Nurses-help me understand please!

[Purpleturtle43]

Very elderly Gran in hospital just now after a fall and has a broken leg. The care from the nurses has been abysmal. She can't sleep as she is freezing, hands are purple. She is meant to be getting helped into a chair every day to prevent being in bed all day, yet nobody has been near her all day. Other days she is left in the chair all day, despite needing to sleep during the day. She presses the buzzer and someone will come and say they will come back and then don't.

This is not about being short staffed as they are all in a room chatting most of the time and there are loads of them. The ones that have tended to her are not always kind even though she is a very placid person and would never be rude or difficult despite her pain.

I feel completely heartbroken broken by this. The chances are she will never get out of hospital now and this is her final days/weeks/months on this Earth and she is having to put up with this.

I feel so awful for people who don't have family to visit and advocate for them.

Does anyone have any experience or advice as to how we can help the situation? Please be kind as we are all really struggling with this situation.

You could contact PALS, the Patient Advocacy and Liaison Service. Copy your message to the trust chief executive and ask for urgent action - give them a deadline. So sorry your Gran is not only ill but being mistreated

Make a complaint to PALS. Tonight, online.

Then, after that, every issue, bring up with the ward manager. If it's not resolved, PALS again.

Get a plan together to get her out of there as quickly as possible. Talk to the hospital social work team too.

Visit as often as possible and phone each day when you can't visit.

Make sure you explain that you are wanting to support the staff but that you have to advocate for your mother. Ask what you can do to help, maybe by supporting feeding by bringing in extra foods or sorting with her during mealtimes? Bring in food that she likes? Does she have a tv? Radio?

I've just supported my dad who's in his late 80s through a five month hospital stay. Two PALS complaints, several meetings with the ward manager. We were getting there with basic care needs but I was very involved. Discovered at one point that he hadn't been showered for over a month...

My daught is a nurse. I just read her this and she’s fuming!

she said: Hello mother, I would say to that person MAKE A FUSS! we have PALS here but I'm not entirely sure what they would have That person needs to stay with their family member make it known that they're not happy with the care that they're getting and go from the otherwise we're not gonna get anything done and take every nurse healthcare person's name that is with that person and as much as you can, and you can name them if they're being rude and abusive to that person

Thank you for your advice. I honestly don't know what would happen if we weren't there for most of the day. My Mum had some quite stern words this afternoon and they were more attentive this evening although it's ridiculous that you need to kick up a fuss to get basic care, like being kept warm 😭. We will definitely be keeping a close eye on thing. The lady in the bed opposite was saying how terrible the care has been for her. You can understand if they are understaffed but this definitely doesn't seem to be the case. My sister was in the other day and nobody was to be seen for over and hour and then there was some kind of drama in the car park and about 6 of them came rushing in to watch it unfold out the window and the straight back out again when it was over. 🙄

Definitely report to PALS - this sounds like a culture problem on that ward. I worked as a bank hca in a hospital for a few years and wards did vary greatly depending on the leadership and culture of the ward.

You must complain to PALS and do so immediately. This is completely unacceptable and I am enraged on your behalf.

She also Things to ask about:
How often is she being moved, 2, 4 or 6 hourly and what’s her waterlow score?
What her pt/ot plan in detail
What’s her pressure areas like 3.g bum, sacrum.
A minimum of two blankets and blankets from home with home pjs

And that it’s despicable and she will come down there!

Absolutely complain - it worked for my Dad who was unlucky enough to be on a ward like this, they moved him in the end, and the other ward had a totally different culture - nurses were out on the ward, rather than being in the nurses station, patients were not ignored when they called out for a nurse, the dinner staff even read the instructions over the bed re low salt food!

Talk to your Gran's doctors and physio too, I found them very helpful with my Dad's issues.

As a PP has said, it's all about ward management and culture, I've seen totally different levels of care on different wards in the same hospital, and I've seen treatment of confused elderly patients which was cruel in its neglect.

It is shocking when it's bad, really cruel.

Complain. Conplaim. Complain.

And I'm a nurse.

Is this a common occurrence with everyone just hanging about chatting in a side room?

Double post.

m a bank nurse so I see a lot of different wards and no, it's not a common occurrence but not unheard of. Just read MN.
It is the wards that are poorly run or don't have enough resources or a good matron. Very often the wards not being popular among staff. Some wards have more applications from nurses than others. A few nurses around wouldn't make it in other more specialised wards.

Unfortunately, it does happen quite a bit.

My previous job was working with elderly people who were in (or coming out of) hospital. Spoke to thousands of people over a long period - and watched the huge decline of hospital and respite care over a period of just over a decade.

Some things I heard were appalling and almost beggared belief about how awful some hospital staff could be to patients. It’s frightening because you can feel too scared to complain just in case they take it out on your loved one.

Also, there’s often no communication between staff, no-one knows what’s going on or can give you a straight and consistent answer. In short, the whole system is broken and disjointed.

I spoke to many people would rather die than go into the local hospital (and sadly I could see why).

Get the matron involved. S/he is likely to cover several wards so unlikely to be there in the scene itself, but push for a discussion (also PALS like others have said). You may wish to consider asking your mum if she gives her consent for you to look at her nursing notes. That should have details regarding pressure area checks etc.

Sadly it can be common on wards and as others have said is often down to a poor culture across the board because nurses like me can’t fight the system despite trying to be as patient centred as possible. So we leave, like I did! I didn’t leave nursing but now work in the community rather than spending 12/13 hours a day trying to do everything for everyone and getting bitched about by my colleagues as a result and feeling like a failure as I knew my patients werent getting the best care they could.

I was thinking that yesterday, I couldn't stand watching that if it was me and I worked there so the good ones probably want transferred to a different ward!

Elderly care nursing in hospitals is beyond appalling, my mum was at the mercy of these 'caregivers' through COVID so we couldn't even visit her, my once upbeat mum would be crying over facetime to me, until the staff couldn't be bothered to charge her phone for her, or her kindle, she was in a room on her own where she barely saw anyone. Pals were helpful in that I finally got to speak to a very rattled and annoyed ward manager who was furious that I hadn't spoken to her before reporting, you wouldn't answer the phone pet!
My mum shouldn't have died in hospital but she did, I think she just gave up with the isolation; they didn't replace her hearing aid batteries so she couldn't hear them so was treat like she had no capacity;
I try not to think about what her last months were like, the nursing staff weren't just neglectful, they were cruel, I hope they receive the same quality of care when they're in need.

The irony is my mum was a nurse and a very good one.

I would never have believed how shockingly poor "care" could be in an NHS hospital until I saw how my father was treated.

I used to be a nurse obviously I dont know the circumstances but it may have been handover time?
So it might of looked like they were chatting but were handing over the care of the patients to the next shift

That's disgusting, I was saying the other day how this would have been a million times worse during COVID. Not only from isolation but also not being able to go and make sure she is being cared for properly, which should not be required.

I don't know how people can live with themselves treating people like that, it's like they forget that older people were once young like them.

I'm so sorry to hear your mum was treated this way, it must be very hard to come to terms with that.

I am quite conscious of not judging people's jobs, as I am a teacher and we get so much judgement. We have all noticed it at varying times of the day so it's definitely not just handover time.

In my hospital I saw a big sign with a phone number you can ring if you're not happy with the care you or someone is receiving for whatever reason.

Guessing this is for more immediate problems that are happening

Maybe there's one where you are?

I'm so sorry. You really need to complain about this appalling "care". My dm was so traumatised after being in a ward that when she was given a terminal diagnosis she became distraught at the thought of being on "that" ward again. We decided to care for her at home.
Please don't let your gran suffer for this shitty excuse for "nursing".
Complain, make a fuss
💐

This is despicable and yes I agree, phone and email PALs and again speak to the nurse in charge or matron.
I worked as HCA on a rehabilitation ward and I was appalled at the lack of care interaction.
I would go round and ask each patient are they ok, is there anything I could do for them. Rather than sit on my backside and gossip and eat like the rest of the staff. Due to this I was bullied and made to feel like a trouble maker . Even on other wards the staff once they had basic wash and dress of patients would kind of hide and do nothing until the end of the shift when they would be a handover for the next lot of staff coming on duty. Again I was made to feel I was being unreasonable for saying,
why are you not checking on patients ?
Hence I left the NHS I can’t believe how rubbish some staff are. It doesn’t help that shifts are 12 hours and some staff will work 5 days a week, so they were tired and bad tempered! It shouldn’t be allowed to work those kind of back to back shifts. When there is enough staff to cover . The greedy ones wanting the money always got to pick and choose what shifts they wanted.
so sorry this is happening to your relative, as come one-else mentioned take in extra blankets and cardigan and sometimes I used towels as a scarf to keep patients warm especially the elderly.