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).

Here in Ireland, some areas of healthcare have ring-fenced funding, for example cancer care. My dad's currently on a cancer ward and all off the nurses and HCPs are angles. Someone pops into his room every fifteen minutes to see if he needs anything, including a cup of tea. He even gets taken out for a fag in the morning and last thing at night.

A&E doesn't have ring-fenced funding, the nurses and HCPs are devils there, they run past old folks who can't feed themselves or hold a cup to their lips.

I suspect that these two departments don't recruite from different dimension, they are simply giving the level of care that their particular departments have funding for.

Angels...sorry.

I love the old 'bring back the matron' mantra! If we are bringing back the matron I suggest we bring back the conditions of the time too. Do you really think those nurses had 10 post op patients to care for on their own, do meds, dressings, IV's, personal care, feed, fill in mountains of pointless litigation avoiding paperwork, answer riduculous demands from relatives my sister can't sleep without a foot massage 3 days ago this was 'requested' and a complaint put in because it wasn't done)

I wonder what the matron would say to a patient demanding a cup of tea (clearly well enough to make demands and feel like drinking a cup of tea and unwilling to wait longer than they feel is acceptable). Any nurse worth her salt would gladly get a patient anything that would make them more comfortable, if they haven't there is every chance they are caught up with something more urgent than your cup of tea.
For example someone in pain, someone bleeding, someone dying, some poor old soul needing help to the toilet, someone needing to go to theatre, someone needing discharged, someone needing admitted, a relative needing reassured, the nurse needing a pee because her kidneys are so fucked from holding back every day 1 glass of water is enough to fill her bladder

I think people forget that while most nurses would love to be able to holistically care for all their patients, the reality is after some shifts it's a relief if everyone has survived, staff included!!

Mixed feelings on this, I don't like the term "angels" but on the whole I think nurses do a good job. I've spent a fair bit of time in hospitals over the last few years, due to family members being ill.

When my dad became ill with the illness that eventually killed him (bowel cancer), they were, on the whole, very good. The one that stands out was a Philippino nurse who was really kind and calming. The worst were a bunch of about 3 younger nurses who turned up on the ward and seemed to spend all day chatting. My dad was on the high dependancy ward and his drips went unchanged, until a senior nurse gave them a bollocking. Apparantly, HDU was seen as a skive as there were only 4 or 5 patients usually on the ward ( I don't know if this is true, its what the senior nurse said to us later, she was pretty exasperated by the gossipy nurses).

My sister had major surgery last year. Things like pain relief got neglected, she also had breathing difficulties which were not properly monitored, other patients looked out for her and called the nurse in. We did agree though, they were rushed off their feet and just did not have the time to properly look after people. On the whole, they did a great job and we put the lapses in care down purely to lack of staff.

I thought some patients also put a lot of demands on them. I think some people think they are in a 5* private hospital, not the NHS, and the demands they made were unreasonable.
On the whole, I think nurses do a good job under what must be very difficult conditions.

The original post was American, I think, but shared by people in the UK.

This thread isn't an echo of the forces one (I hadn't seen that).

I actually think it's a dangerous thing for nurses to delegate personal care tasks -it's often through washing a patient that you see the first signs of deterioration or skin damage.

Similarly, obs. Fine if the HCA is going to come to you with the results, but if they just chart the, you may not notice a downward trend until a patient is quite sick.

With CEWS scoring though, a downward trend gets automatically picked up, especially if it's recorded electronically as it's automatically escalated.

I agree lougle. The hospital I used to work in was in the process if employing HCA to do just that, the 'traditional' nursing jobs. Obs, assisting with patients hygiene needs, certain dressings etc. the idea was that a ward could be run with 1 fully qualified band 5 nurse overseeing band 3 &4 HCAs . This is unacceptable on every level. I suspect this may become the norm in the not too distant future. Very sad for everyone!

CEWS (or MEWS as it is in my area) does alert to significant changes, but it isn't a catch-all. You can guarantee that before the patient hits a trigger score, there will be subtle signs of decompensating that a skilled nurse will detect. It may prompt them to redo the obs in 2 hours instead of 4, or even in 30 minutes. Not triggering escalation is not the same as being OK. IMO.

Jeffrey I think the NEWS is a fantastic guide/indicator but shoukd definately not replace a trained nurse.

I have never worked with an electronic system but certainly in the areas ive worked the 'directions' for escalation can not be realistically followed in every case. I scored a 3 at work a few weeks ago. really I should have escalated to lying on a bed myself, done a sepsis score, called a reg and demanded a cup of tea from myself before I did any of it!

No it isn't a catch all, it has to be completed correctly and all areas have to be scored to get an accurate score.

The electronic system won't let you submit obs if you haven't filled in a value on certain criteria. It prompts you to complete them and if the CEWS scores highly then it automatically escalates it to the medical team who have to respond. It's not a fail proof system and obviously some patients don't fit within the set parameters, but it's a good method of trying to recognise a deteriorating patient rather than waiting for something to happen. Obviously clinical judgment is important.

I think we could have a separate CEWS/PEWS/EWS thread!

Ive just finished a 14 hour shift. Im dead on my feet. I only had 1 half hour break, my choice, as I wanted to help the parents of my patients (nnu)
today was a continuous cycle of feeds, drugs, paperwork, and mostly reassuring parents. We lost a baby on Thursday, nobody had a break that afternoon.
Im not an angel, its my job and I love it

We could Jeffrey

Lavender for you

My sister is a nurse. In her first month of working she was the only qualified nurse on the ward for 10 hours. She didn't get a single break in a twelve hour shift (this happens often) and stays behind after the end of her shift to help or finish paperwork. If someone is capable of getting something for themselves, they should do it. When it's a choice between making someone a cuppa or doing the meds round, obs round, changing an IV or bathing a patient, what do you think should take precedence?

I actually think it's a dangerous thing for nurses to delegate personal care tasks -it's often through washing a patient that you see the first signs of deterioration or skin damage.

We check for skin changes every time we wash or change a pt and we know that if we are unsure, or notice a slight change we need to tell a nurse.

Nurses don't do obs on my ward as a rule so it is us who does them routinely and repeat them if they are scoring a 3 on EWS. We have been trained to report anything to the nurses though. I would report someone who was scoring a two but their BP had changed a lot from their norm etc. I think electronically recording them is an awesome idea!

We do have the responsibility of picking things up like bed sores, patients deteriorating because we are with them more and I admit that it sometimes worries me I will miss something as I'm not medically trained and while my HCA training was good it doesn't compare to a nurses obviously.

Unless we get more nurses they will never be able to take over the personal care/obs. That's a none stop job in itself.

At the time my mum was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, my dad was also in hospital - a different one, fifteen miles away. Having decided she couldn't tell him the news on the phone but unwilling to lie to him until we could physically reunite them, the task fell to me to drive from mums hospital to dad's, and break the news.

The staff on his ward saw me collecting myself in the corridor before I went in, and I told them why I was there. They helped me wheel him to a private room. They brought us both cups of tea. They helped us back to the ward and made Dad another cuppa, and when he asked to be left alone with his thoughts they took me aside on my way out and promised to keep an eye on him. One of them sat with him for twenty minutes later that day, talking to him to lift his spirits. She found time to give me a quick call to let me know that he was doing ok and eating and holding it together.

I don't know how the fuck they found time to do this in s busy day on the ward, but they did, they were fucking amazing, and made one of the hardest experiences of my life a little less awful with their compassion.

I think 'Angels' is patronising, and a little off base. It is a very human profession. Perhaps I'm lucky to have met far more God nurses than bad, but I think nurses are bloody fantastic. So thank you to all the mumsnetting nurses out there*. You change lives, you really do.

• naturally I'm assuming that a mumsnetting nurse is a good nurse, how could it be otherwise?

Haha, excellent autocorrect. GOOD nurses.

Ive been to a&e 3 times in the last 6 months. I have heard of 2 occasions of some of the staff being threatened there.
The details were horrible.
My friend gave up working in the hospital and went private as she could no longer cope.
Not enough staff, overworked, she and the staff were constantly going without their breaks, going to the loo and getting moaned at for grabbing a quick drink on the go.
It was too much.
All the times i was in a&3e the nurses were lovely( bar one know it all). One even stayed with me when i was upset when it was clear she had things to do.

For every story of a shitty nurse (there are plenty im sure) there will be 10 stories of nurses getting verbally abused by relatives or patients. You learn to read people, you can tell those that are genuinelly upset and just taking their anger out in you, those I accept. The majority of abuse we get are rude people who forget we are not waitresses and bell boys!! Yes, of course the simple things are important, a cup of tea, an extra pillow but when it comes down to it most tasks unfortunately trump them!

Also nurses 'sitting round chatting'! Be sure you know what you are talking about before you complain. I know of a ward where the sister insists the nurses do their paperwork standing up because of the amount of complaints they have received about nurses 'sitting around'! Sitting to do paintwork is often the only proper break staff get.

If every time you go into hospital you are met with problems, perhaps the problem isn't the hospital

There are good nurses and bad ones - bad ones being the ones who didn't feed my 92yo grandmother because she didn't fill in the menu - she weighed 6 stone and had dementia which meant she didn't even know how to hold a pen! Luckily dad arrived at meal time and everyone else eating and her not. I've never seen my dad so cross and the staff were completely unapologetic just saying they were busy. After that mum cooked meals for dad to take in

Meant to add that that isn't the norm thank goodness. Patients often feel pressing the buzzer is bothering the nurses but it is actually their job and they'd rather someone asks for something rather than laying in bed in pain, thirsty etc

Nurses are not Angels, we are human beings and therefore will never be perfect.

I'm sorry that I couldn't get you a cup of tea. The tea trolley comes round 3x a day and you have a jug of water.

I'm sorry your relatives had to stand during visiting time or sit on your bed. I couldn't give you 5 minutes to look for a chair.

I'm sorry your mothers food went cold. There are four people in the bay who need feeding and only one person to do it.

I'm really sorry you are still nil by mouth. We have chased theatres and they still want to fit you in, but no I can't promise you won't get cancelled. I won't take you swearing at me personally. I get grumpy when I'm hungry too, I haven't had a lunch break.

I have four lots of IVs to give in the next hour. These take from between 10-30minutes to draw up and set up and requires two nurses, so I'm already behind. One of these IVs is written up incorrectly, not a huge mistake but I now have to bleep for a doctor. I have to wait 10minutes for a call back to be told they'll be at least an hour. Now I have to choose whether I go ahead and give the drug which is already late but risk my registration in the process. The patient is at risk of sepsis. I have another patient who's blood pressure is steadily dropping, I'm worried and so am on the phone to the critical outreach team. Pharmacy still haven't delivered medication I urgently need for a patient who is steadily deteriorating. I have a patient who is having a blood transfusion and I need to be observing them closely for and adverse reactions. We've lost a set of notes, they're on the ward somewhere and we needed them 10 minutes ago. I've been promising my student nurse that I will go through her paperwork that she needs to be signed off this placement, I've barely done any teaching with her, she's been on commode duty for the last hour.

My healthcare assistants are brilliant and I cringe inwardly whenever I hear them having to run from bed to bed whilst I'm stuck in the treatment room again.

Nurses are being asked to do more and more, with fewer resources. The only way to avoid something disastrous is to prioritise and to delegate. If you're well enough to be shouting from your bed about a cup of tea then I'm sorry but you are not my priority. It sounds mean, uncaring and lazy but I have to be focusing on those who are sickest.

I am truly mind boggled that anyone would ask a nurse for a cup of tea. I have, sadly, been an inpatient more times than I care to remember and it has never even crossed my mind. And I don't remember hearing anyone else ask for tea either. Cups of tea is the job of catering staff surely? They come round several times a day, it's not like you only get tea once a week. I take my hat off to you nurses, not surprised you'd get pissed off at someone thinking you should drop all the medical stuff to get them a cuppa.

Part of nursing is ensuring patients are comfortable including getting them cups of tea.

Nurses have had a right snarky attitude since it changed from a vocation to a profession. It's almost as if the human interactions are now beneath them

I suggest you listen to this poster, who always has problems with nurses, not all but most, during her frequent hospital visits leave your IVs, your student, your deteriorating patient And get her a cup of tea, it's life and death I tell you! Unless it is her or a relative that is the deteriorating patient, in which case it's okay . Perhaps she wouldn't mind a relative of hers being left without a blood transfusion and Izvs if you explained that the lady sitting up in her chair across from her needed a cup of tea first it is the most important thing after all. Oooh shit, does that make me a snidy nurse looking down my nose at the thought of human interaction at all

Treacle - most decent nurses have no problem at all if patients ask for a cup of tea. It's a long day lying in bed when you can't do it yourself. The problem comes when said tea is not delivered promptly enough and people start demanding. It's selfish but easier to blame a nurse tgan admit it.

When my DM was in hospital, a few weeks before she died the problem wasn't so much her getting a drink but getting someone to hold it for her and help her drink it. Every time I visited my mum her lips would be all dry from lack of any liquid. She wasn't able to do anything for herself and the nurses were too busy to help.