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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:
Original poster
UB40fan · 30/05/2019 21:15

To clarify, I don’t care that they did it. I am just stunned that they were able to! I know what I saw.

OP posts:
Polarbearflavour · 30/05/2019 21:27

I know of one hospital in the south-west. They had 100 RN vacancies and they were able to fill 30 of them. They use bank staff where they can but all clinical areas are chronically understaffed.

To counteract this, they are training band 2 and 3s to be band 4 assistant practitioners.

woodhill · 30/05/2019 21:30

Kiwi that is awful. You need to drink. Ironic it's the health service promoting diet etc.

spacer · 30/05/2019 21:40

Whatever you saw isn’t true of all nurses. If nursing was so easy and we spent time surfing the internet and watching TV whilst being paid, there would not be so many nurse vacancies.

PoloMama · 30/05/2019 21:45

Complain. It is not the point if it was quiet or not. Anyone else doing this at work would be disciplined. Mindless web browsing and watching TV is for outside of work. Surely in a hospital of all places the staff should be vigilant at all times.

Calltheguards · 30/05/2019 22:03

PoloMama

How much death does your job include on a day to day basis? Nurses are not anyone else. They need mental health breaks far far more than anyone in the private sector. Chill out.

LouJJersey · 30/05/2019 22:08

I work in a Hospital (not frontline!) .... in Jersey, funnily enough .....and my nursing colleagues work so hard.... as long as beds/needs/patients aren’t being ignored then I don’t see an issue with hard workers having a break.... if it was a long term thing then yes....I can see your point, but the work, emotional input and dedication are so intense . We have nurses in our community homes and other staff who eat with their patients. .... you could class that as a “break” if you were splitting hairs - but it isn’t . All depends on attitude and atmosphere and needs of patients being met

OldAndWornOut · 30/05/2019 22:08

What does a nurses contract say about using personal electronics during work?
That they see a lot of death so its ok?

BMW6 · 30/05/2019 22:20

Most HCP are very good. Some are taking the piss. Same as everywhere. When you see taking the piss, complain.

Calltheguards · 30/05/2019 22:21

OldAndWornOut

What does your contract on being a decent human being include? Let me take this overworked, underpaid person who may have just washed the dead body of a patient they were caring for and... What ..? Be an absolute twat in return? Complain and be not the least bit understanding that she may only be human? I believe what people say here that this wasn't possible but even if it was, I wouldn't discredit this nurse. We are beyond lucky to have anyone bother at all as a nurse with the culture of blame and the lack of resource in the current NHS.

OldAndWornOut · 30/05/2019 22:29

I'm a decent human being.
I've been a carer for the last 30 odd years.
It was a question - a reasonable one, I think.

Twocoffees · 30/05/2019 22:42

I think there is always work to be done on a ward if you want to do a thorough job of it. There is always a patient somewhere who needs an intervention that could take a couple of minutes of your time but makes all the difference to their wellbeing, boosts their mood and improves their healthcare experience. You have to go and find out though and that’s not possible if you’re on your phone.
It might be something as simple as finding out that they didn’t sleep well because they were cold and providing another blanket so that they can at least be reassured that they have a warm and comfortable night ahead of them.

LittleGinBigGin · 30/05/2019 22:47

I was in a miu about 6 months ago all the nurses, hca were sat in the main area watching a Facebook video 🤷‍♀️ In full view of patients....I wouldn’t mind but I had been waiting over an hour after being triaged with a child who’s asthmatic and had been getting worse!

The nurse in charge was not happy when I interrupted and asked for my child to be seen...you’d think I’d actually asked her to do her job!!

Calltheguards · 30/05/2019 22:49

If you guys keep complaining about these trivial things then you will end up losing the NHS. You will then get your extra blankets, pillows, and customer service surveys with a bill for all of it.

"...the standard price for a cotton ball at the New York Presbyterian Hospital is $1.15. The list price for a skull X-ray at Orlando Health is $695 and NYU Langone’s average charge for a heart transplant is $1,698,831.13."

www.google.com/amp/s/qz.com/1518545/price-lists-for-the-115-biggest-us-hospitals-new-transparency-law/amp/

MyMumDimensionJumps · 30/05/2019 23:02

What sort of hospital is it? MH hospitals might encourage staff to sit with patients and watch a movie and keep them company. I'm sure the same would apply to physical health hospitals if it does not impact patient care. It's not just the task related stuff that makes care good, but the interpersonal aspect of it too. They could have been faffing about in the office, but instead they were where patients or visitors could approach them if needed instead.

I have worked in a MH hospital and sometimes I did watch TV or read a paper in the main ward area and patients would come and sit with me to chat. More senior staff didn't have a problem with this as long as our work was done, as this meant we were 'available' for patients to approach us for a chat and we could keep an eye on what was going on in the ward and see if anyone was struggling. If I was sat in the office chatting, or tucked away in the corner of the ward cleaning a cupboard that didn't need cleaning, because I wanted to look busy and not be judged by people like you, I would not have been able to do that.

In other jobs, if you have literally nothing to do, you would probably do the same or something similar. Why should it be different for nurses? I'm really confused by this attitude that all nurses should be martyrs that never sit down, have a break, be able to make a phone call if needed or a cup of tea, when in most other jobs this is perfectly acceptable.

TooStressyTooMessy · 30/05/2019 23:10

Our mandatory training is almost all online. Mostly videos to watch or online quizzes. The videos could certainly look as if we were watching tv as they are filmed almost like a soap opera. Others are YouTube links.

We are also encouraged to use and update Facebook and Twitter in work time (not neglecting patients of course but if it is quiet) and have department pages.

Well respected major hospital.

Alternatively nurses could be on their break but not in a staff room (in case they were needed for anything).

Sometimes when staff do extra cleaning at night they are told it is too noisy and patients can’t sleep.

Water bottles banned in many places too. Unions have got involved when staff fainted so it has improved slightly. Patients and relatives frequently complain when they see staff having a drink. Perhaps they would prefer staff to dehydrate to the point of collapse.

This thread really does illustrate why there is a nursing recruitment and retention crisis. The lack of understanding and respect shown to staff is awful but sadly not surprising.

Those staff that are sitting down are often frantically doing paperwork. The huge amount of paperwork is necessary partly to rely on in case of complaints.

LittleGinBigGin · 30/05/2019 23:24

TooStressyTooMessy

This certainly wasn’t any on line training and absolutely nothing to do with the hospital unless watching a funny video is now training or work related social media related...I don’t give a shiney shit what staff do as long as patients are actually seen. What boiled my piss was the fact that patients were still waiting while they did this, if they’d seen the patients and then all watched the video fair enough.

Original poster
UB40fan · 30/05/2019 23:26

Do people really think that I can’t determine the difference between a training session and a bloody tv show/ sport programme. I must be blind!! I give up. It never happened. Forget it.

OP posts:
Polarbearflavour · 30/05/2019 23:35

Can you imagine being the sad kind of person who complains about a nurse drinking water? Confused It’s almost like nurses are human beings and not robots.

NemosMum21 · 30/05/2019 23:37

Had to help the doctor insert a catheter into my 93 year old dad's dick on Sunday while Sister and 2 nurses sat and gassed at the nursing station. Yes, they knew what was happening and everybody was pleasant and polite. Just didn't seem to think it was anything to do with them.
I worked in NHS most of my life (clinical professional, but not nursing) and I saw plenty of this type of behaviour among the nurses on the wards.
Should have complained, but haven't. He's got to go back. Best in the world?

GiveUsACoffee · 30/05/2019 23:54

Unless needs were neglected, I wouldn’t complain at all. I was in hospital over Christmas with a relative who was dying. Th

GiveUsACoffee · 30/05/2019 23:56

Sorry, sent too soon. Over Christmas, the nursing staff were rushed off their feet. I couldn’t help but feel guilty and awed by their work....and the fact that they were missing Christmas with their families

Handmaid2019 · 30/05/2019 23:57

I'm a nurse, I work on a busy haematology in-patient unit. I often go from 0700 until 1600 without a drink or a wee. I have no idea how those nurses you saw were watching tv! Do they have any jobs going?

Oh and most of the nurses I have worked with have been amazing and compassionate; it's such a hard job, you really shouldn't judge us unless you've walked in our shoes for a day - usually around 20,000 steps Grin

Greenolivesorblackolives · 30/05/2019 23:59

It’s permanently trotted out that nurses work harder than anyone else. Never get a break or time to wee.

I have days like that in a ‘non essential’ job. But it’s life. As for sacrificing your personal life for your job, so do I. I’ve missed family holidays for my work. My daughters first birthday this week. I missed most of it.

It’s also forgotten the benefits of working in the nhs. Excellent maternity package, pension, 8 + weeks holiday a year (mil gets 9+2) and decent sick pay.

My mother, my sister and my mother in law are all nurses. In differing hospitals, they always get their breaks and time for a wee. My sister has even mentioned she peruses holidays online. I don’t begrudge her it but she’s not worked to within an inch of her life.

Polarbearflavour · 31/05/2019 00:05

Greenolivesorblackolives - do you sacrifice your health for your job though?

The average NHS pension is £5k.

9 weeks and 2 days holiday? Nobody in the NHS gets 47 days leave annual leave.

on appointment: 27 days leave and eight general public holiday days
after five years service: 29 days leave + eight days general public holiday days
after 10 years service: 33 days leave + eight days general public holiday days.

I’ve worked in many medium and large organisations, public and private and they’ve all had sick leave, generous annual leave and maternity leave packages.