I was out with a group of work friends last night. A group of about 8 of us who started off as colleagues, all managing services around 2 years ago try to get out for dinner and a good chat every couple of months or so. The changes we have seen in our PCT(s) over recent times, that many of us are now doing different jobs, most of us have been through some kind of unpleasant experience work wise so it is great to have a group of people who can relate to each other like this.
One of our number has just got back to work following surgery and was sad to report that her experiences in a local NHS establishment had not been the best. This had started with having to plead not to be sent home while the list was canceled; there was no recognition that you might have gone on sick leave from work, arranged child care and generally psyched yourself up to get this surgery out of the way when you are told suddenly that they are short of an anesthetist today so will be canceling the whole list! Then waking in terrible pain, because the anesthetist they managed to find didn’t usually do this list and didn’t think you would need more than voltarol! But the worst experiences seemed to concern the knowledge, attitudes and general availability of nurses to actually provide care that patients needed and deserved in a timely manner. As a nurse, my friend found the experience she had both shocking (you never believe it will be that bad), frightening (at least she knew what should happen and could ask for it) and also depressing (is this really what the NHS is like now?)
The trouble is that much of the poor care that we are seeing in our wards now is due to the pressure that nurses find themselves under. There are often just not enough nurses for the number of patients and what nurses there are, may not have as much experience and knowledge in that field as they should. If you are struggling with poor ratios of nurses to patients then what time is there for giving the patient anything more than the minimum and what time is there for people to be adequately trained and supported to become better nurses?
Over at Mental Nurse they have begun a petition to improve nurse patient ratios (by having a minimum safe level declared). They have not only blogged about this subject but they have now started a petition on the Downing Street Website. If you are a British citizen then please go over there now and sign up. If you are not, but have something to say about this subject please leave a message below (obviously you can do this if you are British too!).
It’s about the same here.
When I had abdominal surgery the morphine didn’t work.
That was not in the protocol, so they left it like that.
When my husband stepped in he was told they’d warned the pain team.
Never seen any of the team.
Well, pain stops eventually……..
I think it’s the same everywhere. And I would never expect staff to get *better* treatment but it does at least give them some experience of what our punters have to go through. I’m a mental health nurse who’s just been diagnosed with bipolar disorder (oh the irony, eh?!) and trying to access mental health services has been appalling for me, because I’m staff, and thus no-one wants to work with me for fear of ‘compromising professional relationships’ They wanted me to travel 70 miles to see a doctor – would they do the same if an orthopaedic nurse had a broken leg?
Anyway, slightly off the point but I will follow your links, and hello! by the way
Many thanks Emma. Thanks for stopping by.
I quite agree, I wouldn’t expect anything special either, but it is no consolation to know how things should be and how they clearly are not.
There should be no difference in accessing mental health services and physical health services, but sadly your experience seems to show that there is.
Thanks for dropping by!