Any nurses out there? How are things in your trust?

[AnneMayesR]

My trust is a mess to be honest. I work on a general medical ward that has been combined with a general surgical ward and we also take HDU and care of elderly. Bad bad combination but the managers are closing wards and restructuring and making a mess of everything.

We have no staff, no beds, no resources and there is a recruitment freeze so they will not hire. There are no jobs anywhere so we are stuck where we are. Managers have been overheard saying that the staff will just have to suck it all up because there are no jobs in the country or anywhere else to go.

They want to make thousands of redundancies but the community spoke out against this. But the managers still want rid of nursing staff so they are making our lives as hellish as possible. People are leaving in droves and they are not being replaced.

Staffing is so bad and the patients are so acute that it is very easy to work a 12-14 hour shift with no break and nothing to eat and barely scrape by. The patients and their families get very abusive because they have unreasonable expectations and expect one to one care. They really need a reality check.

One of my colleagues came on duty and was going to be on her own with 30 highly dependent and acutely ill post op surgical patients as well as confused and deteriorating general medical patients. She called the matron begging for help and was told "tough shit". Six of her patients fell that shift because they were confused and there was no one to help them. One crashed and went to ITU. One dropped her urine output to zero and it wasn't caught for about 5 hours which isn't surprising considering everything else that was happening.

Then the relatives and patients are bitching about the nurses "not doing this and not doing that". They have no idea, no idea whatsoever. It is very easy for the managers to intentionally short staff the wards because the public will blame the nurses when all hell breaks loose. It's like they think we all have magical powers and can astro project and be everywhere at once.

I come home after a 14 hour day rushed off my feet and I can't eat or sleep for days. I lie awake worrying that I made a mistake that might kill someone. I can't deal with my kids. I just kind of zone out. If everyone is still breathing at the end of the day you have worked your ass off.

The managers know very well the dangers of short staffing and that if something happens the nurse will take the fall and lose her registration, possibly get charged with manslaughter. The nurse will be the recipient of the wrath from the public. The managers get no comeback whatsoever. They staff our ward with 1 or 2 nurses when there are 20 patients who need to be fed and 10 patients who are actively trying to die on us and then people say "nurses can't be bothered to feed people".

Why aren't unison, the RCN, or the NMC saying a damn thing about it. Where the hell are they? They definitely know what goes on.

How are things in your trust?

OMG. that was have to not half to.

we have 3 or 4 staff nurses ad 1 or 2 hcas for dayshift, but on nights it can be as little as i sn and i hca

that should be 1 sn

i once told a relative that I would be a while to do a dressing as we had a patient dying and were busy and was told

' I dont care about the 23 other patients on the ward, as far as I am concerned my mother is the only patient on this ward'

How do you get past thick ppl like that!!!

Our nightshift nurse was on her own last night with 34 high dependency/acute medical/care of the elderly/ post op gynae patients. She had 5 empty beds so they refused to send her more staff. An hour into her shift they tried to slam her with 5 admissions..2 transfers from MAU because A&E
was full and 3 acutes (surgical).

She told them no way as she was refusing to accept admissions. It went up the chain to the chief who was called at home and the message got back to her that if she does not accept those admissions she is on a final warning. She is already on final warning for something else..she refused to discharge a patient who had dementia and immobility home ASAP with no care in place. They wanted the guy out because they needed a bed.

Well it's the first time in months that anyone in management has answered us anyway.

I was talking with someone in A&E and she said that on their busiest day they were only staffed with one sister and one HCA for the whole of A&E. This is a district general hospital that gets absolutely slammed. She also told me that people died in the waiting room.

The powers that be declare that we are adequately staffed. I couldn't make this up I swear.

I am now off with stress. I cannot eat or sleep because of that place. I am job hunting and will take anything outside of the NHS until we move abroad.

i would stay off with stress until you find a new job. If things were as bad as that at my hospital, i would take anything. Sod the money!!!

your place sounds truely terrible, How awful for all involved.

I'm off to the job centre on monday.

Anne, sorry things have got even worse. Once you are out of there, please, please, please contact the Healthcare Commission. That chief exec needs firing, for a start, as do many of the other people in the chain of command.

I'm sorry if I missed you saying already but would you mind saying where abouts in the country you are roughly?

This is so shocking....and the very reason why I have decided not to return into Nursing, if I can help it!

I recently signed an online petition about Nurse staffing ratios...but the governement made up some feeble...oh but we can't tell anyone how many Nurses they need....well...not the effing point, is it....it's about ensuring there is a minimum requirement...no one says anything about the maximum limit...

It must be very frustrating to be getting complaints from relatives, etc....however...if you were in their position, without background knowledge, would you not do the same...because it is unacceptable...not your fault, but non the less unacceptable....maybe make the relatives aware that it is the staffing levels that need adressing, and that maybe they should write complaints about those....

Tbh, I think there are far far to many managers, which are often completely unessary, maybe they should sack those and employ some ward nurses instead...

This is why I left nursing

The thing that gets me is that the relatives know we are short staffed...they know it.

Yet they still write a ten letter of complaint because "the nurse made me wait too long for a commode"

The problem is they do not understand how much the nurses have going on...the patients who are dying....the 1000 meds that need to be located, mixed, given, monitered and no second chances if they are late..the assessments....acute admits, discharges, sudden crashes...

They want you to handle all that simultaneously for 30 people alone then be there whenever they want their pillows fluffed and a cuppa foe each and every patient. Oh and change every wet bed as soon as it becomes wet. Yeah sure I can do that for 15 people while admitting 3 acutes and doing a drug round. Yep.

What. The. Fuck. is their malfunction?

I don't want to say where I am but I have written to the health care commision. Monday morning I am phoning. Hopefully they will actually help unlike the RCN, Unison and the NMC.

Our managers/matrons/chief nurses etc are still refusing to speak/meet with us.

Our ward manager has had enough and gone off on long term sick recently. She has found herself working shifts like the ones I describe.

The only message that has come down from the top is if any nurse refuses admissions etc there will be disciplinary action.

We have always been a very underfunded trust.

Anne...the problem is, that patients have a right to be cared for, and, that at the end of the day it isn't really their problem whatever else is going on on the ward...
but, like I said it must be frustrating, and the situation where you work is unacceptable for everyone, nurses and patients alike....it is such a stupid way to try and save money (obviously an idea that someone clueless came up with), because surely it only takes a little bit of commonsense to understand that a good staffing level means much less secondary infections and other problems that will be unavoidable if there aren't enough nurses...

They absolutely have a right to be cared for. If I had my way they would get 100x more than they expect.

But if they complained about the staffing instead of the nurses we might get somewhere.

crikey Ann, if nothing this has allowed you to let rip and write down on here what it is you are going through.
When you feel like there is NO ONE listening, you need an outlet.

I thought that our trust had problems as we have the very same situations that you describe.
However, over the last month or so, some one (im not sure who) has come up trumps and has surprised us all to the core.
We have had to open another 70 beds or so to accomodate the medical overspill. Winter pressures and all that.
Any way, every study day has been cancelled.
the teaching staff/matrons/practice development staff/ward managers have all been instructed to get a pinny on and get your hands dirty.
This has meant that any one with a nursing qual has had to get onto the wards and work their asses off.
A brilliant stroke of pr, boosted staff morale.....
But a sticking plaster over the problem.
The jobs bulletin is bursting at the seams with advertised jobs and our trust has just got Foundation status.
Changes are afoot.
I thank my lucky stars that i work in ICU.
However, from an ICU point of view, we do recieve allot of patients whos conditions are pure and simply down to neglect.
Every one of the staff that i work with feel 10000x sorry for you girls on the wards because we know what conditions you are working in.
We feel sad for the patients, and we feel dreadful for you girls.
I absolutely agree 100% with you about the public having a lack of understanding and reporting staff left right and centre.
You just need to come on this forum regularly and there are threads started about crap midwives.crap nurses.crap health visitors, crap Doctors.
It grinds you down and makes you sad.
Sounds to me like you are motivated and down right determined to force the issue with people who need to listen.
Good on you girl.

absoutley Anne...

What can they do to me when I whistleblow if I am no longer an NHS employee?

Can they report me to the NMC for unprofessionalism or poor conduct? I have heard some really bad tales about people losing their professional licenses or had them suspended. They whistleblew and their trusts reported them to the GMC/NMC for unprofessional conduct and lied about them.

And believe me I am going to whistleblow like mad. This has gone on for years but has gotten way worse over the last 8 months. I am way past waiting for things to improve. We are supposedly going for foundation status. Ha ha ha.

They are torturing my patients. Don't mess with my patients. Especially the cute little vulnerable old ones with dementia who die in pain from lack of decent nursing care with bedsores covered in shit. Their wards always get the least in the way of resources.

We are technically acute med and acute surgery but most of the time 1/3 to 2/3 of our beds are care of the elderly.

A very difficult position that you are in, no doubt.

Have you handed your notice in?

Not yet as I need to find another job. I have young children and experience with special needs...wonder of a teaching assistant post would be suitable? I don't swear so much in real life!! I have two degrees : one in nursing and the other in Biology.

I also have an interest in real estate. I won't look into a nursing home. I want to stay away from nursing period. I have only ever worked as a nurse since I was so young. I have no secretarial, IT skills or anything.

I quite fancy working as a waitress too, did that once as a teenager and enjoyed it. If you work in the right place you can get paid well with the tips.

I am not picky. This is what I want in a new job:
A. Notice of what shifts I will be working more than a week in advance

B. No switching between days and nights constantly. Our manager puts us on 2 night shifts monday and Tuesday, then a day shift Thursday then a night shift sunday then back to days for 2 shifts etc etc.

C. No 8-14 hour shifts with no food, water or a break.

D.No life and death responsibility with no back up.

I will take anything that doesn't involve any of the above.

Our matrons, specialist nurses will NOT come near the wards. They run away.

Anne, have you thought about retraining as an OT...(that is what I am hoping I will be doing come September)...with your Nursing registration still in place it might be possible to do the OT degree in 2 years, or instead, you could go for an masters in OT maybe...

If you have any experience with Diabetis (and I think I remember you had, but can't be bothered to read the thread back right now, sorry....) maybe have a look on the Cambridge Diet website, they sometimes look for Nurses with experience in Diabetis care....it would mean regular 9-5 work, and tends to be quite well paid, too...

Teaching assistents don't earn very much, so, that might cause a problem for you....

As I said earlier look for a practice nursing job.

Regular hours, manageable caseload (bloody busy non-stop clinics but we can provide quality care) and even a cup of tea twice a day!

anne, just wondering if you went to job centre???