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?

The rudest most uncaring nurses I have seen recently were on the private NHS wing. They had 2 r.n and an HCA. 2 post op NHS patients who were in amenity beds over the weekend. Bloody awful.

As a top.band five nurse my take home pay was about £1900-2000 / month that included unsocial hours and weekend enhancements, band five is staff nurse, but it would take quite a few years to reach the top of the band .

I've been qualified 5 years. My take home pay today was £1818 (full time shift work).

My band 2 partner took home £1650.

I worked for 3 years before I started to out earn him.

I should point out that I work within Paediatrics in a tertiary hospital and I do a lot of 1:1ing, do it is very common.

@paffuto You didn’t answer my question. What would you suggest the nurses do instead?

Tell you what, i’ll “Take” your tax that pays for nurses to sit down for 5 minutes of peace if it’s quiet; and you can “take” my tax that pays for MPs to do fuck all for their constituencies except further their own careers, deal?

Using phone at work is a disciplinary offence at our hospital. Even when we receive shifts etc via phone. We should only check when on a break.

Even though everyone carries theirs with them it's foolish in the extreme to use it in front of patients etc

The nurse was sitting at the nurse station watching on the computer screen.

Forgot to add I am obviously being unreasonable and will bow out from this thread.

The problem with threads like this is that, on MN, there are certain professions that are beyond criticism. Nursing is one of them. For some strange reason

I totally agree

The point is, I think, it looks so unprofessional. Look busy, even if you're not is what i was always taught! We do put nurses on pedestals but they help us when we are ill and in pain. We know they are only human but we need humouring a little to enable us to maintain trust and confidence in them.

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've rarely seen it better put, but then I would say that since my FIL was killed as a result of medication not being checked, and this by nurses who'd already been reported for clear neglect

And yes, everyone closed ranks; there were spoken apologies when he died, but by the time of the inquest (after 18 months of delay caused by "hospital procedures") notes were mysteriously missing, the apologists were "unavailable" and much more

Such a shame for them that one of us had thought to make notes of exactly what was said, and by whom, at the time ...

I love the way posters on MN always manage to twist and exaggerate, instead of keeping to the point. ie: the full hour of watching TV has been shortened to 5 minutes, questioning is it just nursing or does it apply to other jobs? The OP was perfectly clear in what she'd seen and you shouldn't leave the thread OP, you are not being inreasonable at all.

All I can say is how sad I feel reading this thread at the amount of people who feel that nurses are lazy or uncaring. I work on an (award winning!) acute hospital ward and it is generally very, very busy and shirt staffed. Phones are banned and must be left in the staff room during the day but in the wee small hours of the night when all the jobs are done and everybody is asleep, between the regular checks that are done on patients nobody would bat an eye if somebody sat quietly checking their emails/Facebook. This doesn't mean that the patients aren't being cared for or jobs aren't being done. The nurses I work with are a very conscientious, hard working bunch who strive to get everything right and give the best care they can - bad nurses are challenged and supported to improve their practice.

Dyrne I can't answer your question because I find it hard to believe (after having it rammed down our throats for years about how overworked nurses are) that they have a full hour to spare with absolutely nothing that needs doing.

This is the difficulty in placing degree educated professionals in what are perceived by the general public to be little more than customer service roles.

Nurses should have remained being trained to diploma standard, with five good GCSEs as the entry requirement and a substantial bursary to train them.

Instead of inventing nursing associate roles, medic associates should have been in their place as a degree entry profession. This role would more adequately convey to the public what the role entails and the professionalism and responsibilities involved in what is sold to us as 'modern nursing'

FWIW ime Drs are never off their phones when not directly involved in patient interaction and/or during a quiet shift.
They are the ones who are usually primarily responsible for the most grave errors in healthcare.
Ignore that though and pick on the nurses because you suppose that they're a bit thick or horror working class.

This thread makes me ecstatic to have left the NHS for good.

OP - I don't think that YABU to query it. My DW has been in the nursing profession for 20+ years and having time to watch TV whilst working a shift on her ward would certainly not be her experience. In fact, having time to do anything non work related would not be her experience. I think that people elevating nurses to the heights of being superheroes is not helpful. My DW works b**y hard but I know that she finds the whole 'angels' tag quite irritating even though she knows that it's well intentioned.

Puzzled that's horrific but well done to the person who made notes. Such a shame it's come to this nowadays.

FWIW ime Drs are never off their phones when not directly involved in patient interaction and/or during a quiet shift.

You should see the anaesthetists in theatre! I asked one once if he didn't think maybe he ought to pay slightly more attention to the patient/anaesthetic machine rather than be so engrossed in FB. He said the machine would bing if anything needed doing.

Holy fuck! My partner is a nurse, she works 12.5 hours, most days she is lucky if she gets 1 break. So on the odd occasion that she has spare time, she will relax! The days she nearly gets a break she comes home and is almost past out on the sofa within an hour

If nurses are all so rushed of their feet, how could they find a spare hour to watch TV? Something wrong here - I would mention it.

OP people watch TV browse the internet all the time at work if they can, all the time, so yes you really are behind the times.
I don't know where you work, but I've NEVER seen this is any office or workplace!!

The nurse was sitting at the nurse station watching on the computer screen.

Every NHS Trust I have worked in has had internet blocks on iplayer, Netflix, YT etc. Are you sure she was watching a TV show and not an e-learning mandatory training thing?

The more you post the more unbelievable it is.

Crushed your second to last inciting paragraph makes me also ecstatic that you've left the NHS.

paffuto

This paragraph of yours

So basically a number of posters think their taxes should be used to pay some nurses to watch TV and surf the net? No wonder this country's going to the dogs.OP, YANBU

Illustrates quite clearly to me why I should not be at all surprised by your reaction to my previous post.
Quite frankly I'm appalled that you and I should agree on anything at all.

I don't think you are actually UB40, but as I said, nursing is one of the protected professions on MN, so you approach with caution.
£1900-2000 is about £30-32k, I believe? Not a fortune, but I suspect quite a bit higher than a lot of people would expect.

About 34.5K if you factor in student loan and pension payments.