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?

However, if I was visitting someone I cared for then there's absolutely no way I'd just sit there and wait for a buzzer to be answered to get them something they were desperate for if I was capable of doing it

There aren't any visitors, though! So nothing to do with the OP. And in most trusts visitors are highly restricted. Because of that little thing society has been dealing with for the last year. Cocid? Covad? no Covid, that's the one!

Because of that little thing society has been dealing with for the last year.

Correction. Last two years.

When this happened to me a few years ago I rolled satsumas into the hallway. I couldn't get out of bed for various reasons, so I just rolled them from my bed out the door. That did the trick! But it was the middle of the night, so less of a trip hazard then the middle of the day. And I was in the neuro ward with a brain injury, so eccentric behaviour was probably a little more excusable.

I'm really sorry about what you're going through OP and agree it's unacceptable.

However, I'm slightly aghast at the people suggesting OP pull the red button! You will certainly get lots of staff running to you in this instance - but with a resuscitation trolly and the expectation that you are seriously unwell, or in cardiac arrest. In my trust certainly, someone would probably put out a 2222 call straight away and hence you'll get the whole resuscitation team (including the most senior medical doctors in the hospital) along with the ward team and anyone else in the vicinity, many likely having left other unwell patients / left in the middle of drawing up medications / left in the middle of doing a procedure / left in the middle of a break (yes, these are important, do you really want a doctor/nurse treating you who hasn't had anything to eat in 12 hours?) Pulling the red button is not just going to annoy the staff, it's going to impact the safety of the other patients in the hospital. Furthermore, what would happen if everyone was encouraged to pull the red button for situations like this? The red button works because everyone who hears it drops everything in the assumption the person at the end of the button is the person who most needs their time at that moment.

@Jannt86

What cover-up?? There's constant stories villainising doctors and nurses without any real context. Most doctors and nurses go to work knowing there won't be enough of them to care adequately for their patients, knowing that there's not much they can do about this and knowing that nevertheless if they slip up even a tiny bit or encounter the wrong type of patient they may well end up on the front of the daily fail and their lives as they know it is over. THIS is why they're so defensive and leaving the profession in drones

All of them, from midwives to doctors to nurses, all those babies and mothers blamed for what happened, all the other cover ups

If you have an infection you should be top priority. I nearly died of sepsis - this is no time to be polite!!!!!!

Your first port of call would be the ward sister/manager this morning. Let them know their staff aren't providing care for patients.
If that was me or any of my colleagues i would be ashamed. There are lazy, very lazy people in the job but we're not all like that.
Buzzers can go unanswered for a bit if all staff busy but sounds like they aren't and if you don't say to someone higher then it will probably continue.

My ward sister would been down on us like a ton of bricks if this happened.

As for the aid call, we can't just replace it. We have to log it as a repair with maintenance and they deal with it.

This thread is so depressing, it shows how widespread this issue is - I had thought perhaps my local hospital was just the 'bad apple' with an ingrained culture of poor care. It appears not judging by this thread (unless you all live very close to me )

It's not a new thing; I had very similar experiences in maternity 25 years ago. My DD unfortunately spends a lot of time in and out of hospital due to a chronic condition so I see a LOT of what PPs are talking about on the wards. I've stood at nursing stations being ignored whilst HCPs chat amongst themselves, I've witnessed buzzers being ignored whilst nurses congregate around the station. Once, about 10 years ago I was on the childrens ward - kids buzzers being ignored so I went to find someone, no nurses in sight - eventually I found them in a room at the top of the ward having a leaving party for one of the staff

I can count on one hand the staff who have actually treat my DD with kindness - so much so that I can remember the faces of those nurses, because they are so rare. The rest are just a faceless haze of incompetency.

I get nurses on the thread feeling defensive, I used to be a social worker, seriously I get it However, if you go to work and treat your patients with care and kindness this isn't about you - if you answer patients calls for help instead of standing chatting at the nurses station this isn't about you; there's no point pretending this doesn't happen just because you aren't like that.

I don't know how some posters can read all the posts clearly stating that nurses were AT THEIR STATIONS CHATTING AND IGNORING BUZZERS and take out of it that it's what ''we'' voted for

We are talking about the most basic of things here.

And how many more times are the majority of posts going to be ignored by NHS staff commenting here and the ONE daft post about a nurse waking a child up during the night being bought up time and time again as if all posts are by whinging stupid patients?

The majority understand the NHS is underfunded.
The majority understand that most staff work hard.

This thread is asking what to do when you are at the mercy of ones who aren't and discussing bad nursing practice.

There is a difference between having to wait because of emergencies and having to wait because nurses are stood around chatting and laughing.

I spend a lot of time in hospitals with my poorly relative and I notice it’s worse at night. Probably because there’s no relatives or doctors to witness what’s going on.

I find there is generally one nurse who is running around doing all the work while the others screech and chat all night at the nurses station. I wonder in what other job you would get away with this.

Its a disgrace but doesnt surprise me in the least. Get out of bed and tell them help is needed. These nurse stations should be dismantled. Nurses should be in the ward attending to patients. Not huddled round a nurse station.

My sister is a nurse and said the night shift is a great place for the bone idle to hide. Never had my bell answered post C-section (when my legs were still numb so literally couldn’t move) so went 12 hours without pain relief and why I went private for next birth.

When an elderly relative was in hospital she was in "the" geriatric ward.
A woman in the ward had dementia and her bed was alarmed.
The alarm went off and was ignored numerous times.
On one occasion she had got out of bed and was harassing a totally paraplegic patient in another bed. I had to go out and get help.
On another occasion she had fallen out of bed and broke her arm.

Hope you are ok now op

@MarbleQueen - There is a difference between having to wait because of emergencies and having to wait because nurses are stood around chatting and laughing.

Exactly.
That isn't an underfunding issue.

Getting defensive and somehow blaming NHS staff's dreadful behaviour on who the patients may or may not have voted for is quite insightful.

Clue towards the reason for a more widespread bad attitude towards patients these days maybe?

I’ve been in hospital a few times over the years. Never was the care so poor as it was in the maternity unit. And if I thought it was bad pre birth it was a whole lot worse post birth.

Hope you’re ok. 💐

This happened to me and my daughter was in distress when they finally came in and they had to break my waters immediately.
I understand staffing levels are low but some people are not in the position to advocate for themselves further than to press a button, it's pretty worrying that you're all being ignored.

There is a difference between having to wait because of emergencies and having to wait because nurses are stood around chatting and laughing.

Often hard to judge. I’m not a nurse but the area I worked in we often pulled double shifts, and more often than not you didn’t take breaks as too busy. The nurses were not immune to this either. Instead you would take 15mins out every 4 hours or so to sit and drink a coffee but you’d do it at the station as was easier to keep going on paperwork etc. So you’d have several people sitting around drinking coffee for 15mins, however for that 15mins you were ‘on your break’ and often there was much chatting and hilarity as a decompression tool.

I can’t tell you the number of times patients made snide comments about waiting to be seen/followed up because we had ‘all’ (uhhm, no not all) been doing nothing and sitting around laughing. It really stings when you are 14 hours in, have not taken any meal breaks, not eaten so you can get to people sooner rather than later and you cop this because you have dared to take a second lot of 15mins in that time in which you sat down to have a coffee and had a large go with a few others who were in exactly the same position. While polite, you honestly think fuck you, every one of us should have taken every break we were entitled to and then you would have likely been waiting an extra few hours to be dealt with, silly us.

• laugh, not large go!

There is a difference between having to wait because of emergencies and having to wait because nurses are stood around chatting and laughing.

Exactly - I've experinced what OP is talking about as have many relatives.

Obviously there are excellent staff out there - but bad practise does seem to be widely tolerated in some wards/hospitals and complaints lead to close ranks and lost notes.

@Prettynails

Red button.

Bad police officers.
Bad teachers.
Bad nurses.
Bad doctors.

Just like there are good ones.

I was refused pain killers by ‘busy nurses’ who were on their phones metres away from my bed talking loudly through the night - and they were messing around. Deference to nurses because they demand it as a profession is ridiculous.

I phoned a family relative - as I couldn’t get out of bed and my call button went unanswered I like most patients was vulnerable hence being in hospital - a nurse had rudely told me the next shift would get my medication as they were busy.

Family relative just happened to be a consultant in the hospital and working and she came pounding down the corridor - you should of seen their horror as they scattered back to their duties and said relative demanded all patients were given painkillers and checked. Relative who was a consultant made a complaint as well. Sometimes a bad one makes a bad two and that can create a bad culture in ANY profession but nurses like doctors are not prefect.

If you are great at your job - great. But call out those that aren’t and don’t defend them - root out the problem from within.

Please don’t use the NAOUALT - not all of us are like that argument. Some are. Support the patient support what’s right.

Sometimes a bad one makes a bad two and that can make a bad culture in any profession.

This is so true. I worked as an allied health professional covering several wards in the same hospital as did my colleagues. We would sometimes discuss which wards we would be happy to have our relatives admitted to and which ones we would worry about. The culture in some wards was very much better than others. Those wards with a better culture provided better care. It appeared to me that this was partially dependent on good leadership and nursing staff feeling valued.

@JanetandJohn500

Phone the switchboard and ask to be put through to the ward.

This is my favourite. Assuming you have phone reception of course.

as well as calling via the switchboard, call, tweet or email
PALS
hospital trust
your MP
local paper....

Maybe they shouldn't be sitting at the nurses station taking their break then? Many examples have been given here of people unable to get help for HOURS. We're not talking about people getting upset about waiting 15 mins.

If you were standing in a queue at the supermarket/bank/airport/docs surgery and you can see 4 members of staff drinking coffee a few feet away and ignoring you it would be bad enough.

Now you're in the queue in agony, or someone else is in agony and you're trying to raise help or still lying in their own mess after ages, or hanging out of bed, or bleeding, or any of the things which have been listed on this thread. For hours. And you can see nurses drinking coffee ... ??