NHS and understaffed

[Itsmeagainandagain]

Aibu as a member of staff working within NHS to be fizzing from the ears at the lack of staff.
Another shift another hellish day with not enough staff to help us cope with a heavy ward. 2 staff nurses and 1 HAC for 20 people in various stages of pain and dementia and at least 10 fall risks. What I am absolutely raging mad about is there are nurses and HCAs walking in and out our ward with clipboards to see if we have the correct staffing levels, here's the rant, these clowns should put down the clipboards, roll up the sleeves and get their arses on the wards to do the jobs they were trained to do. It's patronising to nurses and HCAs who are on their knees begging for extra staff and these halfwits are strolling about as if on holiday.

AIBU to be mad, I'm sore all over and had not one break today. My urine was near enough brown because I held in a pee for 6 hours because I couldn't excuse myself to go to the toilet.

When is enough? Do our voices not matter in the workplace we are employed? How do we look after patients when there is 3 people looking after them.

No they are not nurses, if they were they'd be with patients which they are not, they are hiding out in an office barking orders at the small workforce beneath them. Nurses care and will be there for their patients these halfwits are not and you say various reasons, I'd understand if it was a nurse that has 30 years experience and coming to the end of her career but a young nurse in her 20s has no excuse to shun away from the very thing that she was trained to do and that is patient care

It's disrespectful to proper nurses yes I mean proper nurses to be put in same catogary as clipboard holding nurses, those aren't real nurses those are people pretending to be nurses to fulfil a god complex and taking the big bucks, explain to me how that's fair when most nurses are on a pittance and those are the ones who work bloody hard!

This is exactly why I left Nursing after 35 years although where I worked ( a hospice ) was relatively well staffed, yet the level of care required and the number of patients at risk of falling, escaping, wandering left me with such huge anxiety that I honestly couldn't cope any more. After one horrendous 12 hour nightshift I just handed my notice in. To be fair sometimes our managers would roll up their sleeves to help out at times, probably to avoid complaints.

The doctors, therapists, 6 and 7 have ro be supportive of their staff, if not you are all stuffed. When I managed a ward very occasionally I had to go to another ward with a clipboard doing an audit but I wasnt a clipboard nurse, a halfwit, had a God complex or was earning big bucks. If patients are suffering then the doctors can also complain to the senior nurse managers that care is not getting done and they are at risk.

@Itsmeagainandagain

I get your anger and frustration, I feel it in my job which is similar, but blaming and being angry at those nurses, while (imo) understandable, is directing it in the wrong place.
They're doing their job as instructed, and if tomorrow every one of those you encountered today went back to ward nursing, they'd be replaced by another lot, ad infinitum, until the cycle stops.
Being angry at the wrong people doesn't change anything, if something goes wrong for a patient and they get angry at you even though it was out of your hands to fix, it doesn't solve the patients issue.
I'm sorry you are facing this, you obviously care very much and sadly another caring and commited person looks like they've been pushed to breaking point.
When will society learn?!

I had a massive breakdown last year, I was already on my knees then Covid hit and things got ten times worse. I got out and it was the best thing then I went back to nursing cos I needed the money and remembered it’s shit and unsafe. Earlier in my career I used to put an incident form in everytime we were short staffed but I got pulled into a manager’s office and called a troublemaker so never did again.

Too many damn managers and meetings, not enough resources on the ground. Was once in a supervisor position where I had to regularly attend a meeting which had 9 people in. Only 2 of us ever came out with anything we had to do. Never did work out who most of the other were or why they were there.

Ps. I am really sorry.

I hear you, unfortunately those people that can do something about it do not care what the workers on the ground are doing.

I'm a frequent patient. I always give feedback during (if things arise) and afterwards. Not only expressing my thanks for the hard work from the named people, and something about them understaffed and overworked. Questioning how I as a patient can rest when I am asked by other patients for things.

Occasionally I get a reply, thanking me and some fobbing off about future investment, it was an unusual week that week (I did respond to that one and didn't get a reply) they are aware and trying to do everything they can.

I'm wondering if I'm a regular visitor in the ops place, there are a few clipboards that I have encountered who are as described. Also met some really amazing hands on ones as well who did get stuck in at times, and then them telling the person who has come to find them to take over.

With a lot industries/sectors I have found people were you really ask yourself how the hell are they still employed. And even worse when they get promoted and the rest of you are wondering what the actual fuck.

This is capitalist patriarchy in action. Critical areas of the economy (such as healthcare) run on the back of women who are over-paid and understaffed. Where I live a lot of nurses have quit. They were promised a pay-rise a few months after COVID started. They got one bonus and nothing changed.
People are more than happy to clap for healthcare workers, but stay quiet about the mass exploitation.

*over-paid = under-paid. Sorry about that,

You’re angry at the wrong people. They are nurses, they’ve just been given a different job to you. If you want that kind of job then campaign for it, don’t complain about it.

They’re not halfwits nor do they have a godcomplex. They’re doing just as important a job as you are - paperwork unfortunately needs to be done.

And it just gets worse and worse.

I'm often left now as the sole nurse on a 28 bedded ward full of extremely unwell and confused patients, over half will have dementia over half will be high risk of falls.

My staff for a shift would be me (a nurse) a nursing associate and 3 health care assistants. Most patients take 2 to do cares on.
The ward is immensely long and full of individual rooms. I can't see the majority of my patients unless I go into their room.

We don't have enough falls alarms, bed sensors, and just staff on the ward. Patients often fall, there is nothing we can do to protect every single one of them. I constantly get emails from management reminding me to use this alarm and that sensor, berated by the matron who hasn't touched a patient since 2006 that I surely can spread the staff and equipment a little thinner, yet when I point out there might be 5 pieces of equipment and 15 patients in need I get told to just prioritise.

Same in midwifery.

Have never known it as bad as it is now.

I was an NHS nurse for 25 years; I ended up being medically retired as it destroyed my mental health.
I thank my lucky stars that I’m not starting my career now.

There is so much inefficiency and no appetite for change as far as I can tell.

Waiting for drugs from an understaffed pharmacy before discharge - why not give us a prescription we can fill at an outside pharmacy?

Don’t bother measuring the fit for any appliance. Just keep sending them until one sticks.

Overbook clinics, make you wait 2 hours and when it turns out you didn’t even need the appointment just shrug and refuse to accept they could’ve avoided it all.

@Itsmeagainandagain

I'm an hca and I'm baffled why there is so called nurses walking about checking wards but not actually in then when my workmates are snowed under, I'm baffled why there is hcas walking about with clip boards when we fellow hcas are snowed under. Fuck their bosses do the jobs they were trained to do, the more people shout the more they will have to listen, nothing justifies leaving patients or staff at risk. Obv the bosses are not fit for purpose!

You are angry at the wrong people. They're just doing the job they are employed to do.

I'm trained as a science teacher but I work as a HCA. Should I teach my patients science? No, I should be a HCA. These people are clearly employed to check staffing levels and it isn't their fault that they too don't have the time.

Be angry at the trust leaders and managers. Don't be angry at your co workers.

those aren't real nurses those are people pretending to be nurses to fulfil a god complex and taking the big bucks

I was reading the thread with interest until I got to this comment. Which nurses in the NHS earn "big bucks"? 😂 I thought the most senior nurse wages were £60-70k, at the highest level?

The care is shocking though. Interesting to hear why from inside. The system in the UK is broken and has been for a long time. We need to be looking to France, Germany, Scandinavia etc and emulate how they structure theirs: fast treatment and diagnosis, prevention where possible. Far better care, far superior health outcomes and not very dissimilar cost per capita.

The whole system is the UK is a disgrace. This shows it at its most callous.

www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jul/06/a-cascade-of-catastrophic-failings-the-uks-baby-death-scandals

I am sure many good people work in the NHS and are equally as frustrated as those who try to use the healthcare they've paid for but don't get. I don't believe it'll get better though until every understaffed shift member puts in incident reports every single time. Posting here won't change anything, sadly.

I agree. It’s appalling and unsafe. In our Trust there are so many matrons, managers, admin staff… just barely any staff left to actually give patient care. Many times we’ve been visited by a matron and told her how we’re struggling and no one can facilitate a break, only to be told “I’m sure you’ll manage”. They forget they’re actually trained nurses/midwives themselves.

In my experience working for the NHS it is very top heavy and the solution to not enough staff is to add more staff just to tell that same number on the ground to work harder.

The worst thing is for all the talk of a no blame culture it is actually very keen on finding someone to blame. Despite being an organisation that sets such store by band hierarchy that blame always seems to roll down on to the lower bands.

We had 5 members on Sat night for a busy A&E, been this way for years.

Do you ever report it yourself op?

We call them the 'clipboard people' too.

I laughed and laughed at the poster who thinks the clinical incident reporting system in hospitals achieves anything at all. Who do you think 'actions' them?

Yep - the clipboard people.