Will the nursing profession take any notice ?

[EDDIE51]

Interesting artical in today's Telegraph

http://www.telegraph....d-Cameron-to-say.html
How do you think the nurses will react to actually being expected to 'Nurse' rather than playing doctors ?

[ummmm]

I don't think it's going to work.

When my Nan was in, she'd just a mastectomy, and suffers with dementia...she was suppose to have 1 on 1. They lost her 3 times. Considering at least one family member was there most of the time, that figure is really high.

[NOX]

Well ( and you won't hear this very often) but I agree with David Cameron ( did I just really say that?).

I really think the simplest of things make a huge difference, and ensuring that patients are comfortable, hydrated and being cared for in a clean environment is such a basic thing that you might wonder why there is any need to press the point. Nurses should nurse, it's very simple and I like the idea that the public can rate wards and hospitals- whether they'll like it or not is entirely another matter.

[rowanwitch]

Fine but with the level of dependancy on many wards a nurse can be with one patient for an hour.... and with staffing levels reflecting the need to stay within allocated budgets who do they suppose is going to run around the ward that frequently. when I was nursing (I gave up in 2001) just administering intravenous drugs could take a couple of hours out of a staff nurse shift, add in dressings, assisting the medical team in procedures like inserting drains (mostly supporting the patient) or escorting patients to an out of ward procedure like an angiogram meant there was very little time left to do all the things you'd want to do. So remaining time was used for those patients you assessed as needing it most... it might be sitting with a distressed patient who had bad news, performing last offices for a patient who had died and caring for their relatives... or helping an elderly patient mobilise to the toilet so she didn't need to use a commode by the bed...

To achieve this 'target' I would guess there needs to be an increase in nursing establishment of around 30% and to be honest with the numbers leaving the profession I doubt you'd be able to recruit enough candidates of acceptable experience and ability

[emmie]

don't see this as working, much as i would like to think they could implement it. Having been in hospital myself a number of times, and visited a relative for the time she was in, can only say that some of the nursing staff seemed totally preoccupied with the phone, never off it, or sitting doing paperwork, whilst buzzers, patients were ignored. I also wish some weren't so patronizing, my mother was addressed in a way you might to a 4 year old, as though she was senile, which she is not, and some simply talked over her as though she wasn't lying in the bed in a good deal of pain and distress.

[ummmm]

I wouldn't leave any relative in the complete care of NHS staff.

When my Uncle was in he didn't get fed (he couldn't move his arms) he caught body lice, he was left sitting on the toilet for over an hour, and they couldn't understand him so none of his requests were seen to.

Me and my sister done shifts to look after him.

My grandad was well looked after...but he shouts, loudly!!

Unless you've got a voice you will be neglected.

[Sqad]

Do you want to afford yourself of high technology, accurate diagnosis and modern death defying treatments, then the nurses will have to be on their toes and at the ready 24/7?

If you don't .......then fine........one can have the ward rounds and little "chats" every hour.

I will take the former, thank you.

Relatives will HAVE to play a greater part in nursing their loved ones whilst in hospital.

Cameron has missed the boat here.

[ummmm]

Don't forget chatting at the nurses station Em!!

[ummmm]

What if they don't have many relative Sqad? I've spent quite a lot of time at hospital bedsides and some patients have no visitors.

[rowanwitch]

The answer really is more health care assistants... the good ones are wonderful and make sure all the routine things get done with care and consideration... I have been amazed by some I've worked with over the years and once they are trained to NVQ 3 they really do free up a lot of nursing time. Now they are a group that ure under valued and underpaid.

[Peter Pedant]

Amazing.....the Prime Mininster tells the nurses how to nurse and when, because the Chief Nursing Officer and the Nursing and Midwives Council seem unwilling or unable to.

and where are all those Modern Matrons, with their clipboards and pens ?

[Sqad]

ummmm....if they don't have any relatives then the care assistants that rowan is talking about, come into play.

I agree entirely with rowan, it is about time that the British public moved into and understood, 21st century medicine and surgery........something taken on by other countries, but bogged down in the UK by NHS traditions.

[rowanwitch]

I think that while able to capture the attention of the media, and touch a chord with the public it does little to improve things. There is not enough time to do this with current staffing levels if you also need nurses who can care for patients who are critically ill, high dependancy, or need one to one care for other reasons. I do feel a return in part to the old method of training with more ward based 'on the job' experience would be better... as it tended to weed out those who while excellent academically didn't like getting their hands dirty.

[LazyGun]

No question that patient care should be improved on wards. This from both a professional and a personal capacity - my father was recently hospitalized, and I visit wards regularly in a professional capacity.

Nothing wrong with trying to disseminate best practice already carried out within the NHS either, but for the wards to offer the standards of care that we all would want for ourselves and relatives, they do have to be sufficiently staffed. I think Rowan is right re HCAs - its usually the day to day, more routine care that people complain about.

[ummmm]

When I've been on wards it wasn't the HCA's having a cosy chat at the nurses station!

[rowanwitch]

And It wasn't the nurses when I was in charge of a shift either... one of the reasons I got out...

[ummmm]

We got a written apology from the consultant. Anything to shut us up!!

[emmie]

sqad, in my case my relative was in hospital so far away that i had a huge return journey, and the public transport links were poor. Same for my o/h, the hospital was miles from anywhere, no straightforward public transport and it was hell getting there, as don't have a car, so it was that or not visiting, which wasn't an option.
I have found the following, uncaring, unfeeling or so it seemed staff, being ignored when in pain, and in my case catching an infection in the hospital which meant i had a week more in there than i should have.

[emmie]

I have found the same in private hospitals by the way, so not just NHS

[anneasquith]

what a disgraceful situation, when nurses have to be told how to " nurse", the actual problem lies with the selection of student nurses, and their training. as a recent inpatient, trained nurses, were only seen at ward rounds and administering medication. the only " nursing done was by clinical support workers, and they were too busy, inadequately trained, or not interested.

[jno]

and let members of the public in to see whether the nurses are doing their job, they'll love that, much as I would have if members of the public had come in to see how well I was working.