To report this nurse?

[TheDonOfWinterville]

Went to visit elderly relative in hospital this afternoon and on the same ward another elderly lady was in bed. She rang her buzzer and I heard one of the care assistants say to a colleague "ignore it, she's been doing it all day, attention seeking" 😳 So the buzzer was ringing for another 10 minutes or so. Eventually the care assistant came and snapped "what do you want this time becAuse we're busy". The lady replied that she needed to make a call but couldn't reach her phone so the caret passed her her phone and walked out. A while later the lady pressed her buzzer again and a nurse came in and said "is it important because we're very busy" 😲 The lady said something about wanting her socks putting on which the nurse begrudgingly did for her. Just before we left the lady pressed her buzzer and the first carer came charging back in, turned off the buzzer, snapped "sorry, we're busy now" and walked out!!!!
So anyway as I left I spoke to the qualified nurse and said I felt the lady had been treated unfairly and it worries me that my relative may be reluctant to ask for her if this is the way patients are treated so the nurse sAid "I'm sorry but when you have buzzers going off in every room, the phone ringing and patients in genuine need of assistance it does get irritating when someone presses their buzzer every 5 minutes just to ask you to pick up bits of tissue or tell you that their coffee is cold. " she went on to hand me a pals leaflet and told me to complain about the lack of staff!! Aibu to actually complain about the staff that WERE on duty?

Its a profession to me. Vocation to me means something unpaid.

It's not my life's work or mission and I don't know anyone who that applies to.
If you only had the ones who felt it was their life's work I suspect the wards would be a lot more understaffed!

With it well documented that the NHS is in trouble and nurses are leaving in droves, being short staffed on a ward is all too common, staff need to prioritise, not because they want to but because they have to. How would you feel if there were n staff free to answer your mum's buzzer when she were in need of medical assistance because they were all too busy putting on socks, moving phones and making fresh cups of coffee? They are medically trained staff and while cold feet may be uncomfortable for 10 minutes it is not life threatening, that can wait where as medication, observations and treatments that are delayed can have serious consequences. While I don't agree with snappy or rude staff there is a reality here that most ward staff are damned if they do and damned if they don't. Not to mention exhausted and demoralised. No wonder nurses and support staff leave in droves.

Report it, OP.
Being impatient with elderly vulnerable people is disgraceful. These so-called nurses are supposed to be in a caring profession. Do not hesitate.

"AlbertHerbertHawkins

There is no way in the current climate that any nurse in an acute hospital could possibly be able to sit at the nurses station flicking through magazines all day. Not sure your source of information is entirely reliable."
I have seen them do this on a ward for elderly people. They do it.

Acute ward or not, it is NOT what they are trained to do or paid to do. Do they really need to be told this?

I'm really torn on this one. I recently spent a week in hospital on totally confined to bed - doctors orders I couldn't even get up to use the loo.

I hated having to press the buzzer, wait, and get an often slightly impatient/irritated staff member to do everything for me. But I had no choice. It's humiliating enough to not be able to go to the toilet yourself, let alone feeling you are a burden .

None of the times I used the buzzer were 'emergencies' but every single time was 'neccesary'.

"could I have another blanket" - ward windows were open and I was shaking with cold/unable to sleep at night.
"I need the bedpan, and for the bed to be lowered so I can use it"
"I've used the bed pan and now need the bed raising" - I had to be in a certain position for my recovery, and the bed controls were placed so I couldn't do it myself.
"It's x o'clock I need my anti nausea medication"
"Sorry, but over an hour ago I asked for my medication and it's still not here, and I'm starting to get quite queasy..."
"So sorry, I've just vomitted, oh and about that anti nausea medication..."
"The alarm on the iv I'm hooked up to is going off because it needs replacing... it's been going off for half an hour, it's 3 am and the other patients are starting to pray for my death so they don't get woken by this every single night..."
Etc.

On the other hand I really do believe that everyone working on my ward was working flat out in impossibly difficult circumstances. They were just stretched so thin. I couldn't do the job they do, let alone keep a smile on my face.

A hospital ward is for acute medical treatment and observation, if you require more then friends and family should support you.

I had people willing to support me, but visitors were only allowed for four hours in the afternoon. That's twenty hours a day I had to rely totally on the ward staff for everything.

I got so much better when I was at home and could actually get my medication at the regular intervals I was supposed to (something they never managed on the ward as they were always too busy).

But of course without the ward staff (and the nhs) I'd most likely be dead.

So, YANBU to think we should have better care than this (and we need more funding, resources, staff for the NHS), but YABU if you think the current very overstretched staff is at fault.

I'm a nurse with 12 years experience and am currently on an acute surgical ward, I do see my job as a profession but also a vocation in its uniqueness you need to be a certain kind to be a nurse!
I'm usually in charge even though I'm band 5 and often go without breaks the work is backbreaking and unrelenting it's generally rewarding but I usually beat myself up for what I forgot to do, it's usually paperwork rarely patient care. I rarely get to talk to patients as each nurse has 9 patients each the sort of patients a few years ago would have been nursed in ITU with multiple IV, drains, catheters, epidurals etc, we have confused patients, patients who frequently fall and terminally ill patients, 26 patients and only 4 RNs and 4 HCAs.

I do love my job and at times have felt my patience wear but I remember each of these patients need me whatever their reason maybe. On my last shift I spent time with the daughter of a lady who was dying because she was scared of what was happening I see that as such a privalidge to care for this family, however I'm also thinking I need to go to that meeting, order drugs from pharmacy, support other staff, train student nurses, assess that wound, prepare that patient for theatre and talk to that patient who at 90 is still calling for her mum.

I do get frustrated and angry but it is never acceptable to behave in this manner towards a patient that could be us or our relatives one day, however I am more than aware of how this situation looks to visitors they have no idea that this patient is constantly calling or keeping everyone awake, it's a very difficult situation to manage but so emotive.

Nursing is the hardest it has ever been, I love it but it's not sustainable at the current rate there is a national shortage of nurses I don't know what the answer is.

*Hmmmmbop
*
Unfortunately the whole issue with nurse recruitment now is that it's sold as a profession not a vocation any more.
You need a university education, most vocational urges in care do not match this.

Like most, I trained to care for people, to make them comfortable, to relieve their pain, to support and counsel.

My hospital corners could win medals.
I used to take rollers in on a Sunday morning and do any long term ladies' hair if they wished. We'd sing, we'd chat. We'd do our paperwork next to our patients. This as well as all of our more clinical duties.
We were VISIBLE.
But then staffing levels dropped.
We became even more exhausted.
Computers were introduced, taking us away from patient areas to do referrals to other departments, social care etc.
Many junior doctor roles changed and nurses now complete a lot more of them.
Our paperwork quadrupled in order for our Trusts to tick boxes.

I could go on but it's depressing me.

lily you had a 90 year old patient who was a career for their mum?! How old was the mum??

CaspoFungin She said she had a 90 year old patient who was callingfor her mum.

The nurses have to prioritise the patients. I was in hospital recently and needed a new dressing. The nurse asked me if I'd mind waiting until she'd done a blood transfusion as that was more urgent. That's okay with me but to some people their dressing was just as important. You can't judge when you're not there 24/7. The nurse could have been more polite, but probably was run off her feet with patients who needed medical care.

Haha oh yeah, whoops!

The nurse wasn't being the most professional she could be and the HCA sounds awful but I have to say, I see their point.
After my first baby, I got gall stones and was quite poorly a few times. I spent several stints on surgical wards with buzzers going off CONSTANTLY. It's not fair to just leave these people but the nurses literally could get nothing done. My IV anti bs were quite often hours late because the staff were just so busy. They're only human :(

Please report this. Everybody has the right to dignity and your post suggests that very little compassion was witnessed.

I can't believe some of what I've read here.

Whatever happened to putting patients first, and treating patients - whether in the icu or anywhere else(!) with dignity and respect!??

My mother was just such one of those patients you refer to, and like you I observed appalling lack of care and poor treatment while she was in hospital - waiting for a place in a care home because she had a f*g brain tumour - and not the dementia most of the the hospital staff assumed she had. (Not that that should have made any difference). One "carer" laughed to me about how she had had to "wrench" mums dentures out one morning. Another left her on the toilet in a mess for an hour because she was "too busy" to clean her up and get her back to bed!!!

Lack of NHS funding and nurses/Carers under pressure does not excuse poor care. Most folk don't choose to be in hospital, don't choose to need to have to ask for help to get their phone/glasses/water...or to go to the toilet - so treating them with a little respect and kindness by so called professionals in care industries should not be too much to expect! I would definitely kick up a fuss. Unless folk like you and I call it out when we see it nothing will change! the elderly care health sector is already in crisis in the U.K. And it's only going to get worse with our rapidly ageing population! We need to be shouting loud not shutting up!

I completely agree with the last comment
This definitely needs raising, in the NHS we are trained to treat people with dignity and respect none of which appears apparent here . / a complaint then looks into the issues and may result in looking at staffing issues. Good luck

The lady in the hospital bed could have early dementia for example and not attention seeking! My DF was in a NHS ward for a long time due to other health issues, his Alzheimer's was fairly advanced and he forgot constantly where he was and why but he knew he wanted to go home and if he'd had the capacity to press that bloody buzzer he would have, all day and all bloody night. Not fair on the staff, not fair on my DF, I just hope he wasn't being spoken to in that manner when we wasn't there.

YANBU. A buzzer should never be ignored. You can decide on your course of action and how much of a priority someone is when your RESPOND to the buzzer but you CANNOT report it. I would report it. They need HELP and are stretched so you acknowledge that when you talk to someone about it, but this shouldn't be ignored.

I'm sorry I've worked on wards and i know how busy they are and how under staffed they are. They should not be ignoring patients full stop and definitely not snappy i get that staff may be irritated by the buzzer but the buzzers are there for a reason not just for emergency they have separate buzzers for this. When i had a c sec i struggled to get out of bed so needed help the first day or two i also had to be wheeled to nicu by them. alot of the time they were too busy. Made me sob. But i waited as patiently as i could the only time i was truly hacked off was when a nurse snapped at me because she didn't have time to help me express and basically told me to stop being mardy and rest. Nurses are there to do a job and be kind to vulnerable people if they are snapping then they are failing. Complain.

I've worked in healthcare and TBH it is annoying. But I would never not answer because it would most likely result in a patient shitting the bed or puking everywhere, and at worst a dead patient.

It's lovely that so many people believe that medical staff would not ignore a buzzer, or snap at a patient unless they were desperately overworked, but that has not been my experience. I have seen staff take long tea breaks, with cakes and laughter, while buzzers go, and have had staff claim to have treated and dressed a wound (on an elderly patient) when they have done nothing at all.
I am sure there are some great staff, but believe me, there is some poor care, and if someone is unable to move, it's pretty cruel to suggest they should not have any help except for medical emergencies.
It may not be what nurses train in, but i spend quite a bit of my working day cheerfully doing things which don't use my education and skills fully, but nonetheless need doing, I suspect lots of people do. I can't accept that basic compassion and politeness is not part of the job, for everyone.

As I said earlier, user1471855186 - would you want the staff to stop dealing with a haemorrhage/cardiac arrest to answer a buzzer? What about if they are doing the drug round, or a dressing, or talking to a patient who has just been told they are dying?

One thing that has, in my opinion, made this issue much worse, is the design of hospital wards, with lots of small bays or individual rooms. They offer far more privacy for the patient, but they mean that the staff can't see at a glance if there is a real medical need or emergency situation behind the buzzing, or if the patient is OK - so they can better prioritise who to deal with first. A nurse cannot walk away from an emergency/urgent situation to find out why another patient is buzzing for them.

On the old style Nightingale wards, we could see all the patients much more easily - and hear them. We could see if another member of staff was responding to a buzzer, or not. And patients could see all the work the staff were doing - if the staff were all dealing with a serious emergency, or were all busy treating other patients, which made it easier for them to understand why the staff couldn't answer every buzzer immediately - and to see that the staff were run off their feet and to appreciate that they had more important things to do than picking up a tissue.

It was also much, much easier for the nurses to keep an eye on all the patients. If everyone is in private rooms, and there are only a few staff on the wards, people will feel more lonely, it is much harder to monitor all the patients, and the patients can't see what is going on elsewhere on the ward.

Plus there were more patients around to chat to each other, which helped the lonely ones. The new design of wards is better in many ways for the patients, but I firmly believe that they need to be well staffed, so that the nurses can care safely for the patients, and the patients don't feel abandoned and isolated.

Definitely complain. I was a patient for 5 weeks and ended up helping other patients on the ward because some of the staff were a bit like this, the hospital happened to be doing a whole hospital review where each patient was spoken to and the 5 of us on our 6 bed ward (one very elderly so not include) mentioned this sort of thing. Unfortunately on two occasions the elderly lady next to me had wet and was sitting in a pool and I had to ring and ask for it to be cleaned up as nobody had been to see her since lunch to check. I spoke to her son about her treatment and by the end of the week she had been moved to a local cottage hospital which would be a much better place for her. After the review of our ward things seemed to change for the better do the complaints worked.

Staffing levels are low, morale is low and NHS workers are leaving in droves.

Their attitude is sadly understandable.

So if a buzzer should "never be ignored", do you leave the person in a faeces soaked bed, half way through cleaning them, whilst they're holding themselves up on their side - to see what Madge wants again (whom you've washed, dressed, taken to the toilet, given a cup of tea to only 15 minutes ago). It's just not that simple.