that nurse who had a duty of care towards her.

I can tell you all the complications that can result after fracture, manipulation and reduction if you like? That is what 3 years of nursing school does for you. That nurse did not accompany your daughter because she fancied a jolly to the XRay department (which is a VERY boring place to have to hang around BTW).

Sorry I have just seen there were 20 patients ! in the whole hospital . Im NHS so have no idea why they were delayed then.

agedknees ( great name- I should be called knackered back !)

I agree and often the "nurses" chatting are Physios and Ots or visiting teams. I usually spend the whole shift on my feet !

If the patient has been discharged by the medical team then they have been deemed stable and fit to leave .
Sometimes patients are told they can go home if their temp is down in the afternoon and so would have a final obs check but otherwise no not usually.
They will after all be home in 30 mins etc and with no one checking obs then.

I've read a lots of these posts and just think how lucky I've been. My mother had a stroke and was in a specialised stroke unit at a north eastern hospital. If my DH and I hadn't been there to learn how to get her up and turn her round (on a thingy), get her into a wheelchair (sounds easy but for someone who can;t stand up...) she would not have lasted long. We had her for another 7 years (89)

I'd feed my mother there and my lovely DH would feed an older woman in the opposite bed because she couldn't or wouldn't. The food had been brought to her and left on the overbed table. She was reluctant but he made a game of it so she did eat. Her daughter visited but went to work so couldn't be there during the day. If my mother was asleep, we'd both see who else we could help eg bring those cardboard urine bottle for men to wee in or pick up something that had been dropped. The trouble is that is more family members helped out like that, it would become the norm and staffing levels would be cut again ....

Boffinmum, the proceedure for dispensing medication has changed and I I agile this is the case in most hospitals after the NMC issued new guidelines.

We used to dispense take home drugs out the ward cupboard. So yes we'd have to wait for a Dr to write the prescription which could take quite a while sometimes but after that it was a 30second job.

Nurses are no longer allowed to dispense medication and the nmc have made it clear that such practice must stop.

So we now have to send the prescription off to pharmacy. On our ward we send the prescriptions off at 9 am and the drugs come back about 3pm. Its crazy. Pharmacy reckon they can't turn them round quicker. It also means that people needing pain meds at lunch time can't have any! People who have been ready to go home since 9am can't leave. And if its a Weekend no one can leave at all as pharmacy is shut all day.

nearthewindmill our hospital has no tv's. So Jo you aren't entitled to a tv. They built 2 new wards last year which have patient line tv's and the 2 wards which used to be part of the bupa hospital that was integrated into the NHS hospital have tv's in all the side rooms but that's it. No tv's. It's boring as hell for our patients

Viva - And what about when the pharmacy say they don't have any? Like my relative discharged in the evening after a masectomy, without any painkillers. I am still disgusted that she had to suffer a night of agony because of that.

Well perhaps there was a clinical reason but it was seven hours after surgery and none of you have spoken in response to the neglect of the other child. It was also an hour before we went home and I'd be surprised if the risk was less after 8 hours than after 7. Even the porter was ribbing her about coming to xRay for another sit down. Porter to push and nurse to hold folder. The porter was the most personable person we met btw! Can someone remind me how many yuppies to change a light bulb? I'm sorry I still think it's a serious time management issue. If the nurse had to come, why couldn't she push the trolley freeing the prter to sort out TV's, etc - are nurses too important to push a trolley?

No we aren't allowed to push trolleys.

TVs have nothing to do with the porters. What would you like them to do with them? We don't have patient line where I work, just a few tellys on the wall.

But is it any wonder the NHS is on its knees when two man hours are simply wasted - essentially the porter was paid to do "nothing" because the nurse couldn't push a trolley. Or the nurse was paid to do nothing because of a miniscule risk smaller than the risk of every natural childbirth I imagine. Risks of leaving a labouring woman alone? It just doesn't stack. Why wasn't I asked to push the trolley? There must have been more useful things the porter could have done. But you must agree - it wasn't exactly hard work or over work for either the porter or the nurse. I don't get hours like that in my "cushy" office job!

Yes I have felt it was a waste of time when I have been escorted by my partner and a porter to another DEpartment for tests, when I have been a day patient. I walked there. The tests were the same kind of tests I had had outpatient apppointments for and I didnt have a porter with me then. But because I was a day patient, I needed a porter with me. A total waste of money.

The porters being the trollies. They aren't just lying around on the ward. To be honest if patients are about to go home and it's a check x ray, then providing there's no medical reason we just let patients wander down there themselves. Or I would have put your dd in a wheelchair rather than wait for a porter. You have to be trained to use the trollies so I doubt you'd be allowed to push. And I'm pregnant, so I'm not going to be pushing anyone.

Windmill my guess is that the nurse is qualified to hold confidential information that the porter isn't, not sure why the nurse can't push the trolley though and prop the folder on the bed.

WindyMill - I wonder if the nurse had to accompany the porter because the porter hadn't had an indepth CRB check and your dd was a minor? Don't know if that's true or not but possible.

I'm not a nurse btw. I'm a midwife and have once had to accompany a baby to x-ray but that's for security reasons - parents can't take a newborn to x-ray without a member of staff going with them as if it was common to see an unaccompanied person with a baby then that increases the chance of nobody questioning it if they did see it and that could be an abduction.

We didn't need a porter though to push the cot!

Near
The Nurse is there because the patient has had surgery and is in the post operative period or is unstable ( not referring to your DD here just generally)or is deemed vulnerable ( under 18,confused patient)
They are there to watch the patient not push the bed/trolley.
If the patient lost their airway in the corridor then you want the Nurse to be free to keep it patent not push the trolley to the nearest place with equipment.
You know on ER/Casualty when someone arrests they jump on the trolley and gives CPR as they speed along a corridor - yes I did that as a newly qualified Nurse.
My responsibility is to the patient.

I haven't responded to the issue regarding the child because I don't know what the situation was and I certainly have never treated anyone like this in my career ( nearly 30 years - not a single complaint regarding my care or conduct).
I was responding to the things that I could give rationale for .
Obs on a patient would have to be stable for several 4 hourly occasions post op before discharge.
The EWS ( early warning scores) would be monitored and seen to be very stable before discharge so a final set of obs is not needed- there is no rationale for doing them.
The xray issue has been explained .
Both were initially deemed to be Nurses at fault and without explaination most of those reading this thread would have assumed the nurses were in the wrong.
This is what Nursing has become -the assumption is that you are wrong ,neglectful, thick bitches ( male nurses are never mentioned)
Its utterly soul destroying.
Im leaving this thread but to the Nurses out there quietly doing their best