AIBU to wonder WTF has happened to nursing “care” in our NHS?

[AnnieGetYourPun]

And don’t tell me it’s all Covid/staff shortages/staff illness related.

My niece was eventually admitted to hospital after being sent home twice from A&E (in agony) and is now on a gynae ward. It’s just her and an elderly lady on the ward. The elderly lady was getting agitated as she needed the toilet. The nurse came and said, and I quote “it’s alright, use your pad and we’ll come and sort you out later”. This has really upset my niece who’s dodging sepsis now, on the ward, on massive IV antibiotics/anti-emetics and IV analgesia. She has narrowly avoided a ruptured uterus as there was no one to do a scan on her, after a 12 hr wait in A&E. She is 32.

Nurses now... all of ‘em have degrees. All dead clever. Very few of them have an ounce of “caring” in them.

Fry me on here. I’m past fucking caring.

Should add. I trained in the NHS. Was a student/junior staff nurse/senior staff nurse/junior sister and G grade senior sister before retirement. Never, in my f***g life have I seen such lack of basic care and maintenance of human dignity than I have witnessed in NHS hospitals, in the past two years.

Shove your clapping and rainbows.

This isnt eugenics though. This is shockingly poor care.

@AnnieGetYourPun
You are so misguided in your posts. Thank goodness you are no longer practicing.

This thread is vile

Annie the main issue is funding, better funding would also help to remove the few bad apples. Alas I think with the economy going to shit , the NHS is going to get worse. Nurses will take most of the blame.

@Sevensilverrings. My heart goes out to you. I am not surprised you have no trust in our NHS. I believe each word you have written. So sorry.

As a 51 year old student nurse who qualifies next month I've read this thread in horror and with disappointment. I'd love every member of the profession to display the 6 c's of nursing at all times. But experience as the patient and the patients daughter and mother unfortunately I know that isn't true.
There is no excuse for cruel treatment although I agree sometimes decisions have to be made about priorities. When you come onto the shift and find the ward short staffed (again) it's soul destroying. But that does not mean you can't be kind or compassionate and treat people the best you can.
It's not easy when Doris rings her call bell every 10 minutes because she's forgotten she's just been taken for a wee.
It's not easy dealing with a delirious patient who is determined to hit and punch you and fall out of bed.
It's not easy when the doctor hasn't prescribed the right medication or worse, the one that the patient is allergic to it.
It's not easy when every member of the family rings in quick succession for an update.
It's not easy when patients have single rooms with no TVs, no visitors and are desperate for your company.
It's not easy going home to your family too tired to talk.
It's not easy crying in the car.
It's not easy choosing not to drink enough as you know you won't need to wee.
But...we go into this because we care and to be an advocate for our patients. That should be fundamental to everything we do.
I'm sorry your family hadn't got the treatment they deserve.
I can only hope that in our small way, me and my degree educated colleagues can continue to do our best.

Never worked on a gynae ward, only ITU/critical care. We’ve been quite busy recently so why don’t you come and gives us a hand then ?.

@Sevensilverrings I am so so sorry for your loss. I am also sorry that you received such substandard care. My heart goes out to you

I believe each word you have written. So sorry. and yet you DONT believe, or wont acknowledge stories of good care? Im not saying there isnt poor care. There absolutely is. Im trying to get you to understand how silly your argument is.

I think what you really need to do is start a thread titled 'examples of poor care by nurses'. That way you'll be able to prove your argurment without being annoyed by stories to the contrary.

The nurses in gynae were all incredibly sweet save for the one lady who was dealing with me and seemed annoyed at my phobia/panic about the covid swab. I'm emetophobic to a severe amount and every time I get it I jerk my head away, it sent my BP up so high I had to be sent home to have the operation in a few days where I'll have to have the fucking swab again. I just hope the nurse this time is more kind than the last one :(

I've had some really kind nurses and really nasty nurses, though. When I was a child I had a really nasty nurse who mocked me for wetting the bed because I was too scared to get up after my appendix op but I've similarly had really sweet and patient nurses. They're just people.

@MoroSun. Vile. Why? Have you acknowledged just how many people have experienced poor care and how often nursing care is at the heart of it? I’m not making people write down their grievances. I have acknowledged that some nurses are excellent but that the blanket hero worship of nursing care specifically is unjustified and, dangerous.

It is not the degree. I merely note that degree level training is what is required now. For those who want to flame me for my (and others) experiences, feel free. It doesn’t change those experiences. Nor my overriding opinion on nursing much care in the UK, today.

Methinks some of you protest too much.

Nurses now... all of ‘em have degrees. All dead clever. Very few of them have an ounce of “caring” in them.

DS2 (24) is a nurse and a bloody good one at that. He’s probably the most caring person I’ve ever met. Right from being a tot I knew he was going to go into a caring profession, he’s got something in him that can’t be taught. He knew it too, he decided at 4 or 5 that he was going to be a nurse and he never waivered.

He was at a community hospital for his first placement at university, he was only 18, and there was a lot of elderly ladies there. He knew how much my grandmother had liked being well presented, colour coordinated and having her hair done. He spent hours on YouTube learning how to put rollers into hair (I can’t do that) so that he could do their hair, nicely. Those who could get out of bed he got dressed in nice clothes. The doctors and relatives commented on how much further he went, a couple wrote letters to the university which went on his file. It made me cry when he told me.

Every shift he’s ever worked he’s given 100% and more. He’s paid out for courses himself, some to the tune of hundreds of pounds, because the trust don’t have the funds because he wants to better himself and be more of an asset.

He hasn’t missed one shift through the pandemic, despite being asthmatic. He could’ve said he wanted to do a desk job but he said he couldn’t do that to his colleagues so he hasn’t. He’s picked up extra shifts when others have been sick or isolating because being a team is what it’s all about.

This past week, he’s just started a new band 6 job. I couldn’t be more proud of him. Yes, he’s got a degree but that’s essential for today’s nursing. He’s , also, quite happy to clean up sick, poo, pee and blood.

This thread is as goady as fuck. There are always going to be good and bad in everything, however nurses have had degrees and diplomas for almost 30 years now so the argument about them being too clever to care is a bit bloody ridiculous.

Methinks some of you protest too much this type of comment is infuriating because it immediately belittles anything said by people who think differently to you.

One of the worst things was hearing an elderly man being told to stop calling for help as he wasn’t the only poorly person on the ward

Well yes that happens a lot. Ideally a member of staff would have been sitting with him to keep him company but you don’t know why they weren’t... maybe they’d all tried but he became more distressed, or started grabbing at them, or got aggressive or begged them to help him escape.

You have no idea what his medical condition was, what the nursing staff had tried, or what they were talking about (presumably they were chatting while typing up notes or sorting meds charts, not having cups of tea).

If he’d been calling out for hours and/or ringing his buzzer repeatedly the other men in his bay would have started complaining or getting agitated. I’ve seen this lead to fights and threats (patient to patient) occasionally. Or are you saying he should have been medicated to stop him calling out?

These days a lot of nurses and assistants (and other medics) work 12 hour shifts, short staffed or with agency staff, regularly get abused by patients and relatives, rarely get time for a break or a wee. Sometimes patients call out constantly and you have to prioritise to whose problem is most urgent. If someone in bed 1 is de-saturating rapidly and someone in bed 4 keeps shouting for a commode it’s obvious who you need to attend to first.

It is not the degree. I merely note that degree level training is what is required now.

And you're not just noting that a degree is whats needed. You heavily implied that degree = lack of care.

If it's a matter of personal anecdotes, when I was giving birth the staff did everything they could to stop me coming in. They were abrupt to the point of rude, certainly not showing much care over the phone. When they couldn't deny me any more I came in and got shoved in a room and left, next to another woman having contractions; after being left for 2 hours I got taken through to a triage room with blood on the curtains, and left for another hour. A nurse saw me looking at it and apologised, saying they didn't have enough staff on to deal with the patients, and there were no dedicated cleaners. No dedicated cleaners on a maternity ward! When someone managed to get around to examining me they discovered I was further along than they thought and got rushed through to a birth room. The midwife I was with was having to run around between a few of us, and was just saying that it was so nice to end her 12 hour shift with a nice easy successful birth when I started bleeding. Heavily. She had to hit emergency buttons, I got crowded round - can't remember much as it was bleeding - and she stayed on 3 hours over until I was out of danger. I never found out who she was. Sent a general message to the hospital, but couldn't find her. Couldn't really remember her face tbh between bleeding and gas-and-air.

It's not lack of caring op, at least not always. It's low funding, being expected to do everything, no staffing and no investment.

Degrees were from 2009, certainly not 30 years ago. I trained in one of the last sets not to need them.

@Botanicals

Degrees were from 2009, certainly not 30 years ago. I trained in one of the last sets not to need them.

I said degrees and diplomas.

I did project 2000 in 1992. That was a diploma and we were all being accused of being to clever to care by some of the RGNs on the wards.

I'm sorry that some people feel that posting about terrible care that we and our families have received is 'vile'. Yes of course there are some great nursing staff, and some that are simply adequate. But it is wrong to lionise the NHS and say all nursing staff are caring, wondrous angels when so many of us know from bitter experience that that is very far from the truth. I fully sppreciate that nursing is a thankless task, but no-one is forced to go into it. Indeed, I believe it was reported that this year university applications for nursing courses have risen dramatically. Perhaps this increase will reduce stress on staff and help them, generally, become more caring

And there were still RGN courses in 92 that weren’t project 2000.

It’s just not accurate to say that.

I would also add Annie, nurses do not want to be regarded as heroes or angels. We are just humans trying to do our best at the end of the day. Calling nurses angels isn’t really helpful to anyone. It leads to un realistic expectations from the public and poor pay and working conditions.

But it is wrong to lionise the NHS and say all nursing staff are caring, wondrous angels whos said this?

I think nursing applications have risen this year because people have shown generally more appreciation for what nurses do, at least in the media. That has clearly already ended! Also it is a guaranteed job at the end of the day.

And there were still RGN courses in 92 that weren’t project 2000.

It’s just not accurate to say that.

FGS! Do you want me to get my stuff out and prove it to you? I was on the first intake in the hospital I did it in. It wasn’t the first course in the country. It is accurate to say it, because I fucking did it.