To think this nurse shouldn't have laughed / scoffed at me for asking for a room?

[supertrainers]

Last night at 3 am I had to take my DD to a and e as she was struggling with her breathing.

Unfortunately this coincided with me having been up all night already vomiting. Second night in a row. It's not a stomach bug, before anyone says I shouldn't have taken my child to the hospital.

I was feeling absolutely rotten. Two nights of no sleep, worry for my DD. Pain, nausea. Everything.

I'm familiar with the hospital as I have found myself many times in there with one of my children in the middle of the night.

Most of the time, we get offered a room, once we've been triaged. Not always, but more often than not. The room has a bed in it and we just stay in there and the doctors come in and out.

I said to the triage nurse last night that I was also feeling extremely unwell and are there any rooms we could possibly wait in. I said I'm sorry for asking and I wouldn't ask unless I really needed to.

She did a scoff / laugh at me for even asking. 9 times out of 10 we have a room and you scoff at me ? I was taken aback by it and in my horrible state for her to just laugh / scoff at me was super rude. I told her, I understand but I really don't appreciate you laughing at me for even asking. I'm really unwell and I wouldn't ask you. It's not very nice that you laughed.

She denied laughing at me. I left it at that and went and sat on the plastic chairs for 6 hours.

I guess it depends on the hospital though? Our paeds a&e is tiny and they only have two private rooms…. So in this instance it would be for someone like that if they needed to attend the emergency department surely?

ive only been a few times but it’s either been someone who was clearly an emergency case or someone with a very tiny baby who has used those rooms

What do you suggest then? Build an extension with individual rooms?

I mean to be honest I would scoff if someone asked me to wait in a room for children because the adult was sick and we were burst full to the rafters and someone had vomited on me and I’d had 6 parents try to attack me because they were thinking how dare we leave them for more than 4 hours (which happens often)that I was just spat on….some guy said he was going to get me outside work and kill me because I hadn’t looked at his bad toe in the last 3 hours because I was dealing with drunk drivers who had killed 2 teenagers and having to explain to their parents how sorry I was that I was unable to save their kids and that I had been crying for the last 4 hours because my own mental health and the way the staff treat each other and the way to drs talk to us or the way the painters thing they should be seen first.

yup. I’d scoff (not laugh because they aren’t always synonymous ) because they’re being pushed to the actual limit right now.

I think you're right she should not have laughed (I don't know if it was AT you, or at the state of the NHS however). But I would urge you to let it go. It sounds like the care you got was not putting you or your kid in any danger and that they're observing what is happening and that is helpful.

Sometimes when we are under enormous stress (you/ she) we over-react to things that at other times we might not be so bothered about.

Single rooms as for infective patients, Covid, flu, c diff, MRSA etc, immunosuppressed patients at high risk, and end of life patients. Yes in that order. So yes that means there very well may be a 80 year old who has worked and paid taxes his whole life dying behind a curtain with no privacy and dignity for him and his family to grieve. Yes if you don’t ask you don’t get but that nurse is probably struggling to find beds for those very patients and yes unprofessionally scoffed at you for asking for one because people are dying on trolleys. It shows a slight disregard for the current situation facing the NHS, their staff and the public. Take your anger to the polls.

This! And so many going out of their way to criticise the OP! Of course she was likely to deny it when challenged! What is wrong with some of you?!

I had to stay overnight with my ill DC1 in a children's hospital (pneumonia and DC was a toddler). I was 6 months pregnant and couldn't even get a drink of water. I hadn't eaten all day as I'd rushed my child to the GP who sent us straight to A&E. Luckily one nurse took pity on me and brought me toast and Ribena, before DH finally got to us. Sometimes these places are less than ideal.

A lot of really nice, caring and great people are turned into people without souls after a few years working for NHS. I wouldn't ask my worst enemy to train and work as a nurse.

When my DD was 13 and rushed in for an emergency appendectomy (2hrs from death from peritonitis we were later told) I was scoffed at for wanting to stay in with her. By a nurse. Awful.
They should not have laughed at you. Where the compassion? X

Err this. Plus people conflating needs and wants. Thinking nurses work in hospitality -they don’t. I don’t miss working on wards due to the bad attitudes by some patient. Yeah lm thinking about the visitor who would demand a drink as soon as they arrived. They lived literally 20 odd minutes away. They weren’t the patient. Unlike the staff they weren’t probably doing 13 hours straight with no break and probably leaving late. Then quite possibly having to do the same tomorrow

Doubt that you'd find a dying 80 year old in children's A&E!!

During my child’s last A&E visit before a several weeks long admission she was observed in adult A&E whilst very ill and waiting for a bed. She stood out quite a lot due to her condition and had a canula in her hand so kept being stared at. I was just grateful she was being monitored and getting a bed. Wouldn’t have dreamt of demanding a room. I get that patients unable to sit and needing to lie down should be in bays or rooms for end of life but not a vomiting adult and a child that just needs obs. A&E is full of patients vomiting waiting hours. It’s normal. You couldn’t provide a room for everybody vomiting.

@supertrainers and how did you 'hold her to account' exactly?
And where? In the busy a&e waiting room?

What's wrong with asking for a drink of water? Is that so terrible?

I’m getting the sense that OP is a regular at the hospital and thinks that comes with privileges.

My niece was that child - but whenever she went to A+E she was straight onto a bed with a nebuliser. A child, or indeed an adult, having an asthma attack would be placed on a nebuliser immediately.

Ha.

don’t believe that at all that you don’t really care

😂😂😂

I'm getting the sense that the OP was feeling very unwell and just wanted to lie down.

Not in our hospital there isn’t.

its either for the contagious or the very sick

She shouldn't have laughed but maybe she was shocked at the question. An adult asking for a room in children's A&E because they are unwell is cheeky. If they had a spare room I'm sure your DD would have been in it. The nurses will have enough to do managing the beds/rooms and patients and rightly so the sick and injured children are going to be their priority.

Yes this happens at my a&e, i understand why but it seems like you wait longer but guess for overall traffic flow it’s better. I see people on drips back in the waiting room.

years ago I worked in antenatal assessment ward, aka pregnancy a&e. Women would wait two hours for a room, have a blood test, wait two hours for a result before we could call the dr and then wait again to be seen by a dr. So I started doing bloods in the waiting room, no reason why not to from an infection control pov. Saved everyone two hours of waiting. The ward sister bollocked me and said it was unprofessional and I was to stop it. Now they do it in the main a&e 😁

Along with all the very ill patients attending A&E. Everybody waiting to be treated in A&E wants to lie down. Why would somebody not even attending A&E for themselves get priority?

Did your child actually need any treatment? Does your child ever need treatment? Or are you habitually attending just for obs and being discharged? Because if it’s the latter and you are a frequent flier with no need for treatment, I’m sure you can appreciate how the staff may find it a bit exasperating and momentarily lose their cool when you act like you’re at a hotel reception not an A&E. Room allocation is best on clinical need for the patient not parent.

She was probably just completely smacked as our AE is full of people lining the corridors and bays with no trolley or bed never mind a frigging room!! I guess it was a complete joke??
She shouldn't have laughed but was probably just amazed at something so stupid being asked.

Of course the nurse laughed. Why did they not book you into the nearest hotel and bring you a personal doctor and nurse?

Sorry to be so flippant, but I wouldn't have expected a private room prior to the NHS being on it's knees - unless there was an extremely important need for it.

So frustrating that you didn't enable voting.

I do hope that you are all feeling better though, or will be eventually, and that is sincere.

Is there a chance that, having been there at least 10 times by what you’ve said in your posts, she’s also noticed you before and is therefore aware that you 1) are in A&E a lot and 2) are nearly always given special privileges?