To be really pissed off at these gossiping Nurses!

[Rhymerocket]

I am a nurse! I'm on maternity leave.

I'm at a hospital appointment with my father. His appointment was for 09:10 and he hasn't been seen yet. The two nurses in the clinic are standing in the reception gossiping and joking with the receptionist. Now I know the clinic can only move as fast as the doctor but FFS. They look soooo unprofessional. I'm embareased for them. It doesn't inspire confidence in the system.

I've come across it as a patient and as the daughter of a very ill patient. Obviously there were some lovely kind nurses on both occasions but some just seemed totally absorbed in the 'science bit' and not really that interested in reassuring the actual patient.
It was really the contrast when I actually had major surgery in an old fashioned hospital with mainly nurses in the 40+ age bracket. They were all so nice and caring and just comfortable to have around, and I hadn't experienced that in either of the large modern general hospitals I'd had regular contact with.

The biggest delay at my maternity clinic was the fact that it is a teaching hospital and the consultant was doing some sort of teaching until 10am every morning. Which is fine, but why schedule appointments from 9am?

I wouldn't necessarily agree that the Good Old Days were that good. I remember being in hospital with DS for a few days in the late 1980s when it was thought that he might have meningitis. So far as the nurses were concerned, having the mothers around was an excuse to doss; there were times when I was struggling to pacify an utterly miserable toddler whilst they sat around watching the ward TV. It was down to the mums to deal with every aspect of their children's care - which obviously I didn't mind, but it meant at times I had no chance of even getting a meal if I couldn't leave DS. Even when they had, for instance, spare meals which had been sent up for children who had been discharged, they wouldn't let us have them. I was utterly exhausted as they provided Z beds which were unbelievably uncomfortable, and I was regularly up at night seeing to DS. I even spent time looking after other children who didn't have parents with them, as they also were being ignored for much of the time.

What really hacked me off was when DH came in to give me a much-needed break. They just couldn't do enough for him, bringing him drinks and food, even washing through his shirt when DS threw up on it. He thought they were absolutely great.

I don't think nurses sitting around a computer has anything to do with being university based. That's just the reality of the job now, so much of it is admin and paperwork. People talk about how it was great that people were scared of matrons but some of the senior staff are scary now, I'm terrified of some of the band 7s. Students are often treated like shit as well - not all the time and I've mostly had a good experience with mentors treating me well but you always come across the odd one. Bullying is more common within the NHS than people like to admit and I've had a mentor make me cry on a few occasions. Maybe I'm oversensitive but I've known a few people leave healthcare courses due to bullying issues and the whole culture can be extremely cliquey. How are we supposed to produce lovely, caring HCPs when there is a bullying problem amongst staff that is never tackled? I agree that the mentorship needs changing. Our skills books have a lot of airy fairy meaningless twaddle in them and none of the mentors know what it's supposed to mean. Lack of continuity is another major problem.

Anyway, someone mentioned about being able to take blood. At my uni they don't teach student nurses to take blood which I was really shocked by, I thought that was a basic skill.

"That's just the reality of the job now, so much of it is admin and paperwork. "

I think that's part of the problem though. Nurses shouldn't be so involved in admin and paperwork that they don't have time to look after the patients. They are nurses, not admin workers.

pandora I'm really sorry you've experienced bullying :( apparently it's rife. I know there's a new scheme rolling out so you have a person to go to in instances like that who have your back completely, not the PEF, but someone else who you can contact to try and prevent things like this.

Blood and cannulation should be taught at student level it's silly that it isn't. Recently I was on a ward as a pt and not one nurse could cannulate, meaning I went 7 hours without fluids and pain relief (NPO). I felt like saying, give me the equipment I'll do it myself! Not their fault, but the lack of training.

fallingover you're right. People in healthcare, including myself, are taught that 'if it isn't documented, it hasn't been done' so the reams of paperwork to do is unreal. Some trusts are going 'paperless' but this just means logging onto computers doing the same stuff, which is no good as it means less time at bedside.

I absolutely agree with you but it seems it's like that in most professions now. I don't work in nursing (I've worked in a few areas briefly) so I don't know what it's like day to day but it seems like HCAs do a lot of the basic care now, like feeding, washing, obs rounds. From working with people who have been employed by the NHS for a long time, they have said that the level of paperwork has increased significantly.

Grays thank you. I don't know if I'd call what I experienced bullying as such but she had no patience with me at all, she'd snap at me if I wasn't doing things quickly enough for her liking and tut at me if I couldn't do things straight away and had to ask her for help. She was good with the patients and very knowledgeable I just think she lacked the skills to be a good mentor. Which is part of the problem as a lot of people out there are having students who don't really want them.

My uni don't teach cannulation which I think is ridiculous, we're allowed to do virtually everything else other than setting up IV pumps so I can't understand why we can't do it.

I think you've hit the nail on the head, some people don't want to be mentors and personally I don't think they should have to be. But there's a massive shortage so problems are happening :(

AFAIK, students cannot touch anything to do with IV, cannot fit, cannot remove, can't attach or stop meds, even remove empty bags. I think removal of cannula is about as much as they can do.

The reasoning being if a mistake is made it's much worse with an IV. But then it gets taught at preceptorship anyway so it's silly.

Oh yeah, there's a massive shortage of sign-off mentors. It's a nightmare!

I have removed empty bags before but that's as far as it goes with IVs (other than actually making it up).

Just prior to my dd being born, I was in labour, in agony but had not been moved to delivery (lack of space there). I was in antenatal overnight with no pain relief apart from paracetamol (bit useless when you have been induced!). I was vomiting in the corridor, unable to move as in such pain. The midwife played solitaire whilst another very heavily pregnant patient tried to take care of me .

In a bizarre twist, I met the sister of this midwife a few years later socially. The midwife's sister is lovely but virtually NC with her sister the midwife (as she is horrid).

The old chestnut of nurses in their uniforms in the supermarket... You do realise don't you that we don't have a changing room in our hospital... Dear me at one point ward staff didn't have a toilet and I'm not making it up! I'll just get changed in my car shall I?....

Things are very different to the 60s... You only have to look at clinical areas like the ICUs to know things are very very different. What I can tell you is as a collective staff group we are fed up of the bashing we get from patients; relatives; other health professionals and finally old school nursing staff. Seriously I don't get paid enough to be spat at, assaulted and get told to fuck off daily or I'll smash your fucking face in - sadly that part doesn't bother me anymore I'm so used to it

'Nursing was always a profession'.
In the early sixties, it was still 'a vocation'.

I had a friend who went into a BUPA hospital (now Spire I think) to have a gynae op. (She had private health insurance) I visited her there a few times before she was discharged. I realise that obviously the money available makes a huge difference to standards, but what struck me was the quality of nursing care. It was excellent. This was in the eighties (I did my temp nursing in the sixties) Those BUPA nurses knew the special and necessary skills of making you comfortable, reassuring you, explaining procedures, speaking gently, appearing at the press of a button, washing you, not shouting or laughing outside the door, especially not at night. They were all quite a bit older than the nurses you see in the NHS hospital just across the road. They also all spoke perfect English, unlike the many nurses I had coming into the WRVS shop who could barely communicate when paying at the till. I had an Eastern European nurse who tried to ask for something in the shop and she could hardly get a word across. However did she manage on the ward?

I can't answer for any of people's experiences, just my own. I've been slapped, kicked (while pregnant) sworn at. These are day to day things that just bounce off now. Ended up in MAU with contractions at 32weeks after working x2 12 hours shifts without a break on a 30 degree ward.

Been redeployed to an elderly ward that I'd never set foot on before and been handed responsibility for 18 elderly, all cares patients with just one HCA for assistance.

The NHS is crumbling and people are happy to savage one of the lowest groups on the totem pole, do all those with office jobs never talk about the weekend (while still working).

As for being out and about in uniform, the cleaners at the local shopping centre and several private home care companies get their uniforms from the same supplier as the local hospital so it could be you aren't seeing what you think your seeing. As a student nurse I once visited a patient who had run out of milk and wanted a cup of tea, I went to the shop and bought her some with my own money, if I had gone back to the surgery and got changed I wouldn't have had time. I also once walked a mile in my lunch break to get a cancer patient a certain brand of ice lolly as that's all she could face eating (again spending my own money). Nice to know it's appreciated .

I would say that clinic nurses do seem to be a breed apart. The nursing element consists of weighing patients and the occasional blood pressure under duress.

I once asked a clinic nurse to put a clean dressing on a very old and frail man's leg (he had dressed it himself with now congealing toilet paper) and she said that she wasn't up to date in training for that sort of thing and sat down with a cup of tea!

The ward nurses on the other hand usually have a very different attitude

Maybe its the 9-5 nature of clinics and the undemanding nature of the job that attracts a particular type?

In fairness, because of accountability and the paper trail, it could be that some nurses won't take on extraneous duties in case they get into trouble for them. If you don't have the right certificates for things, you aren't supposed to do them. Which makes sense in one way - you don't want someone untrained making a mull of it - but does rather limit them in their care aspect.

If you're in a client facing role you should absolutely not be talking about personal stuff while at work. It's incredibly unprofessional.

HCAs are nurses of the past and the nurses these days are the junior doctors. They do so much more than 'nursing'. People forget that.

When I was coming round from GA after having a D&C following a miscarraige, my attending nurse was jabbering to a nurse at the opposite bed about where they were going out that night.

I appreciate 100% appreciate that HCPs are human. But there's a time and a place...

Ok so
Let me clarify.

I am a nurse qualified 20 yrs. I was also a nurse teacher and have lots of experience in hospitals.
These girls were definitely staff nurses and they were acting very unprofessionally in a clinic which was running very late. They are supposed to take patients height weight and BP on arrival. My father sat for an hour and fifteen minutes before this was done.

He was also need of loo and when he interrupted thenm to ask where it was they looked at him like he had shat on the floor!

On leaving I spoke to the lSN in charge of clinic to say how bad that looked and she got very defensive telling me last week they were rushed off their feet.

FFS. I wish I was busy only one shift in the week. My point is when in a public area it is better to be professional at all times. I don't think thTs unreasonable.