Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
TantricTwist · 29/05/2019 00:21

Yes but there was no internet at work 30 years ago or smartphones etc so yes of course you would have been fired for watching a blank screen as there probably wasnt even daytime TV then.

The world has moved on quite significantly since then.

Ukelou · 29/05/2019 00:21

When my dp was in the recovery area of the hospital waiting to be sent home 3 nurses sat at station monitoring patients.on line shopping booking holidays etc I didn't mind them doing that as they seemed to be doing their job, however I thought they should have been more discreet it looked so unprofessional and when they then phoned another department to bring them something that really was pushing it.

Original poster
UB40fan · 29/05/2019 00:22

This was quite in the open.

OP posts:
Original poster
UB40fan · 29/05/2019 00:23

TantricTwist, I meant that it was the equivalent of sitting reading a book.

OP posts:
TantricTwist · 29/05/2019 00:25

You forget that nurses live, eat and breathe their work due to long hours and irregular shift patterns etc and are very compassionate humans most of the time and do a fantastic job.

Is your daughter now better, did she suffer in any way due to this TV watching? Were the questions you asked relevant?

RoomOfRequirement · 29/05/2019 00:26

I have not worked for 30 years

That is obvious.

Well done nurses for taking your time back! Sick of them being taken advantage of by every government for the past 20 years.

If you'd prefer they start working to rule. So only doing assigned tasks at work, but taking their entitled breaks, leaving and arriving at the exact time their shift states. I'm sure they'd also be happy to do so.

Original poster
UB40fan · 29/05/2019 00:28

My daughter is fine , thank you. Of course my questions were relevant/ important.

OP posts:
Gwenhwyfar · 29/05/2019 00:29

"I just think if a person worked in a “normal job” and it was not busy then you could not sit and basically watch tv."

I can only think of a few jobs where people would be watching TV, but I can think of LOADS where people would be surfing the net/listening to the radio. I could easily listen to (but not watch) TV at the same time as doing my job.

MustShowDH · 29/05/2019 00:30

You are not allowed to question the sacred cow of the NHS.

Bits of it and many staff are fantastic, but there is also massive wastage, work to rule and staff that have been there so long they take the piss.

LightDrizzle · 29/05/2019 00:30

When DD2 was on one children’s ward, there was a big match on. Her O2 sats monitor was beeping as her levels dropped and I had to hunt for a nurse. Three were watching the match on a TV in the side room of a very small girl, the little girl was out of it.
That was not representative of most of our experiences on paediatric wards and NICU, SCBU, PICU. I think paediatric care is normally better than the average, but I daren’t leave her alone on that ward.
When ExDH was on a very slow male urology ward in Birmingham 20 odd years ago, the nursing care was horrific. Buzzers were routinely left out of reach of very elderly men in a lot of pain after nasty procedures involving their urethras. The nurses had a sort of panelled staff area in the ward with glass above about 4ft. They would be sat in there flicking through Bella and grazing whenever I went to get help for some poor old boy at his wits end because he couldn’t get a bottle. They also didn’t measure the intake and excretion of fluids as they were supposed to. They would go up to patients and do things to them without introducing themselves, saying what they were doing, or saying a word.
Apart from ExDH, the patients were overwhelmingly older men from the “mustn’t grumble” generation. I felt so sorry for them.
The only nice nurses were the very few student nurses and one night shift nurse. This was a quiet ward, they certainly weren’t rushed off their feet.
I wrote a letter of complaint after he was discharged but never heard anything back.
I must emphasise we’ve also experienced exceptional nursing, but in my unscientific but unfortunately extensive experience, the busier and more acute the ward, the better the nursing.

Bumper1969 · 29/05/2019 00:33

Good for them.

Original poster
UB40fan · 29/05/2019 00:33

LightDrizzle, I could not agree more! This ward was not busy.

OP posts:
OldAndWornOut · 29/05/2019 00:33

My mum was moved from one ward to another.
One was excellent; the other was very much as described above.

bloodywhitecat · 29/05/2019 00:36

Night shift or day shifts?

I am currently surfing the net but I work on a 1:1 basis in a family home, my charge is currently sound asleep and the room is dark, I am doing hourly checks and keeping an eye on monitors/machine, if I didn't surf the net I would be sound asleep by 3am. When I worked on the ward we weren't allowed to do this while on the ward but we could on our breaks away from patient areas.

Original poster
UB40fan · 29/05/2019 00:36

Medications were late. Bed or any baths were not done. Food orders were forgotten now and then.

OP posts:
Original poster
UB40fan · 29/05/2019 00:38

Bloodywhitecat, tv watching was on a Saturday night, 6-7pm.

OP posts:
Schuyler · 29/05/2019 00:41

I was recently in a huge London hospital and the ward was very, very quiet at night. I’ve never seen anything like it. If they wanted, the nurses could easily have sat for an hour watching TV.

Original poster
UB40fan · 29/05/2019 00:44

Schuyler, but should they have been allowed to? I recently had a plumber here to install a new shower. He took forever to do so. Why? Well he could not stay off his phone to his girlfriend!

OP posts:
bloodywhitecat · 29/05/2019 00:46

Then no, that is no acceptable.

Original poster
UB40fan · 29/05/2019 00:50

BLoodywhitecat, I thought so too. There is something else that happened that I can’t prove but really utterly pissed me off. I will not be putting in a complaint about it but am still very angry about.

OP posts:
Schuyler · 29/05/2019 00:50

I don’t think it looks very professional, to be honest. I’ve been in hospital a fair bit and I’m lucky to say I’ve not seen something like this. If, for whatever reason, the ward is quiet then I think staff should not be watching TV in full view of the patients.

getback · 29/05/2019 00:52

NHS staff, particularly nurses and ambulance staff, are above reproach in the public's eyes. It's terrifying, and the reason why bad practice as you describe is not challenged, or if it is challenged then debate is shut down in a frenzy of defensive outrage

Original poster
UB40fan · 29/05/2019 00:56

Get back, I absolutely will not be challenging what happened. I just do not have the energy or proof. However you know when some is trying to deceive you.

OP posts:
Toddlerteaplease · 29/05/2019 01:30

It's 1.30 am. My patients are all asleep.

Toddlerteaplease · 29/05/2019 01:35

I actually don't have anything to do.