Sunday 10 May 2009

The Uppity Bitch from the DoH. (Northern Doc reminded me all about her)


I read this on Northern Doc and it reminded me of a little story. It happened on an evening shift preceding my night shift.

Once we had some bint from the DoH show up in the middle of a shift. There were 2 nurses and maybe 2 carers to a full fucking medical ward of patients, with all the things that I describe in other posts happening all at once. There are not enough hand washing facilities and they are in very bad locations. The domestics are around for several hours in the morning and on the evening and they have to serve hot drinks and prepare meal trolleys and dish up food plus do all the washing up in a short amount of time. They also have to manage hospital laundry from the ward. Ten bags can pile up in an hour and the domestics have to pack it up and get it to where ever it needs to go.

All the DoH trollop did was constantly interrupt the nurse while she was pushing IV drugs to say things like "You must clean the commodes every hour and fill out this form and that form and put this coloured sticker on that and this coloured sticker on this. Every hour, no ifs ands or butts."

She pulled the nurse off of her 5th attempt to start the drug round "You must wash this every hour, and fill in this form and that form, then fill in this sticker and put it on to show you have cleaned. This colour for Mondays, this colour for Tuesdays etc etc"

She stopped the nurse in the middle of mealtime to ask her to inspect trolleys and trays for cleanliness. Mealtime is when the nurse is still trying to start her delayed medicine round as well as monitor 15 patients and feed 5 of them. And the phone is ringing constantly. And she is trying to answer call bells. The two care assistants were feeding 2 of the 10 feeds on the ward. The nurse was supposed to pick up 5 of them. The other nurse was staying put with a dying patient and his heartbroken family with no back up.

The nurse responded with talking about the things that I talk about on this blog. Nurse patient ratios that are unsafe (triple what is recommended by the International council of nurses, the RCN, and AMA etc) constant interruptions, poor facilities, untrained support staff, lack of management etc.

The bint responded with "It's not really about lack of staff and facilities is it? It's about dirty nurses not wanting to take pride in their work". She cocked her head in a funny manner as she said it, and actually smirked. She said it with a mock syrupy sweet voice. It was sick. One of our care assistants is a hell of a mimic and she repeated it perfectly for me, when I came in for the night shift that night. The very proud hands on nurse was just weeping at this point, as she handed over to me.

This nurse was left speechless by this DoH fucktard. She had just put in a 12 hour day without a meal and she was treading water trying to manage multiple patient problems that were occurring at that time. There was a lot more going on than the meals and the medications. She still had 2 hours to go on her 14 hour shift and would not even consider feeding herself. This nurse has a degree in biology as well as nursing and she has been nursing for over a decade. She is very proud hands on nurse. She is older but she pushes herself every day to do her job and do it well. She thought that she was career changing into nursing to "help people" and that she would be respected for it.

One of the care assistants piped in to the DoH twit. "We are struggling to care for the patients in any capacity and although we don't mind cleaning, we are going to take care of the patients first. Often we work double shifts without breaks etc and we still don't get most things done. Everything is a rush job. Cleaning every hour and filling in five forms and coordinating them with coloured stickers without additional staff will deny the patients any kind of nursing care at all".

DoH whore smirked again. "I suspect that is a bit of an exaggeration. You don't look busy". Again, it was done it a sickly sweet patronising voice.

It's a damn good thing Nurse Anne was not there. I would have gone crazy and I would have gone medieval and nutted her right there, in the middle of the ward, and I would not be blogging about this or nursing ever again because I would be in prison for assault. I would have gone apeshit. I am always professional and gentle at work. Always. No matter how bad I feel inside. But this would have sent me over the edge. At work, I look like a nice little white girl with a smile on my face and a gentle manner. But I could have easily gone jerry springer guest on her.

When the nurse went to see why a patient was collapsed in her chair and diaphoretic, the DoH slut was right behind her, lecturing her about hand washing. And when the nurse ran to the next patient because the care assistant reported that he had a pulse of 35, the DoH cow was right behind her, trying to pull her aside to talk about coloured stickers for commodes and drip stands. And when the nurse sorted that out and headed back to her drug round over an hour late, the DoH skank was right behind her, wanting to observe her washing a bed pan out, to see that she was doing it correctly.

This is what we are dealing with folks. This is how they think they are going to prevent MRSA and CDiff. Leave one nurse to 14 patients and constant interruptions and expect her to clean commodes and drip stands and document it in different places every time.

The tramp from the DoH was NOT interested in the fact that:

Nurse patient ratios are crucial in fighting hospital acquired infections.

Poor hand washing facilities leads to poor hand washing when nurses are trying to literally do 15 things at once.

100% bed occupancy and beds to close together lead to cross infection.

There are too few domestics who have too much to do in a short period of time.

The managers are racing patients up from a&e the minute they find out we have a discharge planned. The porters are in a hurry too, and they just dump the new patient into the old patient's bed. It will only have been cleaned if I had 30 seconds of free time to clean it while I am stuck with someone with chest pain and someone who needs oxygen. We have had to walk away from really sick people to clean a bed because a&e is sending up a neutropenic patient 2 minutes after another patient was discharged. If I don't stop what I am doing to clean that bed the porters will dump the new patient in a dirty bed. Everyone is busy. Targets Targets Targets. As a ward nurse you get admissions when it is convenient for a&e, not when you are in a position to actually care for a new patient. I have begged the manager to hold off on sending admissions for 15 minutes when we are trying to feed patients, or give drugs. It never works. Targets.


We have two working blood pressure/temp/pulse machines for the whole ward which includes people with cdiff and mrsa.



No, the bitch from the DoH wasn't interested in any of this.

But she definitely got a lot of pleasure out of smirking the line "dirty nurses".

I think would have bitch slapped her about 180 times, and then happily trotted off to jail.

I see things like this, and it scares me.

Look, I believe in handwashing and hygiene but let me tell you something. Cdiff and Mrsa and a whole lot of other superbugs are every where. Everywhere. Waitrose, your child's school, colonised on the lady sitting next to you on the train. Stickers and handwashing posters are not going to do a lot about this. Deal with it.






22 comments:

The Shrink said...

If a visitor, a porter, a locum or anyone else was on your ward and compromising patient care so significantly, they'd be bollocked for generating such needless risk to patients then kicked off your ward.

Amazing that if you're paid as "a manager" then you're beyond the normal rules and scrutiny and can get away with murder.

Anonymous said...

Nurse Anne,
I do not understand what is going on in your country! Why are the powers that be declaring war on nurses? I'm confused. Is everyone in admin over there completely stupid? How on earth can they expect you to scrub the freakin' toilets?! That should not be the responsibility of the nursing staff! Neither should food prep be the responsibility of housekeeping! You guys have a total cluster over there! If you have problems with infection control it is certainly NOT from nurses not doing their share. Housekeeping should not be working to prep food. Nurses should not be diverted to clean toilets every hour! These idiots continue to shoot themselves in the foot. I'm not even in your country and I want to complain on your behalf. Where can I go to do it? Someone needs to say something, and it is apparent they are not listening to the nurses.

SSS said...

I'd have taken her clipboard and shoved it up her arse.

Nurse Anne said...

Shrink,

Visitors, porters, visitors, locums, visitors visitors visitors comprimise care in this way all the time, all day long. In the post below I talk about that a bit more. I need to finish that actually.

Anonymous said...

She's something beginning with a c and ending in a t. How can someone supposedly educated have done this? No doubt it's due to Daily Mail/Guardian reading and prejudice towards nurses - nurses only have to wipe bottoms and clean things, right? I'd like to have said I would have called her that name to her face but I suppose I have a mortgage to pay too.

No doubt in my mind though, she's a fucking ignorant cunt.

Nurse Anne said...

Anonymous,

The NHS is failing and the government is basically scapegoating doctors and nurses. The NHS has been underfunded and unresourced for years. There is a lot of money going in but it never seems to hit the ground on frontline services. The media is lapping up the sacepgoating thing. The news media in the UK is horrendous.

We are frequently seeing headlines such as "Nurses think they are too "clever" to feed and care for patients". "Fight against uncaring nurses leaving patients to starve" etc etc etc.

If you look at the comments section they are full of comments from assholes saying that this problem is all down to "nurses being univerisity educated rather than vocational only" blah blah. "They need an old fashioned matron with a big stick to knock them into line" blah blah blah.

No one is talking about the fact that patient acuity and dependency is skyrocketing. No one seems to realise that one nurse to 12-15 acute, dependent and elderly patients with constant interruptions every 2 minutes is a real bad idea.

They seem to think that we can astroproject and be 10 places at once. The public wants one to one care. They haven't realised that the nurses have no choice but to triage and prioritise care. No choice. There is no such thing as holistic care anymore.

IF I were to pick 3 of my patients and do positively everything that needed to be done for them, I would have to completely abandon all other patients to pull it off. There is never a time in a shift where a nurse is gets an uninterrupted amount of time to assess and implement care for her patients. We are busting our butts and only able to hit the hight priority stuff. But this leaves basic care in tatters. And people suffer.

The public sees the suffering and things that we are neglecting people purposely, maliciously or out of ignorance. They have no fucking idea. None.

Seriously, we will sometimes have 2staff nurses to 25 acutely ill patients and dependent patients and the relatives will come up to the nurses station screaming because the patient has not had a nurse in the room for more than 5 minutes. And on these kinds of days if I work straight through, no break for 12 hours and do 10 things at once constantly I will only get all the meds out, and keep people from harm by the skin of my teeth.

Nurse Anne said...

Sorry I am on nights this week and cannot type at all. I am having to stay up during the day as well. Apologise for the typos.

SSS said...

I think you make an excellent point about patient acuity. When I was staffing in the late 80s/early 90s we often had 12 patients a shift but at least 2 or 3 of them were self caring. Winter was always different with the elderly patients coming in after Christmas Day lunch (when the rellies saw how they were living and dropped themm off at A&E) for their MOTs but apart from that you could usually get a few light patients.

Happy1 said...

Our management provide extra cleaners during the build-up to a DoH visit. The cleaners are hounded and hassled to work like dogs. Nurses are pulled off the shop floor, away from caring for patients, and told to clean.

Why not FUND MORE CLEANERS all the time??

Its just bullshit and these DoH people are clueless.

Nurse Anne said...

This was a surprise visit. No one knew that she was showing up......as far as I am aware anyway.

Nurse Anne said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Nurse Anne said...

I am actually thinking about writing to the DoH and complaining. They will probably be too busy spending money on management consultants to notice. The stupid little fuckers.

Nurse Anne said...

I removed my own comment by the way. The typos are embarrassing. I can't even type after I have slept off my nights it seems.

Anonymous said...

I think the nurse that she was bothering during the shift should write to the DOH, name the bitch and put in a complaint about what she said. I really do.

Nurse Anne said...

I have encouraged her to do just that. I hope she does/did.

Fox in Sox said...

Happy nurses day! I'm sure that the powers that be put on some extra staff for the occasion.

They say "bring back matron" but this is not St Swithens in the 1950s and both matron and sir launcelot would be sacked for their behaviour, were it to occur now.

The lack of respect for front line professionals like yourself is as much a part of society as chav children swearing at teachers and MPs flipping houses. The message to all: shirk, don't work, if you want to get ahead. I hope lucifer has something reserved for them all.

Anonymous said...

Just read an earlier post you made complaining about how the public see everyone working on the ward as nurses.I have been in hospital recently as a patient and visiting staff.

The reality as someone who does not work in health care, is that it is impossible to tell who are nurses and who are not. I have when talking to staff and referring to a particular staff member as a nurse, had a snappy retort that so and so is NOT a nurse.

How are we supposed to know this!It seems very unfair to castigate patients for this.

Nurse Anne said...

Never assume that any female in uniform is a nurse.

I am not trying to be unfair but most of the staff on a ward are not nurses. Most are NOT nurses.

There is one nurse usually for a very very large group of patients trying to keep track of too many things. The others are carers who help out with basic care but do not really know your medical situation or about your medications etc.

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