To think this nurse didn’t do anything wrong?

[WeirdHandDryers]

Situation - nurse working night shift on hospital ward.
One elderly patient with dementia thinks she’s also a nurse and spends all night trying to see to the other patients. If staff try to get her into bed she becomes distressed. All night she’s wandering around the ward. All the staff at wits end with her.
So this one nurse gets a bag of dressings and tells the lady that she’s hurt herself. She then sits there writing her care plans with this elderly lady in the office whilst the lady ‘bandages’ various parts of her body (including her head!). The woman was occupied for hours and for the first time, all staff had a decent night, no chasing her around, no distressed old lady, no angry patients getting poked and prodded ...
did she do anything wrong? Someone has let it ‘leak’ to manager and she’s been told off. I thought it was a decent solution!? (No it wasn’t me).

Bloody proof-read!! HAPPIER, not less happier. Stupid brain.

She sounds like an amazing nurse.

A genius idea, which seemed to allow all the patients to be treated/rest or be cared for. As long as there were enough staff to allow it then it was a really good solution.

I can see how a legalistic approach could lead to a report - the nurse was writing care plans so there could have been confidential information on the desk, presumably about the other patients on the ward. However It depends on what the patient could see and whether even if she could read something private she could repeat it (not even realising it is private). Most likely the nurse was careful and this was a caring, sensible thing to do. I hope at least some of the other staff support her.

She is meeting her patients needs. Shows intuition, creativity and food sense I’d say!

OP if You know the nurse then maybe Suggest that she speaks to her union, and also write down how they were both sitting while it's fresh in the memory. Hopefully management will realise there is nothing that warrants further action.

I waa a dementia care nurse for many years i never understood reality orientation , where you were supposed ro bring the patient back to present day reality it can be very distressing for them, years ago i once had a patient sat on a seat in anursing home thinking they were on a long train journey she was pefectly happy she also thought she eas about 30 in her words , whats the point in saying no actually you are 85 and in a Nursing home ?

Could the issue have been that she was sat with other peoples medical records in view of a patient?

She should be praised not told off.

She should be hauled over the coals for wasting dressings and bandages. I mean, what a waste of money and resources...

Not really. A good nurse is one who can think out of the box and adjust his or her care to allow a fully person centred approach. Just as she did here.

Sorry I missed a page and saw that it was a data protection issue.

Firstly she sounds fab.

That said she shouldn't have done it.

The problem on the front line at the moment is we are all under such pressure it's tempting to cut corners and bend rules to do the best for the people in our care but ultimately all this results in is management (and government) being able to say we are coping and people like this nurse being hung out to dry when they are "caught".

We all need to start working to rule otherwise it's just going to get worse.

I don't work to rule but I am getting better at it.

Sounds inspired.

I think she should be rewarded for thinking on the spot and coming up with such a caring and clever solution - AND managed to write her reports at the same time. Sad if she does get told off :-(

As long as patients records are adequately kept in line with data protection and patient was not left alone then there shouldn't be an issue.

I would have praised a staff member for being very caring and thinking outside the box, keeping the patient occupied, calm and the rest of the ward less hectic too.

Why was the nurse in the office and not on the ward?
Why couldn't she do her paper work on the ward with the patient and do exactly the same thing?
Who are you in all of this? How did you find out that it was 'leaked' to the manager?

Really not sure if any of this is actually believable....

My grandad had dementia and me and my family would have loved if anyone paid him an ounce of attention. After getting admitted hospital he left and walked home (30 minute walk) no one noticed until my Nan called to tell them. I feel like dementia patients are the least bothered about. I’ve heard from others about nurses getting fraustrated. Imagine how fraustrating it is to not have control over your own mind, not be able to do everyday task because you simply can’t remember. I understand there is a lot of pressure on nurses but it’s the profession you chose. I have the upmost nurses and always believe they deserve more commendation than doctors but you do get the odd one here or there that can completely piss you off.. I feel she shouldn’t have been reprimanded over this. She freed up the other nurses.

The fact she's got in trouble is what's wrong with the nhs and a major reason why I left.

A few years ago in an emergency situation a doctor asked me to do something to save someone's life. I helped, there was nobody else. A life was saved, no harm was caused the patient was grateful.

The patient was never at risk by my actions as I had the doctor telling me what to do. And someone would have died if I hadn't done it. But I was in serious trouble, investigation, threatened with suspension while it was carried out, etc because I'd stepped outside my scope of practice.

I said better that than having to explain in a coroners court why I did nothing with a doctor begging me to help but nobody cared. I remember interviews when I cried and cried and managers just told me that I shouldn't have done it, etc. I honestly believe the only reason I got "away with it" was due to some of my colleagues practically threatening a mutiny if it wasn't dropped. Nobody ever said well done. I'm glad I'm out the nhs.

How did it come to be an issue that got reported in the first place. I think what they did was good for that patient but maybe the other staff got annoyed or maybe there was a bit of giggling going on, it would be difficult writing up careplans with someone bandaging your head.

Manager sounds like a paper pushing twat for telling off the nurse for this.

Honestly.

Very intuitive and kind actions from the nurse. Why doesn't the evil daily mail ever pick up threads like this one, in a good way