To wonder how many elderly people in hospital die of neglect?

[Gone2far]

My poor elderly dad is in hospital. Whenever we visit, we're sorting out something. This morning, nobody had made sure he'd taken his medication and, when I pointed it out, they whisked it away. But then told my mother that he had had it.
The hospital is enormous, and you never seem to see the same member of staff twice.
I think it would be very easy for an elderly patient, who didn't have family or friends coming in, to be forgotten, apart from the absolute minimum of care.
Anyway,perhaps i'm feeling this because i'm worrying about my dad. But I know we can't be there all the time and feel helpless

I bank on dementia wards. All of my patients eat, drink, are kept clean and are affectionately cared for like they were our own family. I'd never let any patient go hungry or thirsty regardless of how damn busy I am and if I have to finish late to get it all done. Patients are people with family and friends, they are someone's everything, their whole world, and nurses that neglect the fundamentals of care by either not doing the task themselves or not delegating it to others and overseeing it to ensure it's done have failed at the very basic principles of nursing and need striking off in my opinion! There really is no excuse, it's pathetic!

Cannot find the energy to rip apart this sanctimonious BULLSHIT that is everything that is wrong with the job....but I will say that I be walking out the door on time every shift because nursing is a 24/7 gig ✌🏼

Got my own life, my own family and friends, I’m “someone’s whole world” (!) too, you know? How about you?

Could go on for days about how you don’t have to be a self sacrificing martyr to be a good nurse and it is Just A Job, but I have a feeling it will fall on deaf ears. Enjoy the road to burnout.

It’s a shame isn’t it. I remember one time going to see my gran in hospital and she was shivering under a thin blanket, the hospital didn’t have any spare. It was October/November so cold. She had me to go and get blankets and bring them to her but I felt so sad that there might have been people who didn’t :(

I have no criticism of the staff though who have ever dealt with any of my family members, they’ve always been excellent.

Yes, I saw my father in law die in horrific circumstances due to neglect by NHS staff, which is why I don’t buy into the whole “lets get the wonderful heroic staff to work in the snow” or sympathetise over them paying for parking (as many workers do).

There's another thread running now and most of us are saying we would like some form of assisted dying for ourselves.
So many of the elderly people in hospital would have died 'naturally' of something like pneumonia if it wasn't for antibiotics keeping very elderly people artificially alive for so long, when so many of them have bodies and minds that have given up.
I wouldn't put my mum in hospital at her age, by my sister disagrees. Whenever she is taken in, she loses mobility and brain power, even if she's just in for a couple of days.

And when my mum has been in hospital I have noticed some nurses seem to care, and some really don't; some seem competent, some don't. It's also clear that they don't have time to feed patients etc, which is one of the many reasons I think they're better off at home when very elderly.

Cannot find the energy to rip apart this sanctimonious BULLSHIT that is everything that is wrong with the job....but I will say that I be walking out the door on time every shift because nursing is a 24/7 gig ✌🏼
*
Got my own life, my own family and friends, I’m “someone’s whole world” (!) too, you know? How about you? *

Could go on for days about how you don’t have to be a self sacrificing martyr to be a good nurse and it is Just A Job, but I have a feeling it will fall on deaf ears. Enjoy the road to burnout.

So you'd rather leave an elderly patient sat in their own shit burning their skin so you can go home on time than take 20 minutes to shower them because preventing pressure ulcers and supporting people to retain their dignity is "just a job"?

You disgust me. No wonder the vulnerable die from indifference! I have a life too, a great one at that, but I'll happily claim overtime to make sure my patients are safe and well. As would most nurses that actually care about their patients.

then raise it with your management and supervisors.
raise it with the regulatory body.
encourage patients and their relatives to complain.

but stop wallowing in self pity

Well said you alreadyknow. Fruitcider what the hell is a f***g dementia ward ?Awful expression ! You do bank so presumably not full time and have a degree of choice where you work. And I guess you don’t have to look after seriously physically ill patients who years ago would probably have been in critical care. Try doing that on a ward that’s understaffed ! Nobody’s moaning about the patients, just the conditions we have to work in that make the job very difficult and prevent us from giving the best care. I’ve worked my arse off for 25 years as a nurse and regularly stayed late to help out with patients. And I mean regularly like every other shift.
Like every profession there’s good and bad but nurses seem to receive the most vitriol.

Fruitcider what the hell is a fg dementia ward ?

Ummm a specialist assessment and treatment ward for dementia? I thought it was pretty self explanatory?

We do look after physically unwell patients, we have palliative care beds!

Mental health wards and prisons are far more short staffed than general hospitals, you are barking up the wrong tree. Try being responsible for 84 patients alongside 2 pharm techs and 2 HCAs, 30 of which are in the first 5 days of detox and have many complications eg DVTs, groin abscesses, COPD etc for 13.5 hours then the next day go to work in a dementia assessment unit and have 24 patients for 2 nurses and 4 HCAs. Guess what? None of my patients are dehydrated or starving, because I actually give a shit.

Not been back to this thread overnight but it’s going exactly as expected * . We should all be on the same side demanding adequate resources to provide care. Instead we have nurses declaring its perfectly possible to care for 1927463828396 patients and still have time to wash the windows and anyone that can’t just doesn’t care enough.*

Relatives come into hospital aggressive and hectoring with the presumption you’re trying to harm their granny.

I’ve been nursing for years and have never felt so unsafe and pressured as now. I will continue to put in reports for unsafe staffing. No one becomes a nurse for an easy ride.

Responsible for pharmacy techs ? That’s a new one ! If 3 of you are looking after 84 patients their dependency score is very low indeed so no comparison. To insinuate that you are the only nurse who cares is insulting and actually pretty stupid lol

Responsible for pharmacy techs ? That’s a new one ! If 3 of you are looking after 84 patients their dependency score is very low indeed so no comparison. To insinuate that you are the only nurse who cares is insulting and actually pretty stupid lol

Yes we have such a shortage of nurses we have to employ pharmacy techs to complete medication rounds in prison. If you think detoxing patients are low acuity then think again. I didn't say I'm the only nurse that cares - you might want to read again.

Did read it and you kept on reiterating you ‘gave a shit’ unlike most of us. What do your posts hope to achieve other than to further denigrate the nursing profession?
And with regards to detoxing patients, looked after many of them and treated them all with respect and empathy as to be expected

No that was in response to so say nurses making excuses for leaving patients dehydrated, starving and dirty because they are too busy to care for them 🙄

For what it’s worth do you actually think they intentionally left patients in their own excrement or deliberately withheld fluid ? I’ve worked in ICU for 18 years and fortunately we are relatively well staffed with a good team spirit but I vividly remember occasions when I’ve done ward bank work and we had to prioritise what we did - do we help one patient with a drink, walk another to the loo, or turn the lady in bed one ? Undoubtedly 2 individuals will sadly have to wait a little longer

They also euthanise people in hospital without their explicit consent. A good example is someone with a terminal illness who can find themselves connected to a syringe driver discretely tucked away somewhere and containing morphine or similar.

@Arnold, beats me where you get that idea but it's simply not true.

No they don't. They did used to occasionally pre Shipman, but not any more.

What do they do then? Ask the patient if they need more pain relief? Is there an explicit conversation?

It doesn't happen. The repercussions would be career ending.

I wish someone had connected my mum to a syringe driver, maybe they'd have got her pain under control rather than 5 months of excruciating pain which drove her mad...

I do think some nurses/HCA people are coming across very defensive though, and as I said earlier, it's not a job I could do. But really, finding your relative covered in shit/screaming in pain/unable to eat or drink/ignored/having had their call bell removed is not exactly cricket is it? And I think there are enough people on here who are detailing their experiences to show that there is certainly some cause for concern.

*It doesn't happen. The repercussions would be career ending.^

So what would be the pain relief regime for a terminally ill cancer patient? Who decides what they get,how often and how is it administered?

For what it’s worth do you actually think they intentionally left patients in their own excrement or deliberately withheld fluid ?

I don't think patients are deliberately abused in this way very often, but I certainly get the impression that nurses think "being too busy" is an excuse to not ensure these needs are met. I would call it neglect or death by indifference.

They also euthanise people in hospital without their explicit consent. A good example is someone with a terminal illness who can find themselves connected to a syringe driver discretely tucked away somewhere and containing morphine or similar.

This is a bit of a myth but I can see why the public get this idea. In palliative care high doses of pain relieving medication are given to ease patient suffering eg get pain under control, it's recognised that as a consequence of needing to use high doses this may unintentionally hasten death. This is completely different to deliberately euthanising patients. And god forbid, if I'm ever dying a painful death my HCPs can pump me full of however much morphine they think is necessary!