Need advice on how to handle horrible nurses

[CorrodedCoffin]

My mum is currently hospitalised following a broken hip. She will likely still be in hospital over Christmas and she’s just lost her mum so she is obviously a little more emotional that usual, but she has been phoning me up over the last week in tears because 2 night nurses on her ward have been making her feel terrible for needing the toilet.
During the day she has absolutely no problems and can’t sing the praises of her nurses enough, so I know she doesn’t have a problem with nurses in general.

Basically, she can’t go to the toilet unaided and they have a wheeled commode that the nurses are supposed to bring to her, and then clean her up afterwards. Apparently these two nurses have been making a big deal about her needing the toilet at night. Last night she was kept waiting so long she ended up going in her bed. They then forgot about her and she was too embarrassed/frightened to call out to them again, so she spent all night in it until the day nurses arrived in the morning and cleaned her up. Again, all the day nurses have been wonderfully supportive and told her that accidents happen and not to worry herself about it, but she’s agonising over the thought that the night nurses will have a go at her tonight if they find out what she did.

I want to ring the hospital and say something but I’m really not sure how to handle this kind of situation. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

That’s awful. I hope you get to speak to the ward manager to sort it out.
i Have never forgotten an awful midwife on night duty when I had my first. This was over 20 years ago. Why are these people even in the caring profession??

Just a quick update for those of you following this :
I phoned the hospital and spoke with the sister in charge. My mum had been brave enough to approach her already but it was good to give that extra bit of support to her claims. The sister was incredibly apologetic and said that she would write an email to the ward manager. I will be keeping a close eye on things and hopefully we will see an improvement.

A massive thank you to all of you that took the time to respond - you were all a big help. And I am so so saddened to hear that many of you and your relatives have had similar experiences. There are some truly wonderful nurses out there, it’s just a shame some don’t even have an ounce of compassion to offer.

Hope things improve OP, what a worry 💐

@hashbrownsandwich oh give over and stop being so bloody daft.
I said they MAY be HCA's, not must.

As a midwife I constantly hear 'the midwife yesterday said xyz' I check the notes and it's never the midwife, it's the hearing screener or the health visitor or the support worker or the student or the flipping bounty lady. Patients see uniform or scrubs and think 'nurse', understandably.

Nursing numbers, like midwives, are low. There are more HCA's than midwives on my ward, and they do most of the actual care. Which is why I said it may have been the HCA.