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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Best behaviour you've encountered on a hospital ward

179 replies

amymel2016 · 13/04/2018 21:31

Just to offer some balance this evening...

I've had some amazing care from the NHS recently. Everything from the HCA who saved me a bed next to the window after I'd had my DS to the Consultant I saw last week who put my mind at ease about my most recent illness.

I also love the dinner lady who slipped me an extra ice cream!

OP posts:
NewYearNewMe18 · 13/04/2018 21:41

I cant fault the NHS, or it's staff. But people like to complain, it's the default setting for some.

Each according to need - well I'm sorry you had to wait 3 hours in A&E but there were 5 other people more serious than you ....etc etc but people tend to be so self absorbed. They don't think out side of their own little insular dysfunctional boxes.

MsCupcake · 13/04/2018 21:41

An honourable mention to the HCA’s when my Dad was desperately ill in hospital. Not only did they treat him like a Prince, they knew, to the second when the family needed a cup of tea and a hug.

To Lizzie & Mansoor, thank you from the bottom of my heart ❣

RepealRepealRepeal · 13/04/2018 21:44

Same hospital stay as I posted on the other thread. Elderly woman with dementia/Alzheimer's comes on to the ward, and to begin she's very quiet. As the night goes on she becomes a bit more difficult. At bedtime she starts telling the student nurse that she can't stay, she needs to go home. Student nurse goes and calls for another nurse who comes in and asks why she needs to go home. Patient replies that her mother will be worried, she's never stayed out all night and she needs to be there to help with the little ones. The nurse tries to explain that she's in hospital and that she has to stay here. It doesn't reassure the patient, and she says that her mother will be very worried if her bed hasn't been slept in.

The nurse tells her that she's already got a message to her mother, who said for patient to stay in hospital, and she'd see her in the morning, that she's to be a good girl and let the doctor treat her. Patient looks at nurse and says if you spoke to my mother, what's her name? There's a look of momentary panic in the nurses eyes, before she guesses Mary. Patient says ok, lies down and goes to sleep. I'm over in my bed thinking that's absolute genius, and worked much better than the student nurses explanation of how patient had been admitted from a care home. It just stayed with me as being a lovely way for the nurse to deal with it.

Patient did wake up in the middle of the night, wake me, and try to convince me that we should escape and go out dancing, which unfortunately, recovering from major surgery prohibited, but the same nurse came and got her. She let her dance in the hall with a porter for ten minutes.

TitaniasCloset · 13/04/2018 21:47

Oh that's beautiful! I love this:

"Patient did wake up in the middle of the night, wake me, and try to convince me that we should escape and go out dancing, which unfortunately, recovering from major surgery prohibited, but the same nurse came and got her. She let her dance in the hall with a porter for ten minutes."

NameChangeMama · 13/04/2018 21:49

The midwife who hid behind a curtain cuddling my DS so I could get an hour's sleep after my C-Section. I genuinely think she was sent from God!

Bagadverts · 13/04/2018 21:55

The sister/matron who took charge when physio was trying to persuade me I could walk with the crutch they brought when patently I couldn't.

Eryri1981 · 13/04/2018 21:56

The Physio who taught my Dad to walk again after he had his brain tumour removed, so that he could walk me down the aisle before he died 6 months later.

n1a2m3e4 · 13/04/2018 21:59

Repeal that reminds me of a shift with a wonderful elderly woman who was desperate to dance.. at 3am the charge nurse was doing Gay Gordons up and down the corridor with her, she was delighted. Brings a tear remembering it now.

Pancakeflipper · 13/04/2018 22:00

The nurse who worked night shifts when I had an unexpected week stay. One night she spent some time holding my hand. I was out of it on medication and pain relief but I could hear her talking to me and massaging my hand.

The nurses who looked after my dad. They not only looked after him in his final few days but also us. On his last nights they provided me with a cotbed, comfy blankets and one nurse always brought me a hot chocolate she made from her own supplies and a biscuit. We'd sit for a few minutes with my dad. Just thinking of her kindness makes me tearful.

Caulk · 13/04/2018 22:01

I really struggled after major surgery as I was really emotional. A nurse sat up with me at 5am whilst I cried.

Another sat with me whilst I processed having been told (in an exceptionally poor way) that I had cancer. The consultant later apologised for the way he told me.

Brilliant staff who held my hand during some nasty procedures.

My friend is a registrar and works incredibly hard. He determination to get the best outcome for all patients is so inspiring.

SaucyJane · 13/04/2018 22:01

I just had a second c section, and from start to finish the care was amazing, even though the actual operation was apparently very complex due to the placenta having got itself in a bit of a mess.

With my first c section I had 3 days on the ward, which was exhausting. This time I didn't even need to ask if a private room was available as I had the entire post-labour ward to myself, and 2 midwives popping in regularly throughout the night to check on me and the baby. Discharged the following day.

I made DP stop at hotel chocolat and buy some big boxes of chocolates for the midwifes and the anaesthetist/surgery teams as a wholly inadequate thank you.

SaucyJane · 13/04/2018 22:02

MidwiVes!!

MNOverinvestor · 13/04/2018 22:02

When I was discharged from hospital after an operation on Good Friday, the surgeon wrote down his mobile phone number in case I was worried and wanted to call him (I didn't, I was fine, but really appreciated the guesture). My dad's palliative care team, my mother's post-stroke team. My GP who always looks exhausted but spent her day off outside parliament protesting NHS cuts. I could go on...

Singlebutmarried · 13/04/2018 22:02

Loads. They far outweigh the negatives

The midwives who had DD for a few hours after a marathon 72 hours of contractions (back to back and consistent).

The dr in a and e last night who made it possible for me to go home last night and sorted out a blood transfusion for me today.

The nurses who have been brilliant for the last 20 years of my treatment. Mostly the patients on the wards are in the same boat and you kind of have to laugh or you’ll cry. We got accused of having a party one night, but the four of us genuinely didn’t realise that it had gone midnight. To be fair neither did the nurse who was looking after our bay as she was joining in.

Icequeen01 · 13/04/2018 22:03

Well having just taken my 78 year old mother to A&E twice this week (she is back in hospital after they discharged her too early) and having had to sit with her in a waiting room for 15 hours last night waiting for a bed for her which we finally got at 3am this morning it is hard to say anything nice about the NHS system at the moment.

However, I watched the poor A&E staff last night being spoken to as though they were shit and argued with and blamed when they were clearly at breaking point. When I left my mum at 4am this morning I went back to the A&E department to find a nurse who I had seen have a particularly nasty exchange with a woman patient. I just wanted to shake her hand and tell her that we weren't all like that and most people did appreciate her. She had been particularly kind to my mum and I just hated the thought of that nurse going home with the words of that other woman in her head! Not sure if she thought I was a bit nuts to be honest but I just couldn't leave without speaking to her.

Caulk · 13/04/2018 22:03

Years ago I was in CDU following an overdose. Two different doctors sat and talked to me. They must have been so busy but I always remember their kindness.

The surgeon who saved my fertility and spent an hour with me at the pre op answering all my questions.

Louiselouie0890 · 13/04/2018 22:05

The midwives that looked after my son at the midwife bay as they could see I was panicking and struggling to sleep even though DS was snoozing away.

n1a2m3e4 · 13/04/2018 22:07

Ice she wouldn't have thought you would you were nuts, a patient came up to me a couple of years ago and said some wonderful things during a horrible shift in which senior nurse seemed determined to find fault with everything I did. Told me to keep 'doing what I was doing' and gave me a big hug . Gave me confidence to push myself further :)

StylishMummy · 13/04/2018 22:07

The nursery nurse in SCBU who held DD for 3 hours to allow me to pump, shower & sleep, I hadn't slept for 72 hours straight. I cried in her arms I was so grateful

dangermouseisace · 13/04/2018 22:08

The nurses on an acute ward who treated the older people with care and respect- patiently explaining every 5 mins to a lady with dementia who kept asking to go to the loo that she had a catheter in, and clearing up the women who were having err bodily fluid problems and changing their beds just moments after the incidents.

DisgraceToTheYChromosome · 13/04/2018 22:11

The ward sister who on being shown the disgusting boiled fish we had for dinner, went down to the staff restaurant and brought up two buckets, one filled with spaghetti, the other with Bolognese sauce.

HariboHippo · 13/04/2018 22:11

I have lots! Mostly the angel consultant who I still believe is the only reason I managed to eventually have my DS after years of fertility and other issues. But the one that stays with me the most, is the the sonographer who made an effort to find me on the ward 24 hours after she had scanned me, to say she hadn’t stopped thinking of me and that I had made the right choice (to be induced at 17 weeks with an incompetent cervix that had already opened, rather than attempt an emergency stitch). That she went to such effort to come and reassure me really meant a lot at a horrible time.

mumonashoestring · 13/04/2018 22:12

The NICU nurses who told me absolutely everything I wanted to know about DS's treatment, made space for me to get breastfeeding established, and saw off the student midwives who were literally chasing me round the hospital trying to do obs with the wrong kit Hmm Sent DH off for the biggest box of chocolates he could find for the nurses station (which they promptly hid in a laundry basket to keep the consultants out of them Grin )

Sparklycurtainpole · 13/04/2018 22:15

before my current OH, I was married very briefly to someone who almost destroyed me. They convinced me they were deeply in love with me, we married and then he left me after six weeks before we'd even got the wedding photos back. He left me for another woman he'd been seeing all along and who he used money he'd swindled off me to set up in business with.
I had a complete mental collapse after he left. I ended up in A&E with a mental health crisis due to the shock and trauma of what he'd done (the above is only a brief snippet). I distinctly remember being completely out of it on all sorts of medication but that a nurse sat with me all night holding my hand and wiping tears I didn't even know I was crying. She was a beautiful Spanish lady and I wish to this day I could have thanked her but I was transferred the following morning and never found out who she was. In my darkest hour she reminded me of the fact that there are good people out there. I shall never forget her.

Izzadoraduncancan · 13/04/2018 22:16

My obstetrician who on his morning rounds insists on grabbing the wards magazines and redistributing to his next ward.... and so on! He also cared for my kids when I was admitted by surprise on a routine visit - didn't hesitate to put his hand in his pocket and pay for treats as they sat waiting for my DH to pick them up.

The midwife who saved my DDs life. After a prolapsed cord, she only asked we pay for hair dye going forward as all grey hairs due to that emergency.

Not NHS here - HSE, but some absolutely amazing people in our health service