Nurses watching tv/surfing the internet

[UB40fan]

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?

" 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!"

Was he charging for the job or per hour? If the former, what's the problem?

Assuming the patients weren’t being neglected, I really couldn’t get upset about this.

A very good friend of mine is a nurse, we had a conversation a couple of weeks ago where she told me she couldn’t remember the last time she’d worked fewer than 6 unpaid hours a week. Taking advantage of a quiet hour here and there still wouldn’t make up for the unpaid work she does. She also told me that most days she doesn’t eat at all during her shift, and frequently doesn’t have time to use the toilet. Anyone working in these conditions deserve to take any break they can. I don’t begrudge them that.

Now Nico don't get in the way of some dramatic lies with the truth. Agree 'nurses huddled around snack machines' whoever posted that rubbish, don't use a woman's death to further whatever agenda you have.

Did someone just say there was probably no daytime TV 30 years ago? I need to start hanging round with people my own age 😂😂😂

I just read "this is going to hurt" by Adam Kay and I wouldn't begrudge a HCP relaxing a bit when they had a quiet shift. They're paid peanuts relative to the training, length of shifts and terrifying life or death responsibilities they have. Every job I've ever had has always had the tennis or the olympics playing on screens in the office and people surfing the Internet or doing life admin at their desks while dining al desko - seems quite normal to me. However, I would be miffed if they were obviously ignoring ringing phones or patients who were ringing call bells, or if I was waiting for something that they were supposed to be getting for me like medication.

I’ve seen that happen on a few occasions both in a London hospital and my local one when my mum was terminally ill. In fact, in that hospital ward you barely saw a nurse, they seemed constantly to be crowded round the monitor looking at eBay. I therefore loathe those posts you see on social media about how nurses work harder than the rest of us. Maybe some do but not in my experience.

I therefore loathe those posts you see on social media about how nurses work harder than the rest of us. Maybe some do but not in my experience

I agree. You can usually tell on these type of threads who's spent a significant amount of time in hospital because good nurses are few and far between ime.

I'm sick of the "nurses are Angel's that never get to even have a wee!" Attitude. I've been admitted to hospital twice, two different trusts, once emergency and once routine.
I was only treated with cruelty and indifference by these "angels" 2 nurses stood out as actually being kind and recognising that I was scared and in pain. 2! Out of every nurse I saw!
The cleaning staff, the HCAs the doctors, the consultants etc. Were lovely to me and acknowledged how scared I was. Kind words and reassurance from them. The nurses? Nothing. Barely a smile. I even got shouted at when I was trembling and trying to fill in a form.
Things need to change.
I wouldn't dream of watching TV at work and yes I've held posts where you barely have time for a piss. It's not exclusive to "The angels" you know.
I'm absolutely terrified of ever being in hospital again. Mostly because of my last stay. Well done the caring profession. slow hand clap

As long as their patients are all taken care of, all work up to date and on top of, who the fuck begrudges nurses a break???

Jesus Christ.

Well of course the Nurses were sitting around doing nothing. It's a perk of the job. Don't worry though, all the work that needed to be done was taken care of by the Health Care Support Workers.

This is nothing new. When my late father was in hospital a man in the next bed was left lying in shit while the nurses were watching a soap.

I thought they didn't realise, despite the smell, and went to tell them and they just said they'd do it "soon". I wanted to make more fuss but my dad said they'd take it out on him.

Some nurses are just plain lazy. Others aren't.

I work in ICU. If we are very quiet and everything has been done, I may do a bit of surfing the net or read. Also alot of mandatory training is internet based and there are financial implications if we don't complete it so many of us can be seen on the computer doing that. Certainly wouldn't dream of watching TV on my phone with earplugs in due to safety issues. Tends to be at night mainly and not when visitors are around.
Hate the insinuations that all of us are lazy and uncaring. Very demoralising

When I was in the maternity ward after my DD was born,the nurses spent most of the time in a separate room drinking coffee. Bells from patients were routinely ignored. It was appalling. However no one is ever allowed to say this because the accepted norm is that nurses are always perfect and work like trojans.

So midwives spent 12 hours in a room drinking coffee and routinely ignoring buzzers ? Surprised none of the docs or pharmacists or other professionals working on the ward didn't complain

Holding neglectful and abusive nurses to account instead of closing ranks is precisely how you can prevent "all" nurses being blamed for the conduct of the terrible ones.

Abuse flourishes in a culture that silences complaints about poor practice.

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.

Oh come on . I know plenty of people who work in "normal" jobs and openly admit to online shopping, going on MN or social media, making personal phone calls, checking and responding to personal emails etc during quiet periods, not to mention all the time spent chatting to colleagues about non-work related stuff. But of course Nurses aren't allowed to be "normal" are they? They're supposed to be selfless angels and martyrs to the cause or else they're uncaring, lazy and "too posh to wash".

When I worked nights (14 hour shifts) on a child and adolescent mental health ward, on the very rare nights when all the kids actually slept we would put a DVD on once we'd done all the paperwork, finished cleaning, done an inventory of meds, updated care plans and risk assessments etc. You can bet that if a member of the public had walked in and seen us watching a film they would have been outraged and yes, a complaint probably would have been forthcoming. What they wouldn't see of course are the many, many nights we spent rushing around like blue-arsed flies, just one Nurse and one unqualified support worker managing a ward of 20 patients, cutting kids down from hanging, comforting them when they were hearing voices or having flashbacks to their sexual abuse, being physically assaulted, restraining kids who were determined to abscond or hurt themselves, scrubbing the showers and toilets because there aren't enough actual cleaners, dealing with unplanned emergency admissions who are brought in by the Police at 2am as well as doing all the jobs that the day staff have been too rushed off their feet to do.

If the Nurses in question were neglecting their patients because they were watching TV or surfing the internet then of course that's completely unacceptable and it should be dealt with. All I'm saying is that what most patients and visitors see is a mere snapshot of what Nurses and other HCP's actually do and people are quick to complain, often without having a clue as to the reality of the job.

My daughter works 12.5 hour shifts as a ward sister. She's not allowed to have her phone on her person, it's kept in a locker and is only accessible during the breaks that she rarely manages to get.

That's nice Minister.
These are accounts from patients though.
There 24/7
Not a snapshot
Often nurses are quick to complain without having a clue as to the reality of being that patient.

Holding neglectful and abusive nurses to account instead of closing ranks is precisely how you can prevent "all" nurses being blamed for the conduct of the terrible ones.

THIS! So much this!

Most jobs don’t allow employees to “fill their time”. I worked in childcare and people were expected to find something to do. They also didn’t get breaks, I don’t know anyone tbh who gets more than their unpaid lunch break. The nurses are self less angels myth is exactly that. I know one cow of a midwife who’s exact words were I’ve booked the 6 weeks summer holidays off and if they don’t authorise it I’ll go sick. The attitude of most government staff is far removed from reality.

When I was on a GI ward for a week, half of the nurses did very little - chatted, internet, etc - and the other half were run ragged all day doing 2 people's work. The night staff were left to do a lot of the work the day nurses couldn't be bothered with. I was supposed to have 4-hourly obs but they were never done in the day; the night nurse did 6 obs during the night (waking me up each time) and then wrote the time illegibly on the chart so no one knew.
I head nurses discussing a lie to cover up a mistake, lie to me about sending my diagnostic samples to the lab (the toilets were full of sample bowls full of poo and urine that were ignored), and lie to patients about why their treatment had been delayed. And in the week I was there a cleaner came in once, wiped down the windowsill and then left.
It was horrific.

I think some wards must be worse than others. I'm sure some nurses work very hard, but what I saw on that ward made me worry about patient safety - especially the elderly who could not advocate for themselves so well.

I've seen similar. There are many great nurses but also some who for whatever reason (personal nature or the culture of the hospital) are just not doing their jobs well enough.

Good nurses are leaving or are put off joining, and I think many have been replaced by people who just want to earn money any old way, and so do the minimum required as if it were no more important than washing a car.

Amongst other examples, I saw a man with a dislocated shoulder and other injuries struggled to feed himself (partly due to being given ridiculously unsuitable food that required 2 hands like yoghurt and drinks with lids) while nurses hung around and chatted. They just had no thought beyond the bare minimum. I had to offer my help in the end and he was so grateful that it made me embarrassed for both of us. It is just simple human compassion.

Also another time a night a nurse was being taught very basic english (including medical terms) by another nurse yet in the morning it was discovered that a elderly patient had not had his incontinence pads changed for over 12 hours and was in terrible state. Absolutely appalling.

I thought they didn't realise, despite the smell, and went to tell them and they just said they'd do it "soon". I wanted to make more fuss but my dad said they'd take it out on him.

I have heard people say this too :(

Some nurses are amazing obviously. It must be awful for those of you with higher standards.

I’ve been nursing for 20 plus years and I’m not stupid enough to not recognise that there are crap lazy nurses but they are the exception not the norm in my experience. No one goes into nursing for the doss- the NHS is a machine & nurses are like cannon fodder. I’ve worked countless hours of unpaid overtime, worked 13hr shifts without a break or even going for a wee.
Of course nurses are not above reproach & poor care & bad practice should always be challenged but I don’t always think patients are fully aware of everything we do. In fact beds are the least of my worries; no one ever died of a unmade bed .

🙄🙄🙄

Do you realise how busy it is in a hospital? If the nurses were neglecting patients and not giving them their medication or letting them sit in their mess, then by all means complain. When it very very rarely gets quiet, there is nothing wrong with wanting to watch a bit of telly or surf the net. I can’t believe people are getting worked up over this.

I suppose it depends on the ward and who is in charge.

When I had ds, quite a few of the nurses were horrid. I was in hospital 12 days so I had a chance to observe! Ds was in an incubator and I was a bit (a bit?!!!) worried about him and staggered out to find a nurse. They were just sitting around doing Take a Break puzzles whilst bells were ringing, babies crying... and actually I nearly died and no one noticed!

When I had dd things had been reorganised and there was a Matron type in charge ( I know they don't have matrons any more, but it was a very fierce nurse) and the ward I was on was run very well. I remember the nurse bellowing, "I don't like visitors, and I particularly don't like partners !"