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Original poster

Nurses watching tv/surfing the internet

393 replies

UB40fan · 28/05/2019 23:47

My daughter was recently in hospital. While there we witnessed nurses watching an hour long tv show and surfing the internet. It was quiet in the hospital at the time. I was stunned by this. The nurses were quite open about this, as in this was obviously allowed. Am i the one behind the times or is this now normal?

OP posts:
MrMakersFartyParty · 30/05/2019 08:38

@Xmas2020 we aren't allowed hot drinks either. In fact we are only allowed water in little plastic cups. This always makes me quite resentful because the patients are sat there with takeaways and hot drinks.
One time I decided I would have a Pepsi because for the 4th night in a row I had no break, so I poured it into one of the little plastic cups and a patient complained about me. Delightful!

FormerlyFrikadela01 · 30/05/2019 08:56

However, using a mobile phone I would definitely report as it could be an adult/child protection issue due to the phone.

Does that apply to doctors? They use their phones to check results, emails, check the bnf.
What about other patients? I've been filmed by a patients before and they then put it on YouTube.

Xmas2020 · 30/05/2019 09:12

@MrMakersFartyParty exactly! Been in many many situations the same. It has got that bad that staff are having to run between wards to vending machines to grab a quick drink after handing over pts to the wards!

originalusernamefail · 30/05/2019 09:33

Burnout. No one goes into nursing to neglect their patients or because they don't care, but slowly slowly untenable working conditions suck that out of you. Our ward has been at 200% capacity for 8 months due to 'seasonal' pressures (It's May Confused). We are staffed and equipped to nurse 12 patients of one specialty, we are currently on 30 mixed specialty patients.

Yesterday I cracked and ate a bagel at the station whilst writing up my notes. It was my breakfast. I had technically finished my 12 hour shift an hour before. Didn't stop a patient asking me what matron would say (nothing she works 9-5 and was long gone). I have 15 years experience and am very good at my job, however I have never known it so pressured and horrible

BlandingsEmpress · 30/05/2019 09:35

From extensive and ongoing personal experience, a ward where there’s no work to be done would be exceptional. If that’s really what was happening, complain.

Polarbearflavour · 30/05/2019 09:42

Patients do indeed complain about nurses having the audacity to eat and drink like they are human beings.

One ward I worked on as a student didn’t even have a staff room as it had been made into a two bedded bay. Nurses ate their snacks standing up in the walk in cupboard where we put our bags and coats!

I worked somewhere where plastic bottles of water were banned after patients complained that nurses were drinking. It soon got reversed in the height of summer on hot wards where nurses fainted through dehydration.

The matron / band 8 management decided that nurses fainting in front of patients and relatives was more “unprofessional” than nurses drinking water.

NicoAndTheNiners · 30/05/2019 09:42

We use special ward "phones" to record obs on. They look just like an iphone/are an iphone but with the phone disabled and special software installed.

NicoAndTheNiners · 30/05/2019 09:43

Oh and I work on a ward where drinks for staff are banned apart from in the staff room. Which you often don't have time to go in.

WithAllIntenseAndPurposes · 30/05/2019 09:57

Now now we all know people who haven't done a scrap of work for 30 years are best placed to judge how good/bad health professionals are and how it should be done. And as they are bought and paid for by the public HOW VERY DARE THEY SIT DOWN! drink? Eat? Sorry we aren't paying OUR taxes for hcps to be able to do what any other employee gets to do!

TheFairyCaravan · 30/05/2019 10:25

DS2 and his girlfriend are nurses. I bought them both water bottles that keep the water cool for 12 hours with flip up lids so they'd be able to have a quick sip while on shift. Neither of them are allowed them. DS2 started to get headaches so made a trip to the opticians, there's nothing wrong with his eyes, tho optician said it's more likely dehydration that's the cause.

I don't believe all nurses are angels but they' should have access to water at the very least.

OldAndWornOut · 30/05/2019 10:28

Nobody has said "all nurses" are anything though, good or bad.
Obviously it varies, because humans vary.

x2boys · 30/05/2019 10:40

I have seen a few comments to the affect that if nurses don't get their break last week they can't bank that time to take this week?Actually we could ,well certainly in the trust I worked for ,if we couldn't take our break or were late off shift we could put it down as "Time owing" problem was most people had many, many hours of Time owing that they had accrued that they were never able to take the to short staffing levels.

Calltheguards · 30/05/2019 11:33

I feel like anyone who is upset about a nurse having a drink or a mental health break is more than welcome to train and join the NHS to do a better job... I mean, if you could deal with constant abuse from patients, biohazards, dehydration, contagions, and death all the while being the perfect employee and doing work for free when not able to leave at your scheduled time, please join the NHS... You're very much needed!

Oh, what's that? You wouldn't want to? I couldn't imagine why!

Polarbearflavour · 30/05/2019 11:36

Don’t forget being medically retired with manual handling injuries. After being bullied over sick leave! I know so many nurses with damaged backs.

LittleRedMushroom · 30/05/2019 11:57

So lots of people have seen some nurses do things like play games on phones and watch TV during their shift.
To all the great nurses who work hard - if so many people have seen this type of thing, you must have seen it too? You must be furious that this happens when you are overworked and stressed.
As I said up-thread, on my ward about half of the nurses worked non-stop and half did very little. While I know nothing about nursing, I do know a lot about work, so even I could spot the ones who did not pull their weight.

Calltheguards · 30/05/2019 12:08

LittleRedMushroom

Have you also considered the nurses that work very, very hard and never take a break are also the ones who burn out and quit much faster? I don't think we are in such a surplus of nurses where we should keep amping up the pressure, especially if we're not going to pay adequately for it.

Polarbearflavour · 30/05/2019 12:25

It’s also worth pointing out that not every female in a uniform in a hospital is a registered nurse. OTs, physios, ward clerks, dieticians, radiographers, doctors, dental nurses, clinical support workers, technicians etc.

Xmas2020 · 30/05/2019 12:32

@NicoAndTheNiners our Trust uses the same, and imagine how many complaints were made for Nurses using their phones on Ward Rounds etc etc!

AlexaAmbidextra · 30/05/2019 12:39

because good nurses are few and far between ime

What an absolutely ridiculous assertion.

2beautifulbabs · 30/05/2019 13:19

I truly feel sorry for anyone working in the nhs these days so long as they weren't neglecting patients care or they're own work I don't see the issue as pp have mentioned a lot of nhs nurses work more than their contracted hours and don't get paid they also put up with a lot of abuse from said patients at times as well as management it's just such a shame to see people so quick to put in complaints against an already stretched and struggling service I do think there will be no such thing as the nhs in years to come

Thuglife · 30/05/2019 14:23

A patient complained about me because I refused to make her a cup of tea, I was in the middle of performing chest compressions on a patient who’d arrested & was surrounded by the crash team Hmm

WithAllIntenseAndPurposes · 30/05/2019 14:37

@Polarbearflavour I can't tell you the amount of times I got kidney stones when I'm the wards. But the public don't pay their taxes to give a shit about my kidneys!

Sockworkshop · 30/05/2019 14:54

Totally agree with Crushed
The nurse watching something on an NHS computer story is complete bullshit.
NHS computers are locked down like you wouldnt believe, the risks of someone downloading something with a virus etc would be massive and a huge risk.
Ridiculous

BumandChips · 30/05/2019 15:17

I worked on a ward where having bottles of water was banned, if we needed a drink we were supposed to go to the staff room. Which was off the ward. So we just never had a drink.

The managers used to prowl around checking they couldn’t see any water bottles on display, even on nights.