So why are staff afraid to blow the whistle?

Because it doesn't help the patients and the whistleblower just gets bent over and screwed. I am working as the editor in chief for No Shit Sherlock Magazine today and that is my headline.

First of all I think that Margaret Haywood was set up.

I also believe that she did what she did because she cared about her patients. I think she should have known that the powers that be would use the fact that she was walking around the ward with a camera as an excuse to ignore the actual problem and shut her up. Confidentiality is indeed a big deal. This nurse knew that but she wanted to help those patients. Panorama chewed her up and spat her out and then the NMC gnawed on what was left.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/sussex/8002559.stm

"A nurse who secretly filmed for the BBC to reveal the neglect of elderly patients at a hospital has been struck off for misconduct.
Margaret Haywood, 58, filmed at the Royal Sussex Hospital in Brighton for a BBC Panorama programme in July 2005.
She was struck off by the Nursing and Midwifery Council which said she failed to "follow her obligations as a nurse".
Ms Haywood, a nurse for over 20 years, said she thought she had been treated harshly and had put patients first."

My understanding is that patients gave permission to be filmed on that ward.

The pricks at the NMC are behaving like but a bunch of worthless bastards. No change there then. They do not care about patients. They go on and on about protecting the public. The number one thing they could do to protect the public from shit nursing care is to ensure that their nurses are not being forced to take on a ridiculous number of patients. It's the number one thing that they could do.

These people have been away from bedside nursing for years. Their version of nursing is so far removed from real life it's like it isn't even the same thing. It is the same deal with some of these nursing university lecturers who have been away from the bedside for years. They are smoking crack somewhere a million miles away on planet goofy and not at all aware of reality here on planet earth.

I have a nephew who has started at nursing school. He tells me stories that are unbelievable. He was a care assistant for 4 years so he knows the wards. He thinks his lecturers come from a different solar system entirely. I did warn him. But I am going off topic now.

A 35 bed medical ward that is being staffed some shifts with 2 RN's and one care assistant has recently been brought to my attention. Six patients on a ward like that is a hell of a lot for a nurse to handle and would keep her going.

The Nursing and Midwifery council doesn't care.....

until a nurse makes a serious error than they will be all over her. They can get us for not whistleblowing ( failing to protect patients) and they can also get us for whistleblowing ( breach of confidentiality). If you whistleblow by using the correct channels and not doing anything drastic and illegal then nothing changes. If you do something drastic that grabs every one's attention then they nail you for that. You don't have to bring a camera into the ward. If they want to get you they will find something. We are overwhelmed and our work is sloppy. If they wanted to get anyone of us all they would have to do is look back at our nursing notes on patients we have cared for over the last few years. There is enough there for them to strike every single one of us off. Poor documentation is the number one thing that nurses are struck off for by the NMC.

(edited to add If it wasn't documented then it wasn't done. Messy documentation can and does lead to legal gray areas. Poor documentation also leads to lapses in communication that harm patients. It is probably not the number one strike off in the UK at this time so I made a mistake by saying that it was. The state boards of nursing are probably de-registering nurses for this more than the NMC does. Point is that if they want to get you they will get you. It gives them something to do all day. I move so fast and have so much to write that my documentation looks like it was written by a 2 year old with learning disabilities. I am sure that the NMC would have a field day with that)

Yet if I even make an attempt at documentation I am accused of neglecting patients and focusing my evil uncaring self on worthless paperwork.

Nurses all over the country are filling in incident forms about staffing and poor care etc. Constantly. I think that hospital bosses, the government and organisations like the NMC are sitting around, having a big fat happy circle jerk together and using the incident forms and letters from nurses to clean up when they are done.

How I hate having to give those sociopaths at the NMC 70 something pounds a bloody year just to stay registered and be allowed to work and I cannot believe what the doctors are forced to pay to their professional body every year...to fund smear campaigns against heroes like Dr. Rita Pal.

It's a disgrace.