...to have complained about this student nurse?

[MaidrinRua]

My 16 week old baby has had trouble with his bowels- bad constipation and faecal impaction. Today he ended up having a bowel washout procedure in A&E which was both traumatic and very messy- the s*&t literally hit the cubicle curtain!

After the doctors left me to clean my little one up (he was screaming and crying) I lifted him, wrapped in an inco-pad to console him.

A few moments later a student nurse walked by and saw the mess, I assume without realising we were in the cubicle, and laughed and made a massive fart noise, then saw me and scampered away around the corner.

I complained to the nurse in charge, who was horrified...I think I was right to do that but worry that it might look like I was just a hysterical, touchy mum being over sensitive.

Thoughts?

Yanbu and another virtual cuddle to your LO. As a mum of one with similar troubles, you have tonnes of my sympathy. It is absolutely horrible.

How could anyone look at that situation and see 'poo, haha' as opposed to 'a distressed baby and parent'?

Hope she is mortified and sorts out her attitude.

Absolutely right to complain - you haven't said anything that isn't true so if her senior staff member condones this behaviour to be ok (she won't because it's totally unacceptable) then there isn't a problem, for the minority that said you shouldn't have spoken up. Hope your little baby makes a fast recovery, I know from past experience what a difference caring nursing staff can make to how secure / frightened you feel when in hospital with a young baby

I'm a student nurse and it wouldn't cross my mind to make a joke about that. It's unprofessional and not acceptable.

It might have been the shock which caused her to open her gob.

The nurse who is her mentor will sort it out. Every little thing filters back to our lecturers.

I don't understand how a student health professional's instinctive reaction can be to joke rather than to help, when coming across a scene like that. It's very odd. I hope it was on off-day rather than a sign that she's in the wrong job.

Hope your baby's a bit better today OP.

I come from a family of nurses and teachers (I'm a teacher) so understand that these things are the usual 'butt' of staffroom quips but my issue was that it was on a busy assessment ward. It would be the equivalent of me loudly laughing with my TA in front of parents about a child who had soiled themselves that day- you just wouldn't do it!

I wasn't asking for her head on a platter, I just had a quiet word with the sister in charge.

Thank you to all who asked about my little one. He's in great form today. They've put him on Movicol, which has given him two rather explosive poos today! He doesn't enjoy when they blast out of him, but it's better than him crying and straining several times a day to produce mere dollops that don't even touch his nappy!

Thats terrible OP. I would have been livid. Hope your little one is ok. And you.

Definitely not BU I am a health care professional and if I had seen this in my day to day job I would have reported

You were not BU to complain. As a nurse, she will see people at the lowest points of their lives, so I do think that professionalism is vital and mocking patients is unacceptable. I've worked as a carer before and had to deal with plenty of bodily functions, I never made any jokes about it as my main concern was for the client's dignity. That nurse needs to realise that diarrhea is not just diarrhea, it's a sign that someone's loved one is unwell and that's not funny. Luckily your little one won't remember this and is too young to be embarrassed about a bowel movement (though he must have been very uncomfortable, poor thing!) But an older patient could have been very upset and embarrassed about their accident being mocked like that and she didn't know who the patient was when she did it. Also it must have been the last thing you needed to hear at an already difficult time!

One of the biggest regrets of my life is not complaining about the care (or lack of it) that my dad received in hospital at the end of his life, including a nurse who complained loudly to our family (luckily not in front of my dad but in front of a packed ward) about having to clean up after his accidents because he was "too stubborn," in her words, to use a bedpan and tried to get to the toilet but didn't make it. He was ill and confused FFS! Her lack of compassion was truly disturbing. I walked away but could still hear her at the other end of the ward. I just didn't have the strength to complain at the time because I was watching my dad die and I wouldn't remember her name or anything about her now. But I will always remember how she behaved at the worst time of my life.

Oh Damsel that is awful! How utterly disgraceful that your father had his dignity stripped from him, and for you to have to hear that kind of pig ignorance at such a heartbreaking time. Appalling. I am so sorry for you.