Sunday 7 February 2010

God I hate working weekends

I really fucking do.

I don't go out much so it's not like I mind actually having a job where I am required to work weekends.  I just hate working weekends in a place that completely falls apart because it's the mother fucking weekend.  The nurses and docs are there, running their asses off, the patients are there, getting completely pissed off but where is all the support staff?  At home, hungover.

No Pharmacy.

No housekeeping.

No supplies.

No clerical staff.

If there is anyone in path lab they are run off their feet to the point where they are invisible.


There is very little in the way of nurses and doctors but that is completely normal.

Sunday was not a good day.

 First of all we started the shift out of everything.  There was no linen to change the beds. Common drugs were missing.  We ran out of gloves and gowns and we had multiple people requiring either barrier nursing or reverse barrier nursing.  Spent the first two hours of my shift running around the hospital with a trolly trying to  nick stuff from other wards collect supplies whilst the day shift nurse stayed on to watch the patients.  There wasn't anything to steal.

We have 5 isolation rooms.  Three had c-diff. One has MRSA. The other room had a patient who was neutropenic.  These rooms are all in a row and the areas between these rooms were completely devoid of gloves, gowns, handwashing stations that actually had soap and anything else we actually required. 

We had one working dinamap.  One.  And one manual cuff for 30 people including the folks on isolation.  Does anyone see a problem here? 

The junior doctor was on her knees.  She was covering all the wards.  It took about 8 hours for her to get to my ward and see patients, attend to jobs.  I wasn't going to bother with the bleeping unless it was a pre-crash because that just slows the doc down anyway.  She new she had to come and I knew she would get there when she could.   IV fluid bags ran dry and stayed that way for about 10 hours until more were prescribed.  I grab a little tiny bag of saline and put it up at KVO just to keep the cannula's patent but really I shouldn't do that.

My other two staff members were young teenage girls first week on the job.  Not a clue.  Not a clue.

All three of them were off duty at 8.  I was there until  9:00 when nights started, alone.  I found patients who had been sat in their chair for 8 hours, pee all over the floor, tablets on the floor.  The fluid balance charts were empty.  One elderly lady had poured a cup of hot tea over her head.  


The state of my ward shocked me. 

And nights only had 2 staff.

The icing on the cake was when the site manager showed up and wanted me to thank him for giving me the two little girls and the bank nurse to help out.

Oh yeah thanks. I am going to put that on my incident form about all this and on my letter to the chief executive while I clearly explain that dumbing down and not paying enough staff to be around actually increases costs because of poor patient outcomes.

8 comments:

capgrass said...

i am depressed even more now. Thanks

Nurse Anne said...

Me too. Just scroll down and watch crazy dancing doctor.

Anonymous said...

Hey Anne,
In the States, we don't like weekends either, for the same reason. No paper towels, no soap in the dispensers, the rooms look like the Big One landed on them, supply bins empty. At least we do have pharmacy. They are 24 hour at most large hospitals here. So you will at least have medications. Why isn't the NHS listening to you?
Casey in the USA

Fire Detection said...

What can I say about the blog .... It is an issue which we have to devote our time and attention to understand and learn more about this, actually I am in total agreement with what is written here and now I can only say good job guys continue doing its work.

florida internet said...

I have read articles about of this topic but this is unique is very interesting and it has a lot of good information and it was very useful for me... Keep doing that good job thanks for all…

Justina said...

Goodness, there is a lot of worthwhile info above!

oakleyses said...

oakley sunglasses, michael kors outlet, nike free, oakley sunglasses cheap, christian louboutin shoes, michael kors outlet, louis vuitton outlet, nike shoes, air max, kate spade outlet, polo ralph lauren outlet, true religion jeans, longchamp handbags, burberry outlet, louboutin outlet, gucci outlet, air max, michael kors outlet, longchamp outlet, louis vuitton outlet stores, oakley sunglasses, tory burch outlet, louboutin, longchamp handbags, coach purses, coach factory outlet, kate spade handbags, ray ban sunglasses, jordan shoes, louis vuitton, coach outlet, louis vuitton outlet, michael kors outlet, louboutin, ray ban sunglasses, michael kors outlet, chanel handbags, coach outlet store online, tiffany and co, burberry outlet, michael kors outlet, prada handbags, polo ralph lauren outlet, louis vuitton handbags, tiffany and co, prada outlet, true religion jeans

oakleyses said...

barbour, ugg pas cher, vans shoes, instyler, nfl jerseys, herve leger, wedding dresses, ugg boots, celine handbags, longchamp, marc jacobs, ghd, new balance shoes, lululemon outlet, soccer jerseys, beats by dre, ugg australia, chi flat iron, ferragamo shoes, ugg boots, mcm handbags, canada goose, birkin bag, bottega veneta, north face outlet, insanity workout, nike huarache, p90x, nike trainers, asics running shoes, canada goose outlet, mont blanc, uggs outlet, valentino shoes, nike roshe, giuseppe zanotti, canada goose jackets, abercrombie and fitch, north face jackets, nike roshe run, reebok outlet, rolex watches, mac cosmetics, jimmy choo outlet, babyliss pro, soccer shoes, hollister, ugg