Nobody answering the call nurse button.

[peachy3]

Not really an AIBU, posting here for traffic, just want to know if anyone else has been in this place and what myself or one of the other patients can do?

I’m currently admitted in hospital with an infection and high heart rate that isn’t coming down. Im on the Labour ward as I’m 36 weeks pregnant. There’s only 4 of us in this room and a few people in another room down the hall. I’ve tried to use my call nurse button a few times but it’s not been making any sound. I brought it up to one nurse who said she’ll be back with a replacement over an hour ago, spoke to another nurse who said the first nurse was sorting it and spoke to a third nurse who said she’ll go find out about it but nobody has come back. I’m in no way bashing the nurses or angry at them at all, they could have been called away to something important, but the woman next to me has pressed her button for me which works and nobody is coming in. It’s been a few hours now, I did go out a few times but was told someone would be coming in now and then nothing. I’ve decided to just wait it out a bit but the lady opposite me has been ringing her button, she’s currently having contractions, and nobody has been coming in. Her button works as it’s making the noise it should but no one is coming in to see her. I’m of course not a nurse but I’ve heard a lot of laughter and chatting out in the hallway which makes it seem like we’re being ignored. Is there anything I should do? I’m the only one not in labour so I don’t mind going out to say something but I also don’t want to sound terrible and entitled, I know how hard nurses work and would never disrespect them.

Any suggestions?

I had a baby last year and was on a full maternity ward with insufficient midwives. I had a c section and my partner was sent home at night. Our call bells regularly went unanswered. Babies left screaming next to women unable to pick their babies up. One woman's bell had fallen on the floor and she couldn't reach it. She was crying out for help for what felt like hours. I, and other women, pressed our bells to ask someone to help her, but no-one came.

I'd blocked all this out until reading this thread. It was the worse experience of my life

@Angrymum22

Press the red button behind your bed. You will have never seen them move so fast.

Was just about to suggest this!

@bigyellowTpot @Suzyinthesummertime nice for you to think that every single nurse has been doing this during the pandemic.
I actually didn’t eat or drink for 12+ hours during my shifts because I was terrified to take my mask off and get covid and die/ pass it onto my husband and children at home. And I didn’t make any Tik tok videos - I spent any spare time sitting with patients so they didn’t die alone, or FaceTiming their relatives so they could say goodbye to them before it was too late. You have absolutely no idea. I guess whatever you see on social media is what we’re all up to.

I hope you get everything sorted soon OP. Absolutely ask to speak to the midwife in charge of the shift in the morning and express your concerns. If they are having a jolly while there are patients in distress then it needs to be raised as I’m sure the ward manager/ matron would be mortified to know this is the case.

@TyrannosaurusRegina

I agree you are entitled to breaks, and within reason to do what you want.

But here's the thing. You are a healthcare professional. Your patients, and others on your unit rely on you and your professionalism to take care of them.

Your break is usually paid time and yes a break. But if you are needed for heaven's sake be there and provide the care you are trained to give.

I spent a week in hospital recently and I was frankly shocked at the noise coming from the nurses station at all hours. Lots of laughing. It became very clear to me what mattered and it wasn't the patients. It made me very, very sad.

@TyrannosaurusRegina 🙌🏼 Well said!

“I don't have tik too nor any other social media bar a Facebook account which I haven't logged into for well over a year. As an aside, sometimes, if they're lucky, us nurses do get breaks and it's up to us what we choose to do on them, whether than means sit and have a bite to eat or use social media”.

Erm MN is a platform 🤣are you on MN and not responding to the OP…just kidding.

OP are you able to go down to the station and see if anyone is about? You need to get your buzzer sorted in the morning.

Just to correct @LoveFall breaks aren’t paid and our break time is deducted off our hours so we have to make up the hours.
And agree that call bells cannot be pulled out of the wall as they constantly alarm. Now await 100s of posts about how we sit at the nurses station eBaying, chatting about our social lives or choreographing tik tok dances. Never done it in my 30 years career.

The nurses on here that are challenging this should just be listening instead. Just because you don't behave like this doesn't mean it doesn't happen. I've experienced this kind of thing in three separate hospitals with completely different reasons to be there. Once giving birth, once when my child had an operation and once when I had an acute condition.

All three of the times nurses were sitting round at the station chatting and all three of the times we were pressing the bell. They were all at night. It's definitely a culture of thinking they just can. Once we actually did press the red button and they all came running. They were really pee'd off but someone in the ward really needed care so we didn't give a damn. People are vulnerable when they're ill and they shouldn't need to have to fight to get help.

In my profession I'm shocked and concerned when I hear stories of people not being professional and i certainly don't try and defend it.

The comtempt towards nursing staff on here is unbelievable. No nurse I've ever worked with would ever disable or ignore a call button. If they aren't answering it won't be because they're sat sipping a coffee or making a tiktok video it will be because they genuinely are busy seeing to other things. Welcome to the reality of our broken NHS. I can assure you that the staff looking after you are as upset about it as you are. Be angry if you need to be but please direct it at the right people. Oh and if the red button people are telling you to push is the emergency buzzer then please DON'T push it unless you believe there to be a genuine threat to life as this is what it's for. It's a seriously dick move, you'll get every doctor and nurse on the ward running to you within seconds and I promise you they won't thank you for it. Sorry you're having a hard time but please know that the nurses are lilely working as hard as they can

Oh and the having a break thing. Yeah that works for a while but when people are pressing the button for over an hour,, that wears a bit thin.

Who's the hospital manager - are their details online?? Give them a ring

@Jannt86

The comtempt towards nursing staff on here is unbelievable. No nurse I've ever worked with would ever disable or ignore a call button. If they aren't answering it won't be because they're sat sipping a coffee or making a tiktok video it will be because they genuinely are busy seeing to other things. Welcome to the reality of our broken NHS. I can assure you that the staff looking after you are as upset about it as you are. Be angry if you need to be but please direct it at the right people. Oh and if the red button people are telling you to push is the emergency buzzer then please DON'T push it unless you believe there to be a genuine threat to life as this is what it's for. It's a seriously dick move, you'll get every doctor and nurse on the ward running to you within seconds and I promise you they won't thank you for it. Sorry you're having a hard time but please know that the nurses are lilely working as hard as they can

Well this isn't true because this is people's actual experiences. And sometimes you just don't care if nurses aren't happy about it, they should be doing their jobs. And my experiences weren't recent they were well before the pandemic and austerity. It's an attitude of mind.

And it's not contempt for all nurses, it's for those who don't prioritise their patients. If you do this then you're not included in this thread.

@Armadeus

Just to correct *@LoveFall* breaks aren’t paid and our break time is deducted off our hours so we have to make up the hours. And agree that call bells cannot be pulled out of the wall as they constantly alarm. Now await 100s of posts about how we sit at the nurses station eBaying, chatting about our social lives or choreographing tik tok dances. Never done it in my 30 years career.

I stand corrected. Where I live lunch breaks are unpaid but coffee breaks are paid.

And I am sorry if I generalized. It is hard for me as for some reason a couple of the nurses were not very kind. But a couple were kind and understanding. I was very scared,

I am sorry if you are a nurse who actually likes caring for people.

I stand by what I said about the laughing and talking. I actually helped my bed next door neighbour after she rang her bell over and over. I rang mine too, although I also got up and tried to help.

We’ve not had a nurse bashing thread for a while, funny that.
You can hardly expect individual nurses or midwives on MN to apologise for incidents happening elsewhere as if somehow we are all universally culpable ? Poor care and service happens in every profession, most of us would challenge it if we witnessed it, I have done, but what exactly do you want nurses or midwives to do on a thread like this ?
Just agree and say we are all lazy, uncaring and cynical ?

It's not nurse bashing. It's actual lived experience. I have had a fear of hospitals for years because of the way I was treated, and watched other vulnerable patients be treated, by nurses following an operation.

I am not surprised at all that call bells are being ignored. I've literally stood at the nurses desk for a significant amount of time being ignored in person. It's like you aren't even human to some of them.

@Armadeus

We’ve not had a nurse bashing thread for a while, funny that. You can hardly expect individual nurses or midwives on MN to apologise for incidents happening elsewhere as if somehow we are all universally culpable ? Poor care and service happens in every profession, most of us would challenge it if we witnessed it, I have done, but what exactly do you want nurses or midwives to do on a thread like this ? Just agree and say we are all lazy, uncaring and cynical ?

No one is expecting you to apologise. Literally no one, so you're just making that up. It's not nurse bashing, it's picking up examples of poor nursing.

If it was other professions then I'd equally criticise them too, including my own, and I've seen threads about my profession too, without feeling the need to argue with people's actual experiences. I'm amazed how nurses always come on to challenge it, as if it's about them personally instead of being concerned about poor practice.

I lost all respect after the way I was treated having my son. It was too much bother to admit me at night with an empty ward. No instead send me home ‘ not in Labour’ - I progressed all night on my own till 5.30 where I rang and was told 999. Paramedics were wonderful and the babies head was visible. I was blue lighted back to have my son- my birth was rushed and pretty horrid. The same hospital saw one of my fit healthy friends collapse and flatline in front of them whilst in Labour and nearly kill my friends son through lack of staff and training. It’s care commission is dreadful yet people sing it’s praises.... I’m early pregnant and dreading being booked in again.. I will be 40 when I give birth and I bet they will not like a home birth.

I think people should name the hospital - or at least give a hint - rather than just moaning. Why don't people name the ward and hospital?

Hmm when idiots were clapping in lockdown, I was rembering some of my time in hospitals.
Night time on a children’s ward with my 4 year old daughter, other sick children and babies, and the raucous night staff, running and laughing in the hall way all night, playing games.
I hated them all, and we got no sleep.
A horrible male nurse woke my daughter every couple of hours to take inhalers, nebuliser I think, I was a bit scared of him, horrible man.
The day shift were fabulous, the night shift, foul people who should have been sacked.

They won’t name the hospital as they are stuck there still, at their mercy. I thought that would be obvious

A nurse moved my call bell out of reach when I'd just had a c section and was struggling to feed. Eleven years ago so think it must be common.

What a nightmare. I have been in a similar position and just wandered round saying help as loud as I could.

Not to disregard what you are saying in any way OP but just to level up the nurse bashing - I've recently had serious spinal surgery and all of us on the ward, around 30 of us, needed help to and from the toilet plus cleaning. Just four staff on overnight meant there was nearly always a call bell ringing and sometimes it took a while for someone to come.

OP please email PALS, the hospital I stayed in was incredible from start to finish but I've also received some absolutely awful care in other places

That's horrible OP. No one deserves to be ignored like that. I'm a nurse so I do know things can get very hectic etc on a ward but still, it really shouldn't take that long to get seen to.

Agree Pals email. Too