Health professionals in uniform being stopped by public

[stripedsocks105]

Hi! I've namechanged because I feel quite guilty.

I work as a uniformed HCP, when I'm at work I like to use the hospital shops/ canteen to buy lunch etc. Each time- I mean EVERY time I'm always stopped by hospital users to ask for directions to whatever ward/service they need to use. I'm polite and generally tell them where they can find out the information (there's usually volunteers nearby at each entrance to give out info) but this happens when I'm on the phone, reading etc.

I know this sounds incredibly selfish but I've only got a limited time to get food, eat it, return to ward. I've always got a coat/ cardigan on so looking as off duty as I possibly could. I know it's just friendly and helpful but WIBU to just want leaving alone to walk and eat food in peace ?

I occasionally used to get asked for help in shops, I’ve perfected my stern face since then! I just said “I don’t work here” and walked away without getting into conversation. Once a woman followed me round saying I was rude and she wanted to speak to my manager. I had to tell her to go away.

I used to be a nurse. When standing in line to get a Costa coffee I would get accosted and asked questions.

I also used to be airline cabin crew. When there were delays we knew to stay away from the terminal. People wouldn’t realise that cabin crew with the name badge, wings and wheeled suitcase(s) are not ground agents and know nothing about delays, refunds, re-booking, lost baggage etc

When getting the coach/train home, I used to take my pass and name badge off and put my headphones in. I had no interest in complaints about flights from 15 years ago where my airline/another airline lost their bags etc. I was not being paid to be moaned at thanks.

New build hospital near me was designed without staff rooms in order to maximise patient space. Bloody disgraceful really. Sometimes you just want to sit in a relatively comfy chair for 10 mins because it might be the only opportunity in a 13 hour shift to sit down.

It's no different to working in a shop or anywhere else. If you walk around your workplace in your uniform when not on duty, you will get asked questions. Why 'professionally' qualified staff can't understand this shows how arrogant they are

If your in work uniform on working grounds yabu

I would never start asking uniformed staff clearly on a break for help. Whether that be in a hospital or retail environment. I was in Sainsbury's last week and a customer was being rude to a store worker with a handbag, coat on and basket, clearly doing a quick shop after work.

A hospital worker is usually paid for the entire stint at work - you can't just drop out in the middle of treating someone. I think it's a little unreasonable that you don't help people out with directions.

It's a different story if you have finished your hours but then the regular public can't magically know that a uniformed person isn't actually on duty.

YADDDNBU. You should be allowed 30 minutes to sit down and eat and drink something. Nobody with any empathy or decency would think otherwise. It is not HCP's responsibility to help people find or read the signage. Goodness, what a childish sense of entitlement some people have.

I'd go for non-uniform top, murder walk (fast, eyes ahead, expression of intense concentration) and getting Google to teach me the phrase "I'm not working now, thank you for asking somebody else and I don't speak any more of this language" in Russian or Chinese or some other still less commonly spoken language. Otherwise you'll fall asleep in the canteen and find one of the CFs siphoning off your blood because you weren't using it.

Thank you for your continuing to make a difference when all that sometimes seems to mean is that you have no right to the barest morsel of care yourself.

A hospital worker is usually paid for the entire stint at work

Are you joking? Of course we're not!

It is not HCP's responsibility to help people find or read the signage.

it can't that long to give directions?
i would feel proud that I was able to help, you never know they might be the cqc in disguise

After working a long shift dealing with the public who are often rude, abusive, drunk and entitled, the last thing on my mind would be “feeling proud” at giving someone directions or worrying about the CQC.

If i’m in a supermarket etc and need to find something and there’s a staff member nearby i usually ask if they’re on shift. Is that weird?

Just sitting here chuckling at the idea of a staff room... and a lunch break that isn't spent hunched over patient notes... and the CQC can get to frig!

you never know they might be the cqc in disguise
In which case it will be up to the hospital to prevent further occurrences by providing proper break facilities for staff

something that irritates me more working in hospitals is that the public expect 'customer service' off you at all times e.g., holding doors open for them, letting them pass first in narrow corridors. Sorry... but actually usually IM BUSIER THAN YOU!

As an on call doc- we end up covering all over the hospitals and these 'small' acts add up, I'm usually moving much faster so please just let me walk around you. No I'm not being rude, i just don't always think its a good use of my time to hold over 10 doors when walking from one end of the hospital to the other!! for people that say "being polite doesn't take much time" actually - I'm not rude - but sometimes some things are more important !! GAAAAAH

Op remember this thread when you are in a strange hospital unsure of where you are going. And spot somebody who might actually know their way around!

I worked in a massive hospital, in one particular department, for 10 years... I had no idea where anything was outside of that department and other departments we accessed!

A Midwife wouldn't necessarily know where the cardiac centre is, and a paediatric Physio wouldn't necessarily know where the elderly care ward is.

I think it's appalling that hospirals don't have staff rooms.

Or even hospitals.

A hospital worker is usually paid for the entire stint at work - you can't just drop out in the middle of treating someone. I think it's a little unreasonable that you don't help people out with directions.

And people are legally entitled to a break within working hours. God forbid medical staff have a few minutes to scarf down some food or pee.

@cocacolamonster - nope, apart from doctors, most staff aren't paid for their breaks!! They get a 30 minute unpaid lunch, which is often curtailed because they're looking after a sick patient, relatives can only come at x time or doctors pop in to the staff room to update/check stuff (sorry!).

OP - you are being a teeny bit unreasonable on an individual basis, but looked at collectively, it's understandable.

Shame polarbearflavour. As PP said, hospitals are scary and bewildering places. Volunteer help points are rarely easily identifiable and usually only one at the entrance. And if the person had confusion or early dementia, I would hope they would be treated kindly and be helped

A hospital worker is usually paid for the entire stint at work

Nope, I have a whole unpaid hour of my day.

How do you know you're busier thsn me vinobel. Busy or not I don't expect anyone to let a door swing into me. I don't do it. It's natural not to if you are well mannered rather than arrogant. I suspect it's as much about upbringing as it is about business.

I bet you were one of the three medics nattering three abreast along a corridor at St Georges the last time I was there. The three who didn't have sufficient manners to break step and let a patient pass. I had just had some treatment and bumped into my friend in the coffee shop. My friend was there as Chair of the E&D committee. She's a non exec.

Manners matter.

I'm looking for the post that said I wouldn't help- I point them in the direction of the help desk that believe me knows way more about he hospital layout than I do

I take all your points on board but feel a bit disappointed that a post that was about feeling a little tired and wanting to have my break to myself has turned into a HCP that would leave an elderly or pt with dementia wondering in the corridor !! Oh and an arrogant one at that, yep ! Cos NHS staff have loads to be arrogant about 👍🏻

Thanks to those that get where I'm coming from, I've acknowledged a wee bit of unreasonable-ness (is that a word?) but can't be held responsible for silently wishing they wouldn't.

Sadly not all wards have staff rooms, they're dwindling and fast ! Some hospitals as pointed out by PP have been built without or rebuilt in to patient spaces. Maybe I'm not the Stirling example but NHS staff really deserve every credit