Do nursing staff not wash patients anymore or change sheets?

[keepswimming38]

My daughter has been admitted to hospital with meningitis. She’s on an infectious diseases ward. I’ve been by her side most of the day for 3 days and despite her not being able to move as she is so weak, not one nurse has asked her if she wants to freshen up, have a wash, change her sheets. I’ve done it for her. Is this usual? The nurses are sat next to their little computer trolleys, or chatting at nurses station, so not all run off their feet I would say.

I was bedbound in hospital last year for a week and they brought soap and a bowl of hot water daily. I preferred to wash myself but could have had help. I think your hospital is weird

@Wishiwasatailorreally so someone with meningitis and you wouldn’t be worried about skin integrity. That’s worrying!

It is usual these days, yes. Especially if HCAs are in short supply.

My son was 8 at the time when he was in hospital in 2024 and I was told that washing him etc was my job as a parent.

I was on a ward where staff would sit around a table on their phones at times, and they never offered to shower my dad. I had to do it.

This was not my experience during a recent hospital stay. I will say though that the nurses on our ward (gastro) were busy doing the more medical stuff (drips, monitors, changing bags of various sorts) and the HCA helped w washing. Can't remember who did the beds but they were done every day too.

When my mil was in with a broken hip she was helped to wash every day.

🤔🙄

@keepswimming38 I wish your dd a quick recovery. Is this in Kent and part of the recent outbreak?

My friend is a nurse of 30 years standing and she goes mad about this. She works in cardiac Hdu and she said some of her colleagues wouldn’t even think about personal care for patients. She is run off her feet on nights , but says she strives to leave her patients fresh in a clean tidy bed, shaven if they are up to it .
She has improvised to wash hair and all sorts , I’m really proud of her
patient care.
I wouldn’t leave any of my elderly family in hospital these days without a daily visit.

I had a very traumatic birth and I was even more traumatised when I politely asked if someone could change my sheets - everything was so wet, stained (sweat, blood,etc) .I spent 4 days in soaked sheets, my husband literally bring me to blankets from home as I couldn't sleep. Staff was furious, told me "it's still clean ",etc. Very humiliating.

When my df was in hospital last year on palliative care some of the nurses were shockingly uncaring.
A nurse sat in the bay on her mobile desk drinking Costa coffee whilst an old man kept asking for a cup of tea, and no he wasn’t nbm. She told him the tea trolley would be round soon which I knew was a lie.
My df started vomiting coffee grounds vomit and she wasn’t going to offer help until I called her over and then I had to tell her to fetch a doctor.

My uncle in another hospital got 5 chicken nuggets and 10 chips for his lunch the day I visited. He’s 91. He asked me what the chicken nuggets were. That wouldn’t fill my 4 year old dgc. His nurses were lovely though compared to my dad’s.

A colleague, 10 years ago, used to refer to the NHS as the No Hope Service, It’s unfortunately true in some areas.

What a stupid thing to say.

Same, I had to stay in hospital for 6 days after giving birth in a filthy bed (blood, sweat, milk) 😔 my husband kept asking for new sheets and in the end brought stuff from home. I had an infection as well so you would think cleanliness should be prioritised. Horrible experience. The staff were lovely but just didn't have time

Edited to add, I hope your DD is feeling better soon OP, you must be incredibly stressed ❤

This! I was hospitalised with pneumonia few years ago, more than week I struggled to turn around in the bed , nevermind to advocate myself.

So sorry to hear about your DD @keepswimming38 .

I hope she makes a full recovery 💐

DH spent 6 weeks in hospital last year (heart surgery) and had his sheets changed every few days. He was capable of washing himself most of the time except for a few days after his surgery, so I helped him.

The cleaners came round every day to wipe all surfaces with anti bacterial wipes and clean the floors. This was in Sheffield and Barnsley.

Absolutely shocking! It has been a while since I was in hospital but this is basic hygiene. No wonder there are so many hospital acquired infections.

I can only assume no one is 'shouting' about this because no one is complaining to PALS. Please report to PALS. It will get logged and if enough people do this, then eventually something will get done. The nursing staff won't generally do this, but the HCAs should.

Sorry for the rant, but having experienced care in hospital in a lower to middle income country where healthcare was scarce, this is absolutely 101 basic stuff and my family and colleagues overseas would be horrified by this.

There’s nursing staff and there’s the healthcare. You will not appreciate the staff shortages or the demoralisation / demotivation in the NHS, especially with the current level of shortages. It has got worse recently.

It has become the norm lately for nurses to not help healthcare staff and then be told to ‘organise amongst themselves’. If you have only got 3 or 4 healthcare staff on a typical ward of 30 odd beds it becomes difficult, can you see why? Some of those will be ‘doubles’ , people who can’t even roll themselves and require regular 4 hrly or even 2 hrly turns, with pad changes: perhaps 10 or even 15 on one of those wards will be in that state. Staff are fed up and I’m fed up of the demands and entitlement that sees men twice or three times my weight and half again my height expecting me to be able to ‘just’ lug them over to their chairs on my own- their health is not worth more than mine.

With that kind of workload anyone who is mobile to any degree will be left to themselves. If we don’t get through those with turns we’ll be seeing headlines in the mail about lazy unproductive NHS staff on generous public sector pensions causing pressure sores. We know that and it is not helping us to want to help when we do have an odd spare moment.

Having been left to myself with a dozen patients 4 of whom were doubles and could not even feed themselves recently a senior nurse did tell me that the expectation of daily washes is now unrealistic and sometimes we will not be able to do it.

I also don’t think you quite get what it is to be running around on your feet all day for 12 hours with only 2 half hour breaks actually means in terms of staff exhaustion and morale.

When I last worked on a ward a few years ago, it was mainly the HCAs who went round helping people wash, change sheets etc. us nurses were doing less and less of this, although I liked to do it because washing a patient helps you assess all kinds of things, such as skin integrity, mobility etc. unfortunately I was sitting at the computer a lot, because more and more we were having all this pointless online paperwork to fill out, which was basically a tick box exercise but we got into trouble if we didn't do it. Glad I got off the wards!

@OneAmberGoosewhy is it stupid? I was asking to figure out the best course of action, hence then suggesting that her mum asks the nurses. It’s what I had to do when admitted recently - I don’t think it’s stupid to ask if someone is able to ask for assistance.

Beds should be changed and patients should be aided as needed to wash or be washed. Hcas tend to do of a lot of the cares/obs on many wards. Some trusts have daily rounding where it lists things like this, food given, washes, regular drinks etc they have to tick it each hour or every few hoursz My dad had similar last year too.

Also just because the nurses are on computers doesn’t mean they aren’t working l. The admin/notes/meds etc is all on computer and takes ages and they will have many patients.

It’s no excuse tho so you should ask/complain that she hasn’t had her hygiene needs taken care of.

Usually in pediatrics the parent is expected to wash their own child but a staff nurse or HCA will change sheets for you on the morning round.

In an adult ward normally sheets are changed or they were years ago! And patients were offered a wash regularly whether bed bath.

I have noticed the standards have really dropped over the years though. Probably due to staff shortages. Please speak up for your DD and ask on her behalf. She deserves to have fresh sheets and a bed bath at the very least if she's bed bound.

There are many reasons why someone may not be able to advocate for themselves in hospital but really she shouldn't have to for basic nursing care in hospital.

Yes, this is why the nurses are not helping as much. They are also on skeletal staff levels and have all the medications to hand out, all associated risk assessment to complete, and all the specific health and safety checks to complete for each individual tablet.

And I wish your DD a speedy recovery too❤️

My sister was in hospital recently for a knee replacement. I took in everything I needed to give her a proper, old-fashioned bed bath.

As you say, the nurses were huddled at the desk, with their computers.

Also my experience. Spent days in my own blood stained sheets. Had an infection. DH had to hunt down the linen cupboard eventually and get them himself.

can you ask them to give her a wash?