Uniforms Revisited

I am still really angry about this so here I go again.

I already blogged about this here.

We do not have much in the way of changing facilities for staff at my hospital. I do know of some hospitals that do provide changing facilities so that staff do not need to come to and from work in their work wear. I know of more hospitals THAT DO NOT HAVE THESE FACILITIES.

There were two wards at my hospital that had changing rooms for staff. Now that my ward has been redone we have one. We begged and begged and begged to get a changing room. If there hadn't been a major structural problem we never would have had our ward redone. The numerous other wards/units at this hospital do not have changing facilities.

Let me tell you what staff on my ward were doing before we were refurbished recently. I am telling you this because many many staff are still going through this.

We were getting accosted and verbally assaulted by matron types/senior office types and members of the general public for travelling to and from work in uniforms.

But they still would not provide changing facilities.

So we had the bright idea of changing in the staff toilet (very small decrepit room) at the beginning and the end of our shifts. We got away with this for awhile. Then we were caught by the housekeeper who had a fit over the fact that we were changing in there. Those who were caught changing in the toilets got in trouble and the rest of us were warned. What to do, what to do. We were still getting verbally assaulted and threatened if seen travelling to and from work in uniform by morons who thinks that this will spread MRSA around.

So we had another bright idea. There was a small supply cupboard just near the toilets. This room was about 7 by 10 foot. When we came to work we snuck in there to change out of our street clothes and into our uniforms (which we carried to work in a shopping bag). There was no place to store our street clothes, shoes, belongings so they were left on the floor in carrier bags or hung on a hook in this shitty supply cupboard. The domestic supervisor and housekeeper again caught us changing in there and went to the matron or chief nurse to complain. Busted again. Threatened again and told that we are NOT to change in supply cupboards and toilets. But we were still being verbally assaulted when seen on our way to work in uniform.

In the summer we were sweating buckets on the way to and from work because we tried to hide our uniforms under long winter coats. And we were still getting the "tsk tsk, look at those nurses coming to and from work in their uniforms" by silly old ladies mostly. These same silly people will also see a beauty therapist walking through town in her uniform and says "tsk tsk, look at that nurse wearing her uniform".

Sometimes a matron or an office type would stop us and say something about being in uniform on our way to work, even though we tried to make them aware of the lack of facilities. They threatened us for coming to and from work in our uniforms. They threatened us for changing in toilets and supply cupboards. And they continued to ignore requests for staff changing facilities. Most of the nursing staff at my hospital are still going through this. Some wards have found little cupboards and closets near their units to change in. And they haven't been caught yet. The rest are trying to hide their uniforms under long heavy coats as they travel to work.

The supply cupboard and the toilets were our only option. The only other option would be to change in the middle of the ward. Should we sneak into the patient bathrooms perhaps? Luckily Nurse Anne and crew are in a better place now. Wish I could say the same thing for everyone else.

The reason I am telling you about this is because every time there is a news story about nurses and or infection control in hospitals there is always some idiot bleating on about the fact that he has seen staff travelling to and from work in uniform.

Don't assume that we have changing facilities or our uniforms laundered. That is a very fucking stupid assumption to make. Uniforms are not the big problem with infection control anyway. And even so, we can get uniforms that are made out of anti-microbial stuff.

Instead of pissing and moaning about stupid crap and verbally abusing nurses on the way to work (or hairdressers in uniforms that you mistake for nurses because you are a fucktwit) here are some things you can do if you are concerned about hospital bugs:

1. Demand that the hospitals actually hire cleaners that clean and are there for more than a few hours a day.

2. Demand safe nurse patient ratios. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/156173.php

3. Demand better facilities. Beds that are all lined up withing inches of each other with all the patients sharing 3 commodes is a really really bad idea. here and here with a pic of a typical ward

4. Decent, functional handwashing facilities for the staff are a must. Ours fucking suck.

5. Stop transporters from dumping new patients into a bed that has only been vacated by a discharged patient moments ago. For fucks sake, allow us to clean the thing. If I am tied up with a sick patient I cannot leave him to clean the recently vacated bed. Hold your horses until I can do it or hire a cleaner to clean and prepare beds for the next patient. Fuck the targets.

6. Changing facilities for staff!! Proper laundering of our uniforms!! The hospital laundry will not touch our uniforms (if we send it through the hospital laundry it will be lost forever) and domestic household washing machines don't do the trick. But who cares. They need to be worrying about ratios, bed occupancy, and facilities before harping on about uniforms.

And yes, highly paid matrons really do hide behind trees to catch staff coming to and from work in uniforms. There are members of the public who think that they are doing some kind of good deed/community watch thing by looking for and targeting people on their way to work who appear to be in a nurse's uniform. Meanwhile no one, AND I MEAN NO ONE IN ANY KIND OF AUTHORITY POSITION is addressing the points I made above. Well, the RCN did for about 5 seconds a few years ago. The public doesn't address these issues either. I guess it's more fun to sit on your fat ass and say "these bloody slag nurses go on the bus in their uniforms and that is why we have MRSA". Idiots.