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.

Wards absolutely have buzzers and if they don’t there is something seriously wrong!

If this happens again ask to speak to the ward pharmacist. They should explain protocol re drugs and if there’s been a drug error they should take it v seriously. However, they may not admit it to you outright . Health care professionals very rarely criticise another HCP to patients, even if in fact they have a low opinion of said HCP.

A relative of mine had a dreadful experience in hospital whilst there for a planned operation.

She didn't make a formal complaint, but sent a letter with "suggestions". At the time she was on a hospital inspection team in another area, but her hospital staff seemed oblivious to this.

No not at all, on the last visit she also was attached to all sorts, but I did do everything myself and ask for help when I needed it. Things obviously vary greatly from hospital to hospital. We are in and out a fair bit , disabilities, cancer, I guess I’ve just got used to making myself at home !

How is your DD doing op. Is she getting better?

So @turkeyboots would you just sit there while the nurses washed and changed your child? You wouldn’t want to be involved in this in anyway? See this is also the issue, there is a sense of entitlement these days with the general public seeking medical care. The NHS is on its knees, there are NO nurses and the ones that remain are expected to provide medical care to 20-30 patients yet people will moan if they wait a few hours for a nurse to get to them on the community (the nurse has likely been driving around the city to other patients, not, as this thread suggests sitting eating cake) and they will still sit beside their child who needs changed and go ‘meh they are in hospital so it’s a nurses job’ Sorry… no.

Sorry that was to OP and anyone who thought I was harsh!

I work as a hca. Yes we wash patients and change sheets.
speak to the ward sister/manager.

Agree 100
This scorn on nurses having degrees is misogynistic
I'm sick of hearing "in my day nurses nursed" rhetoric
And don't even start me on the obsession with nurses uniforms
Yes, bad care does exist

But it's not just nurses

I think it depends how much care the individual patient needs. A year ago I spent nine nights on Female Orthopaedic with a broken hip and wrist (the right, my dominant one as luck would have it). Apart from a bed bath the morning after my THR surgery, I was responsible for washing myself. I would request towels, fresh gowns etc. and a nurse would bring a bowl of hot water, fetch my toiletries bag from my locker, and draw the curtains round so I could get on with it.

I had a shower a couple of times during my stay, when DH would help me, pushing me in a wheeled shower chair into the bathroom and helping me undress and dress again etc.

My bedding was changed about every three days, which I think was fine, as I wasn't soiling it, so it didn't need changing every day. Again, I think that would depend on the individual patient's circumstances.

The ward was incredibly busy, and even though I could just about haul myself up the bed and to sitting with my left hand, I was very obviously encouraged to be as independent as possible. The OP's daughter clearly needs a lot more care which doesn't seem to be forthcoming, which is very concerning. Although for years now, spouses or relatives etc. have been encouraged to help provide basic care with washing etc. presumably to take the pressure off already short staffed wards. Personally, I'd rather be helped by DH than a nurse, but other patients need more care from nurses that they're not getting, which is very worrying.

It will be because you are there that they aren’t checking. They will have seen you caring for her so they don’t need to do it.

If you need some help caring for her then ask politely. I am not surprised the nurse got snotty with you if you approached them with the same attitude you seem to have here. Nurses and HCA’s are entitled to speak to each other during their shift and also to take breaks. I can guarantee they weren’t just standing around chatting. It is understandable that you are stressed and worried about your DD but no need to take it out on the staff.

An entitlement to be cared for? In a hospital? You don’t think that’s a pretty low bar you’ve set there

That sounds awful. I just wonder where your Hospital is? Me. I’ve just spent three weeks in a South London Hospital you get a menu with about 50 choices with subsection for all kinds of dietary requirements care and help with fantastic. Maybe they get more money down here.

How unkind you are.

It is the hospitals employees’ jobs to care for their patients not to assume that family will do their jobs for them.

What a load of shite!

I’m a nurse (admittedly on a paeds ward) and i have zero desire to move to admin! I changed patients sheets myself in the HCA is busy! But if a family member is there 24 hours a day the assumption is they do personal care. However you can ask for help!

admittedly sometimes we are so so short staffed that I go home upset that proper care hasn’t been carried out that shift.

but please don’t tar all nurses with the same brush. We are working in a failing establishment.

I’ve had several stays in hospital, in Devon, and my mum spent weeks in one in south west London. At both, the beds were changed every day. I thought that was a given.

The attitude here is what is wrong with society. We show up when people need help and care for our children. The NHS is there to help in times of need, not be at your beck and call.

She is getting the clinical care needed yet OP chose to berate the nursing staff for not bathing someone who has been bathed?

As a nurse, when I worked in the hospital we assisted patients to wash every day. I work in the community now, I am a nurse manager. We have end of life patients who have multiple daily calls to attend to their hygiene needs. I would speak to the nurse and say she needs help. Not that you should have to. My sister was in hospital a few years ago. She was late 20s. They didn't wash or help her for 5 days. I went in to help her shower in the end. She had been so unwell and had a tampon in since before she was admitted. When she was admitted she had been sedated, so no one was clearly checking her, making sure she was clean and tidy.

Depends on he wards - FIl got it on most wards he was on though he was discharge with a catheter still in late at night with no instructions for ongoing care.

Dad didn't though basic care was often also missing like getting drugs in him at all let alone of time.

Recently with Mum they didn't even get her clothes off her - she was left for three days in clothes she went in - partly due to injury but she was desperate for a wash and change of clothes - I had to help her when home. They did offer to let me or Dsis put as uppository in for her - which none of us wanted including mum.

So do you think parents should sit there while the nurse changes the child’s nappy and spoon feeds them ? Seriously ? When your child is in hospital you are still responsible for them you don’t just hand over all your usual parental responsibilities to the nurses and hcas.

I don't think it's shocking but it was definitely difficult at times. It meant I often only ate once a day, felt guilty about needing the loo and went without my own shower.

I was a Nurse for 30 years and patients were always washed . My last 15 years of Nursing was spent in a hospice and we would never stop until all patients were washed. For some in pain or with motor neurone disease this could take hours. I appreciate we were better staffed than many NHS wards though. We even went round on an evening shift and gave them a freshen up before bed ! Like you though if my elderley dad went into our local hospital I honestly would not leave his side.

There is a shite load of difference between changing a pre- toilet trained child's nappy and a 20 year old needing personal care.

I was offered a wash while unable to have a shower (drip one side and drain in my lung on the other) but declined - not so decrepit that I’d want anyone washing me! I was given the large, moisturised ‘wet wipes’ they use instead.

Had to ask more than once during the night for bottom sheet to be changed, because of the drenching sweats I was experiencing. HCAs usually did it promptly enough. Luckily I had a dh bringing in plenty of clean dry PJs every day!

Worst thing was being unable to wash my hair - I felt horrible. But one day dh helped me do it with a jug over a basin, phew.

In the last few years of her life my Mum spent time in three different wards at the Royal Berks Hospital. The Stroke Ward and the lungs one were absolutely brilliant - she was washed, bed changed, clean gown, ensured water was within reach, offered tea and coffee. The geriatric ward was an absolute disgrace - water out of reach, not offered a bed bath, sheets not changed, buzzers not answered. One woman fell out of her bed and was lying on the floor. I went to find a nurse, who told me that the woman “liked lying on the floor” and they left her there. All the patients were given something to make them sleep every night. My Mum had a locker that wouldn’t lock and had her purse and a silver necklace stolen from there (fortunately only £10 in the purse and no cards). I complained to the nurse in charge, who got aggressive with me. This was all in one hospital, and such differing standards of care.