Why don't nhs night staff want you to sleep?

[ICaughtTonsillitisFromAFriendsKid]

Sleep is a great healer.
So why is everything done to keep ward patients awake all night? (Well it feels that way)

In the day the wonderful staff are very kind, but overnight, why no whispering, at all? Not even stage whispering? I've just staggered out of bed trying not to rip out my cathetera and canula to pull the bible sheet curtain round a bit, but everyone else is left with curtains pushed back to the walls.

Everyone is so kind and happy to help, I don't even want to say anything, but I'm just exhausted, as are all of these very poorly ladies.

It seems the doctors are not too bad at whispering, I must concede.

So many typos in my post 😂

Agree with this too. I had my daughter in the mid 1990s and I had to have an emergency C-section and was actually in hospital for 9 days afterwards. I was in a small little side room, and there was only seven mums on the ward altogether (although 16 beds and 4 little side rooms,) because it was a low birth rate that week. We were 21 to 31, and all became really good friends very quickly. If one of us was in a deep sleep and the baby started to make a fuss - one of the other mums would actually settle the baby down so we all got a reasonable rest/sleep.

It seems the level of care/the treatment from the nurses was completely different then to when I was in for two nights a couple of years ago ... The nurses on the maternity ward in the mid 1990s were lovely and friendly and soft and gentle and would come in very gently in the middle of the night just to check on people .. they were in the 20s 30s 40s and 50s and were all tremendously kind.

The ones in the hospital when I was in about a year ago treated me like I was an annoyance to them - they were between 18 and 25, and as I said I had to wait 20 minutes for half an hour for them to come to me several times even though my drip was malfunctioning.

They were laughing and chatting and giggling and pissing around half the night (so as has been mentioned, I got no more than an hours sleep all night!) And whilst I know there are lots of kind nurses (indeed there were several kind nurses when my husband was in hospital for three days a couple of years ago,) some of them do seem to be quite aloof and not really terribly kind. In fact I won't go into it in great detail but I heard three of them taking the piss out of me when they didn't realise I could hear them (I was round the corner after just coming out the toilet.)

I was very ill, and I felt very vulnerable and upset. I'm touching the door of 50 and these were girls between 18 and 25 and were supposed to be caregivers and they were mocking me. I felt so upset. I felt like a little girl of 13 or 14 again being bullied by the big girls and Mean Girls at school. As I said before hell freeze over before I go into hospital again ... I'll have to be unconscious or in a road traffic accident or something because I will never ever voluntarily and willingly go into hospital again. I will take my chances and get better at home in the comfort of my own lovely comfy quiet bedroom.

As I say I know some nurses are kind and lovely and so are a lot of healthcare professionals, they can be amazing, especially paramedics. But there are some that really aren't terribly kind, and seem annoyed easily, and I do wonder why they're in the job. As I say paramedics seemed to be really nice and the nurses at my medical practise are nice, but the ones in the hospital when I was in there; I'm sorry but I didn't find them very nice at all.

The only nice person there was a nurse who was in her 40s who had been doing it only a couple of years, who came to do my obs ... she was lovely and kind but the others; no sorry but they just weren't.

Like many other posters, I am sick to death of the 'you shud be grateful 4 the NHS' type posts, like we'd like a better standard of care, for the service we PAY for. At least being treated like s human being would do.

I should also mention at this point, that I went to the ward, there were no beds free, and I was on a trolley in the corridor for FOUR HOURS, 7pm til 11pm. Turns out a bed had become free at 9.30pm, but they'd forgot I was there. Around 30 members of staff walked past me during the last 2 hours! Yet they 'forgot' I was there. I did mention that when I did a care survey sent to me a month later, but I heard fuck all about it, so I doubt anyone gives a shit. Why even ask me how my care was then?

@Gensola

@SO224350 The NHS it is NOT free, we all pay for it! Just because we don’t hand over cash on the ward, we don’t have to be “grateful” for poor care. Tories have defunded the NHS for 12 years and it’s now broken beyond repair, we can be sorry for the failure of the dream but I refuse to be grateful for being repeatedly let down, neglected and almost dying as a result of NHS blunders.

100% this. ^ As many people who were unfortunate enough to have babies under Telford and Shrewsbury Hospital will verify.

As I said, whilst there are many kind and friendly nurses and HCPs, they are not all like this. And like I said last night, I am ALSO sick of this 'NHS is FREE' line which is rubbish, and although I am grateful we have such a system, it should not immune to criticism, and neither should the people who work for it. We need to get the 'NHS can do no wrong' mindset out of our heads. They can, and they HAVE done.

There are so many stories on this thread, of people who had a shit time in hospital, and shit treatment, and who experienced nurses and HCPs messing about, giggling, and squealing, and laughing, and messing about, keeping them awake all night, that there's no way it's not fucking true.

@Dalint

I'm a little bit tired of the notion that NHS staff are angels. You find all sorts within it. Some kind, some cruel, some in-between, some barely there, some dismissive, some incredibly intuitive, some caring, some outright judgmental.
Nurses are relatively well-paid when you think about it.

I get the notion that they think they are demi-gods and the downtrodden in society when the reality is that they receive sizeable pensions, decent remuneration and they chose the profession.

I have a friend who works nights (12 hour shifts) at Amazon. The pay, including the premium for night-shifts is something ridiculous like 11.75 an hour, though he gets another slight little raise for length of service. His take home pay is 400 odd a week for 40 hours, but he has to work an extra 10 hours overtime just to live I guess.

If you're not capable of a modicum of kindness, please do not go into nursing. For the sake of everyone!

Agree with this.

Also, this is why I struggle to believe that nurses have had to go to food banks as several news shows claimed lately. I was like 'nahhh.... LOL as if!'

Also someone said police and train drivers have been going to them too, as they're so 'strapped for cash!'

How on earth do they think mere mortals with zero hours contracts (and on minimum pay) cope?!! I just don't buy it that these public service workers have to go to food banks. Nope. No way.

Clearly a few people on here don't like it that nurses are being criticized. Same ones whom dislike teachers being criticized I reckon. They're not ALL perfect and some are far from flawless, whether you like to admit it or not. Be as butthurt as you like, people are entitled to post freely on here about their bad experiences with nurse. Deal with it.

*bad experiences with nurses (not 'nurse!')

There's a few healthcare people on this thread in the wrong job. Imagine telling people they should count themselves lucky to receive basic care in a public funded hospital. Also imagine telling people they should leave the hospital and seek private care simply because they disagree with their opinion. Seriously find new jobs.

This. ^ Some of the posts on here (attacking people who have criticized nurses and HCPs and the NHS) make me sick actually. They're a disgrace. As I said, the NHS should not be above criticism!

I am in hospital presently and 98% of day and night staff are horrific; they just don't give a toss as long as they can tick boxes. Been back 3 times because of their incompetence. Only was to get appropriate treatment is to contact PALS

My elderly father has deteriorated so quickly since being in hospital - he has gone from being a very active, mentally agile man four weeks ago to literally a baby. When you ask what he wants he says ‘a good nights sleep’ - he is never allowed to sleep. Today the entire ward was dozing and they had smooth FM in the corner blasting away just above his bed. I guess it’s an impossible task to maintain any noise control so they simply don’t even bother.

@SaintHelena we are being balloted for strike action

I think the problem is that HCPs understand the systems and which of these problems are actually systemic failure, and this includes lack of basic care. When you talk to nurses about the ratio of nurses/HCAs to patients on many wards, they have an impossible task on their hands, the are simply not enough hours in the day (especially if some patients require double handed care). People then put the responsibility for this terrible care on the individual staff and that simple isn't true.

I frequently wait outside hospital in an ambulance with my patients for 9+hours. Unless a patient is fully mobile it is impossible to provide anything resembling adequate care, the stretchers are not soft enough nor wide enough to be able to reposition, the lights in the back come on automatically at full brightness everytime the doors are open, this can't be overriden, the alarms on our monitors, designed for short term care of the acutely unwell can only be temporarily silenced, I could go on.

None of this is my fault, but an elderly patient who has to endure this could easily go back to their family and tell them how terrible I was for not letting them sleep and "ignoring" them when they were uncomfortable. It's not even the fault of the NHS management, they can not magic beds or staff out of thin air.

These problems are due to government mismanagement and population demographics, and chiefly due to failing to properly fund social care. Social carers, who are predominantly women, and frequently foreign women (the lowest of the low!!) work for minimum wage with appalling terms and conditions. No wonder so few people want to do it. This is mumsnet, if you want a feminist issue to get your teeth into that might actually change to NHS for the better, then this is it. Bring Social care pay bands, term and conditions and pensions in line with the NHS, pay them what they deserve and treat them with respect. Stop bashing the women (nurses are still predominantly women) who are trying to provide what care they can in near impossible circumstances, because threads like this might just be the straw that breaks the back of yet another nurse, so that they leave and the NHS is just a little worse off still.

Don’t forget the TikTok dances and social media posts that have become a thing since the pandemic. I bet a load of them were put together at night, disturbing patients

Oh and those wine parties Fabricant told us about!

While I completly understand that care dosn’t stop just because its night time. Talking loudly and having a radio on at night on a ward is unnacceptable. So why don’t people just complain?

My husband had bladder stones removed at the Nuffield, as NHS waiting time was 18 months. They did say if there were any problems he'd have to be helicoptered to the Royal Sussex County hospital (just across the fields-10 minutes by copter, probably about an hour by ambulance by the time they'd go all around the houses)

When I was in hospital they woke me every hour to measure my blood pressure then told me it was too low and made me sit up and drink water. But my blood pressure was exactly the same as it always is, I just have naturally low blood pressure. I kept telling them this but apparently the computer said no. In the end I refused which got me three hours peace. I was getting really distressed and couldn't sleep in the hours between measurements as I knew they'd wake me again. If they hadn't let me go anyway the day after I would have just discharged myself, it's completely counter-productive.

What if there isn't an ICU bed left, and the NHS hospital have been cancelling other surgery due to this fact (certain surgery has to have an ICU bed ready to be able to go ahead) not good for you DH and not fair on the rest of your community when he does get the next available bed?

Private hospitals need to start providing their own ICU beds and that will push up prices of procedures and insurance premiums.

Remember who will vote for you. Your patients and the relatives of patients.

It's awful, but not at all surprising. It's horrible how some nurses are. I honestly think that there's not a kind bone in some of them.

Try ringing your bell to interrupt a conversation lol.

I hear you OP, beats me - my Grandpa was fond of saying sleep is the greatest healer and I've no idea how anyone is supposed to get better when they can't get any sleep. And then after a crap night of desperately trying and failing to sleep, they come and wake you up at 06:00 - why? So you can have a busy day of lying in bed? Never got why they do that either. Nothing is organised to prioritise rest.

@Dalint the public don't vote for 'me' I need to put food on my family's table.

@Houstonisjustabigcity I’m sorry to hear you are having a crap experience. Regarding box ticking though, that is all management are interested in. I remember one day when I worked on the wards, insanely busy, emergency admissions to deal with plus a patient having a heavy bleed. I managed to do everything I needed to do and patients were all safe and comfortable when I left. The next day I was pulled up by my charge nurse because I had forgotten to fill in a (not even remotely important) form that should have been done at 6pm (while I was dealing with the nose bleed). It’s so demoralising when stuff like this happens. There’s so much unnecessary paperwork and we will always get a bollocking if it isn’t done. No one checks your patients a few days on to see how they are. But they will check all your boxes are ticked. I obviously don’t know where you are so can’t comment on your care but perhaps this goes some way to explain why we can come across as being overly concerned with box ticking.

Because hospitals are short staffed every minute of a shift is planned and tasks allocated. If people want true person centred care provided by the NHS/ Social care they will have to pay extra tax to fund the staffing levels.

I accept there are some nurses who shouldn’t be in the job. I’ve worked with a few of them. One of the women I trained with is probably the most unpleasant person I have met in my life. No idea why she wanted to be a nurse! (And thankfully she isn’t any more.) Equally, I’ve met many amazing nurses and I would trust them with my life. Two of my close relatives have been in hospital recently and I can’t fault their care.

I know this isn’t everyone’s experience. I don’t dismiss the awful experiences some of you on this thread have had. It saddens me that these things happen.

But when you take your negative experience and use it as justification to state that all nurses are unkind. That we don’t deserve to be well paid. That we are glorified first aiders. That the whole NHS is a disgrace. Well. That hurts. A lot. It’s not surprising when people lash out against comments like that. I’ve laughed off several comments today but I can promise you they will stay with me.

By all means, if you have had a bad experience, complain! You deserve to be heard and you deserve better treatment. But keep it specific. Don’t tar us all with the same brush. Because most of us are doing our best in bloody difficult circumstances.

Why would it be unfair to the community that a tax payer gets a rightful spot in an ICU bed should one be needed regardless of the reason?