To get annoyed by this FB status and think that nurses are not angels?

[lougle]

I'm not a big FB user. I tend to scroll through the news feed and rarely post. Today I saw a post about nurses. It basically told off patients for ringing their call buzzer for a cup of tea because nurses are really busy and have very much more important things to do, then sneered about being called stupid 'by someone who didn't even finish 10th grade'.

AIBU to think that nurses choose to work as a nurse and patients shouldn't have to worry about whether a nurse has had his/her break before asking for a cup of tea (when they're not allowed to get it themselves)?

(I'm a nurse).

[LunchpackOfNotreDame]

Why aren't nurses allowed to keep water bottles at the nursing station? Surely there Is an element of personal responsibility there? Grab a drink as you walk past

[sharonthewaspandthewineywall]

By keeping up with your documentation, fluid charts etc lunchpack, another time consuming task.

[sharonthewaspandthewineywall]

We werent allowed drinks at the desk. Personal responsibility my arse.

[LunchpackOfNotreDame]

Oh the charts that weren't kept up to date and led to me being given a morphine and tramadol overdose...

As a non tea drinker it's a moot point however I have been left without water for a day before where I was so poorly I slept through meal times

[LunchpackOfNotreDame]

Why aren't you allowed water bottles at the desk? Surely that's an issue to take up with management?

[Sallystyle]

Nurses getting someone a cup of tea?

No, that's for us HCA's to do ;)

[sharonthewaspandthewineywall]

Sorry it happened to you lunchpack but that doesnt mean all nurses fail to do this.
The amount of times ive stopped children being being a drug overdose due to error on the medical staff has been numerous. Doesn't mean all doctors should be branded incompetent.

[LunchpackOfNotreDame]

Ahh Hca's do the dirty end of the job...the actual caring part of nursing

I like HCA'S

[LunchpackOfNotreDame]

Don't get me wrong I've had some phenomenal nurses involved in my care. However when there have been bad ones they've been beyond negligent and down right dangerous

[bigbluebus]

My experience of being on a hospital ward is that they come around with a tea trolley at breakfast time, mid-morning, lunchtime, mid-afternoon, tea time and then after evening visiting. They also bring a fresh jug of water at the start of each day. I can't imagine why anyone would need to buzz for a cup of tea at my local hospital. They had the same system in the 2 hospitals where I have visited my Mother. The tea trolley is done by houekeepers/HCA's not the nurses.

I don't think nurses should be called angels - they are just people being paid to do a job they chose to do. Some of them do an excellent job and are worth their salary and more - some, on the other hand are not! The 'are nots' make it harder for the good ones. All the hospital wards I have been on could have done with more staff so that the nurses can care for the patients properly - particularly those with complex health needs and dementia.

[LunchpackOfNotreDame]

no I just have spent a lot of time in hospital as a patient and carer.

[Iliketeaagain]

Actually the "nurses are angels" shite pisses me of too. I'm a nurse, I'm a human being not a bloody Angel. It's that sort of nonsense that partly results in nurses being routinely undervalued and seen as a doctor's hand maiden, when we are a highly trained professional, trained to provide skilled nursing care.

And they whole a nurse who said "I have a degree, I clean up vomit" I'm pretty sure that sort of thing is one of those stories that happened to a friend of friend, written by the daily mail to prove "educating nurses" is a terrible thing, and "bring back matron" rubbish - I've met hundreds of nurses and never once have heard one say "I have a degree, therefore I don't do....." And for the record, if you ever have a nurse say that to you, report it to PALS because it's entirely unacceptable.

[sharonthewaspandthewineywall]

Of course nurses are angels. Because all of them are actually women aren't they!!

[Sallystyle]

Nurses on my ward can have water at the little kitchen area.

BTW, most of these complaints nurses have I have the same as an HCA.

I don't have the responsibility that nurses do, but the short staff affects us too but we are never seen an angels and we are the ones clearing up the poo, vomit, washing and sitting with confused and upset patients and the ones answering all the buzzers.

I work 12 hour shifts and find it hard to stop for a drink because the buzzers are constant and patients need to get to the toilet pretty quickly.

So when a patient asks me for a cup of tea I inwardly groan, because I will have loads of buzzers going off in that time and it's very very rare that anyone else will answer it except HCA's. Sometimes I have to tell people that I will make them one as soon as I can then I'm snowed under for an hour and don't get a chance.

I want to be called an angel just once

[Sirzy]

U2 - you are an angel!

Seriously though I do agree that as much as nurses are often undervalued HCAs are even more under valued. I have met some fantastic HCAs over the years when DS has been in hopsital.

[AyeAmarok]

U2 you are definitely an angel, and I agree that you are so much more undervalued.

Also agree re the buzzers. How do the nurses know it's only for a cup of tea when they never answer the buzzer in my recent experience!

[Sallystyle]

Thank you

We certainly are under valued and nurses couldn't do their jobs without us. At least not in my trust.

We are the ones who first notices when a patient is going downhill, who notices bed sores and spend the most times reassuring patients and doing hands on care. We are often seen as not being as important but without us nurses and patients would be stuffed.

I don't see memes on FB about us not being able to stop for a drink or anything about us being angels though.

[sharonthewaspandthewineywall]

Where I worked HCA's were treated very much as part of the team and took their own patients. There was none of this well the HCA's can do the tea round, obs round, take and collect to xray etc, we all mucked in. And they were so highly capable it worked really well.
In the morning i'd get bedside handover, go say hello to all my patients, do safety checks, see who needed meds/obs/feeds then start breakfast/tea round.

[RosalitaJumpALittleHigher]

You're an angel U2 My mum has recently been in hospital and the staff were all amazing. My Mum is a retired nurse so knows how hard they work and she thinks it's harder for nursing staff now than when she was nursing in the 70s and 80s as they seem understaffed and overworked. They were all very kind and treated her with respect.

[sharonthewaspandthewineywall]

U2 to be fair in that last post you sound as though nurses do bugger all and have no clinical skills! We all support and complement each other as a wider team surely? Whats with all the 'them and us' business?

[CPtart]

I'm a nurse of over 25 years, we are not angles and for me anyway, it is not a vocation. It's just a job like anywhere else.
I haven't worked on the wards since the 1990's, even then we were understaffed. I remember 3 elderly people in wet beds needing changing one night with only 2 of us to see to the whole 30 bedded ward. With the best will in the world, person number 3 would have been lying in their own urine with all the risks that can entail for at least half an hour before we got to them.
Another time I was told I looked "unprofessional" by a manager for having a drink on my desk whilst running a hot and busy drop in treatment room seeing up to 20 patients in an hour and a half.

[Iliketeaagain]

And you know U2, when any mention is made of "nurses" - most people mean, anyone in a nursing type uniform who you might see in the NHS, so you can assume all of the "nurses are angels" shite means you too if it makes you feel better

[dontrunwithscissors]

OP: "10th grade". That sounds like an American talking. Are they based in the US? Because i recently spent 2 nights in an American hospital and the nurses in ER were incredibly cold and clinical. I was quite shocked as most nurses I've encountered in the NHS are warm/caring. When combined with multiple people shoving iPads into my hands asking for me to sign to agree that I would pay for the cost of my care, it felt very uncaring.

[Sallystyle]

To be fair, nurses do muck in with morning washes when they have finished their drug rounds and paper work. I can't moan about them, we have some great nurses on our ward.

They also have to help with giving out lunch and dinner and if an HCA is off sick they will have to help out more with personal care then. Although usually a student nurse will step in then if there is one on the ward, or an AP.

But we do the vast majority of the personal care which of course is our job role and what we sign up for, but it would be nice if the public seemed to value us more or we got paid a bit more. Although in some ways I think I get a better deal. More time with patients and no real accountability and not as much stress either.

It just seems like we are a bit forgotten about on these FB poster things Nurses are amazing but so is everyone else who works on the wards because we couldn't do it without each other. And that goes for the cleaners, catering staff, admin, porters and all the other roles which make a ward/hospital run.

And all of us are snowed under.