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.

well then - at least you have an excuse for having shabby shoes and cardies - no excuse for not having decent tights

If you read on nervousal, there are people who have posted saying that their Trusts have refused to replace uniform and won't let them buy their own, so they are having to wear shabby, old uniform.

hahaha

Ah well, best get back to it. I think by now we have established that OP is being unreasonable, I feel like I can go back to RL

BTW - before anyone whinges about taxpayers money and NHS staff buggering about on t'internet when they should be working, I am off work with poorly DD today (unpaid parental leave). So ner. [tongue out emoticon]

Yes, but with their huge pay packets, nervousal, according to the OP, they're supposed to also be able to afford manicures, regular visits to the hair stylist and colourist, and plenty of makeup, which I'm sure they have so much time to keep re-applying and freshen up whilst on shift.

i did wonder ndp...

hope dd is better soon

lol @ 'sock allowance'.

I hope she doesn't have this fecking chickenpox, NDP.

I swear it's going to be an entire month before I finally see the back of that stuff with both girls having had it .

Surfermum - again nothing at all to do with how much they are paid then??

expat - well they could - if they didn't spend all their time off in the pubs in their uniforms - getting them shabbier

expat, not CP thank goodness. She has a bad cold with earache, sore throat, cough and her glands are up. She is on sofa under her duvet playing with Barbie and the sh*tting dog

Nailpolish,

I never said that ITU was a walk in a park. They did when they were comparing it to the floors.

I did say that ITU patients are sicker. I personally know ITU nurses who are scared to come to the floors. I myself am scared to go to ITU.

ITU is probably harder in a lot of ways though. But having less patients is a huge huge help.

sorry your girls are suffering too, expat . It's grim when kids are ill

Aw, NDP! I hope she feels better soon.

There are so many nasty bugs going around just now.

Shitting dog?

Chickenpox is just a pain in the arse, though.

It's gross, too. Those fluid-filled blisters.

Eeeewww.

Lol yes, Barbie has a charming pet called Tanner. He is a golden retriever (I think)who does 'poos'. Barbie has her own little pink poop scoop.

[charming]

Oh, gawd, I had a work colleague who named her son Tanner.

And the first thing I thought of when my boss told us the name was a yellow Lab dog.

Oh yes, I see what you mean now nervousal. I think early on in the thread when that was mentioned we weren't sure if BS (ROFL @ the acronym) was talking about specifically about nurses or other staff who don't wear uniform.

ok just to prove a point

me at start of shift

and end of shift

S'ok for me to look like a scruffy get as I'm not patient-facing

Too funny Nailpolish. I believe it.

Clearly OP has backed out of thread! Go on and get back to applying your lipgloss and straightening your suit or whatever....

I have been nursing for the last 12yrs and this thread is ridiculas.

AnneMayesR, when i read the op i just thought silly person doesn't know what they are talking about. Then i read your posts and the only person on this thread who has given nursing a bad name is you! If i was training to be a nurse right now and read your posts it would put me off and it does appear that what you are saying is highly exaggerated and turning into a game of "i suffer the most" na na na. The situations you descibe do by all means happen but lets be honest here, your not put into a situation every single day where your decision depends on whether that patient is going to live or die there and then. This is not Holby city. If your working on the general medical ward then yes you will be working your ass off but i very much doubt you will have many patients on the ward where they are so near death that your decision means they will die instantly (I don't doubt you never get any but you are making out like EVERY patient is at deaths door.) Most of your patients will have stable conditions not fatal ones. You could have 40 people on a ward who don't all need the nurses attention every minute of the day but don't think just because ITU have less patients it means they have it 'easier'. Those patients in ITU need close attention by the nurse all the time.

You say your not nursing anymore, well that's ok because nursing is not for everyone. When i went into nursing, i knew the pay would be rubbish and hours are long and shift work is never fun but i still went into the field because my main priority was and still is to help the sick people. Sometimes i get home from work, tired and crabby and not wanting to do another shift the next day but at the same time feel wonderful that i helped so many people that day (or night) and helped them get better. Nursing is very rewarding if you remember why your acually there.

Imo, the people who bitched the most about nursing were the ones who were more interested in getting more pay etc and were usually the ones who left. Yes more pay would be lovely but i am not there to earn a huge wage packet, i am there because i get paid an average wage for doing something i love even if it is shit somedays. If you go into nursing for any other reason but to work your ass off to help sick people then you will be very disappointed. Nursing is a huge sacrofice to make and the thank you's are very rare but the reward is the feel good factor on how many people you are helping.

Sorry but it is like that a lot of days and I am by far not the only nurse who feels that way. We are 40 beds medical surgical high dependency and care of the elderly. My trust is a mess, and probably one of the worse. No they should not be mixing those patients together on one ward. We take people on cardiac drips, insulin drips etc.

Sometimes 20 patients are critically ill on that ward and sometimes only 2 are. Staffing is not adjusted.

I think you are putting words into my mouth.

We also get ITU patients when our patients crash and there are no beds in ITU. Staffing is not adjusted.

I really think that you either misread my posts or do not understand the situation.

The patients that you see on the general wards now are much more complex and sicker than 10 years ago. But that doesn't mean that I am implying that every single one of them is on deaths door.

I never once complained about pay.

One question i have is; If you can say this "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."

Does that mean that a woman who's job is that she has just had a baby and is dealing with a newborn as well as looking after her toddler cannot claim she is stressed and is dealing with hardwork just because no ones life is at steak?

I know that you have never mentioned motherhood not being stressful (but based on your original quote, motherhood wasn't excluded as not being hardwork and stressful) but how can you say that you don't want to hear the words stress and hardwork when you are only basing it on one difficult field of work?