Why are some NHS staff unkept looking?

[BoozySuzie]

I don't visit hospitals often thank goodness but I can't help but notice a lot of staff in hospitals are quite scruffy. Surely working in a hospital environment it is imperitive to be spotlessly clean and well groomed?? The Philipino nurses always look clean and tidy it's just our staff.

I think the OP has started another discussion about bus drivers.

I am convinced she is either Trinny, Suzanne or a Chief Executive of a hospital.

I am a staff nurse.

1. I work 15 hour shifts completely unable to leave my patients in that time even for a pee break. No frickin way am I going over to the canteen on the otherside of the hospital. Manslaughter anyone?

1. Stress increases your cortisol levels. That makes you fat.

1. Unless you have ever had life and death responsibility and a dangerously overwhelming number of people to

manage that for I do not want to hear the word "stress" or "hard work" out of your mouth.

1. Spending your days off worrying that you may have killed someone and will end up in court over it because you had so many patients that you couldn't remember their names or faces and were rushed off your feet for 15 hours means that you are not rested on your days off. This is when I snack and bite my nails and snack and smoke and bite my nails some more. This is what I do on my days off. I think of the nurses I know who have lost their registrations and ended up in front of a judge because they were overwhelmed and had no back up. Live like that for 10 years and you will look like shit.

1. Our uniforms are provided by our trust. We are not ever ever allowed to buy uniforms anywhere else. It would be considered a violation of the dress code even if it was similiar to our hospital issued uniforms. About 2 years ago our hard up trust stopped giving us new uniforms but continued to forbid us from buying our own elsewhere. Our trousers and tunics have holes, stains etc and we are not allowed to request new ones. I am serious. That is how we must come to work.

1. Sometimes I will get out of work at midnight and have to be back in at 6 or 7 AM the next morning for another 15 hours. Not a lot of time for beauty sleep. What was that? You say that is illegal? It is what is expected of doctors and nurses. If we were treated like humans and people with employment rights the NHS would not be able to function.

When the day comes that we don't allow ourselves to be abused like this and we demand to finally get paid for all of the hours we work,and when we demand to get paid overtime for the overtime hours we work, and when we demand to be able to take lunch breaks in a 14 hour shift without having to abandon our patients and risk the loss of our professional licenses and when we demand to be treated as fairly as people in other professions do and get paid for the level of education and responsibility we have...well you had better pray that day never comes because your free at the point of delivery healthcare will be gone.

the other thread is ironic, cheshirekitty!

Boozy - You really have offended nurses with this thread.

Thankfully the majority of NHS workers have a very good sense of humour, as you can see by the replies. It helps us cope with a very demanding job, and sees us through lot's of difficult situations. As you can see, we all rally to support each other when we are attacked in such a way, for fairly trivial reasons.

Your ideas of the food that is supplied is totally laughable, I do take my own incredibly healthy lunch with me, I am supposed to get 30 minutes for my lunch. In that 30 minutes I have to change out of my scrubs, walk to the staff eating area, (we are not allowed to eat in our work area, incase, shock, horror, a patient actually sees a nurse eating.) Then walk back to the theatre, get changed, and be ready to start work again, as I said 30 minutes total.

Maybe I am wasting the PCT's time eating, and I should have my GHD's plugged in and ready to go, and my Eve Lom out ready to freshen myself up? Thankfully I do work in the operating theatre, so can hide a multitude of split ends and poorly applied lipgloss behind my hat and mask.

You do realise that The Royal is a drama and not a documentary don't you? [hmm}

And by the way Boozy you are ignorant. If you have time to walk down to a canteen at work and get a nice snack to eat without tearing your hair out then your job is easy.

Right now the NHS managers are short staffing the wards. The nurse patient ratios in this country are horrendous and impossible. And then you get moron journalists at the daily mail saying that nurses are "too posh to wash". They are overwhelmed.

And to answer your questions further Boozy..years ago the nurse patient ratios were much better and the patients were much less compicated, chronic etc. The nurses had more back up. The hospital laundered, repaired, starched, pressed and replaced uniforms.

Well said Annemayesr

I had no idea that the situation about uniforms was so bad - completely shocking.

Well said AnneMayersR you do an amazing job!

LOL!!!
I fully admit to bieng a complete minger by 9.30 pm after finishing work having started work at 7am that morning!!!

I cannot wait to get into the shower and have a nice hot cuppa and a sarnie!
When i setoff at 6.30am, my hair is clean and smells gorgeouse, as do my arm pits..... i jsut hope and pray i dont have a crash in my car on the way home because i would be mortified if i had to go into hozzy!!!

Thats why I chose to work in theatres as a staff nurse.

1. I can't iron for toffee (and am ex military!PMSL)
2. I hate washing and ironing.
3. Forget to clean my shoes.
4. Have very wavey hair that doesn't look tidy whatever I do with it!

In theatres I get new ironed scrub suit daily, just throw it in the laundry at the end of shifts and can wear a hat with a pattern of my choice. Shoes still need cleaning but can be scrubbed in the sink!!

AnneMayes, while i totally symperthise with everything you wrote (and i really do,) "stress" and "hard work" applys to many many other jobs as well as being a nurse.

TBH, while i understand that nurses are offended by the op, i was very offended by you saying that mainly because i see many people (including my dp) very stressed and having to do hard work all the time that aren't linked to the NHS.

I am not going to get into a "i do this" with replies of "but i do this" etc but nurses aren't the only ones who have stress and hard work, believe me.

Good point about hospital laundry services. When my mum was a nurse her uniform was washed and pressed for her after every shift by the hospital laundry service. It's far more hygienic that way but, guess what, the Trusts can't afford that 'luxury' anymore...

She saw me making a sandwich to take to work one evening, in preparation for a night shift. She asked me why I was making my own food when, surely, the hospital canteen would be providing me with a hot meal during my break? After all, that's what she would have been offered in her day. She was astonished to find out that the only alternative to taking in my own sandwiches was to buy a bar of chocolate from a vending machine at 3am - that's assuming I got a break at all.

I completely agree with the sentiment that if employees of the NHS actually demanded the rights that employees of most other institutions/companies get as standard, the service would grind to a halt on a matter of days. The NHS runs on the goodwill of (mostly) its lowliest staff. Think yourself lucky we don't give a toss about the state of our hair.

I used to wear this gorgeous uniform whaddya think? Smart enough for you?

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Oh and on the weight point, it is a known fact that shift workers are more prone to weight gain because they eat at irregular times. Many nurses work shifts from eg 7-1500 or 1330-2130 or nights. Due to staff shortage most are unable to take a full lunch break/ have to change into civilian clothes and get to canteen and back, having eaten in 20mins Rushing food is another aspect which weight gain is attributed to.
Many people who are stressed will comfort eat, nursing in todays NHS is very stressful. If you come off duty at 2130 and get home at 2200 having not eaten you will be more likely to stop for a take away for ease, rather than cooking and then having to wash dishes etc.

You have made me very and I feel you are a self righteous arrogant person, with absolutely no insight into how hard some people work.
PS WHAT DO YOU DO FOR A JOB?

I don't think you can be as stressed unless you have and death responsibility or people's halth and well being in your hands. At the end of the day what is the worst thing that can happen to a teacher if she screws up. She gets fired and can't work with kids anymore. Big Deal. A nurse would be in way deeper shit than that.

I am sure teaching is tough and stressful but the teachers turned nurses I know have said that teaching was easier. There are different degrees of stress.

I do take my hat off to air traffic controllers, doctors, paramedics, and possibly airline pilots (because when things go bad on a flight that would be beyond anything I have ever dealt with).

These are just my personal opinions anyway and nothing for anyone to get upset over.

I burned out of nursing and left recently. I couldn't take anymore and am now living it up in an easier job. It is easier because I don't have to deal with people dying on me.

motherfunk, you can easily go 15 hours without a pee if you don't drink either!

AnneMayesR do you take your hat off to the doctors who steal your food, or was that someone else ?

If you don't have anything to eat or drink you can hold it. I don't let myself go for breaks. I have professional accountability regardless of whether or not management will pay another nurse to cover my patients.

Nurses are known for having bladders the size of winnebagos and urinary tract problems.

LOL that reminds me of something funny a urologist told me....nurses are the reason he has a job.

Nurses have serious accountablity and way too many patients. They are titrating drips, and watching moniters and etc. etc. This stuff could be lethal if the nurse pissed off for a break. Other staff hang out at the nurses station and take breaks though.

AnneMayesR, i'm sorry but i am finding your veiws on what is stressful very ingnorant indeed.

I love the way when people name other jobs it's always proffessional ones. What about all the non-professional jobs that get forgotten about? The ones that, if no one did, society would be in deep shit? They are just as important as professionals because they are what keeps everyday life possible!

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Well yes getting fired from a career you love is bad.

Getting fired from a career you love and possibly being brought up on criminal charges for a bloody maths errors when you were 12 hours without food is worse.

Why don't you talk to others who have career switched into nursing. I keep a nursing blog and do this quite a bit.

I already know many teachers, cops, MBA's who have switched into nursing and found it worse.

Hang on I need to get you all some links. I have yet to meet someone who career switched into hospital nursing and found it less stressful. I would like to meet such a person and find out where they work because I want to work there.

Motherfunk you completely missed all the points I was trying to make. Completely. I don't know why I bothered to respond.

As a nurse you can easily be in a position where someone dies because you cannot be two places at once or because you made a simple maths error. You can and will get thrown to the sharks and possibly end up charged with a crime if this happens. Nurses walk into this everyday.

I just realised something else. The nurses on this thread are talking about NURSES. They are talking about people who can legally call themselves nurses.

Everyone else is probably talking about every female they have ever seen in hospital in uniform.

I have to remember that when I am talking about nurses that they people I am talking to probably don't know what a nurse is...and think that the HCA who comes to take their Blood pressure and pulse is a "nurse".