NHS is finished.

[Outlier]

Anyone who has been in hospital recently can identify where changes can be made, efficiency could be improved, money could be saved, and staff could achieve more with less work. I wonder what staff would say if there was a feedback and suggestions system with the option of being anonymous but with a modest cash prize every month for the best ideas?

 

[Lainie71]

@ElenaP ...have to agree on the more subtle side of 'caring'.

Whike my care was overall very good ..5 stars

The food / drink thing strikes a chord

Major operation on my leg, meant I couldn't move myself about after the ops, so adjusting myself was almost impossible...( bed the motorised in many places type.)
Nurses sat me up, but I invariably I slipped down over a short time.
But I guessed I must have looked safe & ready to eat something.

Cue breakfast/ lunch / dinner the first days being left tantalisingly in front of me, (starving hungry after so long in theatre )
But broken shoulder, meant I couldn't use right arm....
And left hand broken meant I couldn't use left hand....lol

Sling on one and plastered up on the other, with large hook holding thumb in place,... it wasn't like people couldn't spot the issue...haha

It was like wearing boxing gloves trying to pick up the knife or fork those first few times.

I did ask for help...which was usually the 'just let me serve everyone else, and I'll be right back '

Eventually another patient came over and cut my food & fed me...bless him .

Might have been nice if one nurse was in charge...who might have spotted my issues re eating & assigned someone to facilitate it.

Saw mum & dad at various times in hospital suffering similar..but I or other family was about to help them out.

I was on far side of London, so visits a tad more infrequent.

Do agree, the model is wrong.

Perhaps too many chiefs means no one is really in charge ?

It truly sounds like a scene form Carry on Doctor!

 

[jjraak]

It truly sounds like a scene form Carry on Doctor!

Except no ." Ooh MATRON."

LOL.

 

[Lainie71]

Except no ." Ooh MATRON."

Except no ." Ooh MATRON."

LOL.

Just hilarious even though its so very bad! I do tend to have a very dark sense of humour and laugh at things I shouldn't, I have lost friends so many times due to it. I blame the high bg

 

[jjraak]

Just hilarious even though its so very bad! I do tend to have a very dark sense of humour and laugh at things I shouldn't, I have lost friends so many times due to it. I blame the high bg

Yes, fully agree

Laugh, and the world laughs with you
Cry...and you only get your cheeks wet

Gallows humour, I'm full of it, I've been told many times ...lol

But sometimes you just have to laugh in the face of adversity & plough on, if possible .

Have a good un.

 

[HSSS]

a nursing system where not all nurses need to be graduates

I do tend to agree in principle but it scares me a little about the now quite technical side of the job takes more skills than just caring and compassion and the at minimum reasonable maths skills required for medication calculations etc might not be met. I began my nursing degree in Australia some years back (didn’t finish due to returning to the U.K. and being classed as an international student despite only being gone a few years meaning no loans and a £40+k fee). The amount of “support” offered to some very caring but not academically capable students left me really quite concerned for safety standards. Also the limitation of ward time was surprising compared to a more vocational/apprentice days of old.

 

[Lainie71]

Yes, fully agree

Laugh, and the world laughs with you
Cry...and you only get your cheeks wet

Gallows humour, I'm full of it, I've been told many times ...lol

But sometimes you just have to laugh in the face of adversity & plough on, if possible .

Have a good un.

Exactly

 

[AndBreathe]

I do tend to agree in principle but it scares me a little about the now quite technical side of the job takes more skills than just caring and compassion and the at minimum reasonable maths skills required for medication calculations etc might not be met. I began my nursing degree in Australia some years back (didn’t finish due to returning to the U.K. and being classed as an international student despite only being gone a few years meaning no loans and a £40+k fee). The amount of “support” offered to some very caring but not academically capable students left me really quite concerned for safety standards. Also the limitation of ward time was surprising compared to a more vocational/apprentice days of old.

Back in the dark ages, I worked the summer between school and uni as a nursing auxiliary in the local hospital. The basic structure was nursing auxiliary, the State Enrolled Nurses (SEN), then State Registered Nurse (SRN), who could go on to be Charge Nurses, Sisters and so on.

Clearly, me at 17 was making beds, chatting to patients, doing bed baths and watching out for bed sores and so on. Needless to say, I was not responsible for medications or such. From memory, the SENs could supervise a patient taking their meds, but the SRNs, Charge Nurses and Sisters were more medically qualified and therefore utilised for drugs rounds and so on.

I believed then and still do now that I fulfilled an important role on the wards I worked on. Doing those vitally important tasks freed up those more experienced and qualified to do "proper nursing".

I have no idea if nursing auxiliaries exist today, but I'm pretty certain SENs don't. What a massive, tragic loss. Many SENs in the hospital I worked in had started as auxiliaries, found they "had something about them", so went through on the job training to gain a recognised and hugely respected qualification.

Edited for clarification in the last sentence.

 

[Lainie71]

Back in the dark ages, I worked the summer between school and uni as a nursing auxiliary in the local hospital. The basic structure was nursing auxiliary, the State Enrolled Nurses (SEN), then State Registered Nurse (SRN), who could go on to be Charge Nurses, Sisters and so on.

Clearly, me at 17 was making beds, chatting to patients, doing bed baths and watching out for bed sores and so on. Needless to say, I was not responsible for medications or such. From memory, the SENs could supervise a patient taking their meds, but the SRNs, Charge Nurses and Sisters were more medically qualified and therefore utilised for drugs rounds and so on.

I believed then and still do now that I fulfilled an inportant role on the words I worked on. Doing those vitally important tasks freed up those more experienced and qualified to do "proper nursing".

I have no idea if nursing auxiiaries exist today, but I'm pretty certain SENs don't. What a massive, tragic loss. Many auxiliaries in the hospital I worked in had started as auxiliaries, found they "had something about them" , so went through on the job training.

My mum was an auxiliary nurse for geriatrics and she loved it, it became a job where she was well respected for the great work she and others did. She had a genuine fear of the sister on duty but said things ran smoothly when they were on that particular ward.

 

[AndBreathe]

My mum was an auxiliary nurse for geriatrics and she loved it, it became a job where she was well respected for the great work she and others did. She had a genuine fear of the sister on duty but said things ran smoothly when they were on that particular ward.

The Ward Sister was a Demi God, and Matron,........ well........

 

[Lainie71]

The Ward Sister was a Demi God, and Matron,........ well........

When I worked for the nhs the Ward Sisters & Matrons were definitely feared by the clerical staff too!

 

[Grant_Vicat]

where not all nurses need to be graduates. Care, compassion and patient care is not necessarily highly intellectual.

Exactly! A government that has no experience at the coalface in either nursing or teaching has meddled in such a way that dyslexics for example, are bypassed. In my experience, one of the best Kindergarten teachers I have worked with had to leave the post because of dyslexia and failing GCSE English. A nurse can also be trained without having to write essays. Since paperwork has spiralled hugely since the old system was ousted, it should not be left to those who are indispensable at the bedside. Modern technology could easily be used to have a "Ward Secretary" if all this is absolutely necessary.

clapping people, basically for doing their job

They weren't allowed to do their job in the usual way in that colleagues in several cases died while doing their duty, staff at all levels had to quarantine, leaving those left behind to deal with a higher proprtion of toxic patients. I think the clapping was the public's way of saying "we know youare working against unreasonable odds being directed by an external group which appeared rudderless.

 

[HSSS]

A nurse can also be trained without having to write essays. Since paperwork has spiralled hugely since the old system was ousted, it should not be left to those who are indispensable at the bedside. Modern technology could easily be used to have a "Ward Secretary" if all this is absolutely necessary.

My observations were not about the ability to write an essay, although accurate and complete notes on a patients care are important as mistakes can cause potentially life threatening errors in the worst case. I did mention maths skills as I’ve seen trainee nurses unable to do the required calculations “helped” through their courses to the degree it worried me what they will do without that support on the wards. More it was about using the technical and digital equipment now present in many situations nowadays and the dispensing and measuring of medications.

making beds, chatting to patients, doing bed baths and watching out for bed sores and so on.

Nor was I suggesting these roles are not important and integral to care alongside being care and compassion. Just that that was a not the entirety of the job anymore. I believe here in the U.K. it’s mostly HCA’s that perform those patient care roles nowadays.

 

[AndBreathe]

My observations were not about the ability to write an essay, although accurate and complete notes on a patients care are important as mistakes can cause potentially life threatening errors in the worst case. I did mention maths skills as I’ve seen trainee nurses unable to do the required calculations “helped” through their courses to the degree it worried me what they will do without that support on the wards. More it was about using the technical and digital equipment now present in many situations nowadays and the dispensing and measuring of medications.


Nor was I suggesting these roles are not important and integral to care alongside being care and compassion. Just that that was a not the entirety of the job anymore. I believe here in the U.K. it’s mostly HCA’s that perform those patient care roles nowadays.

I have had two mistakes on my medical records - one by an administrator and another by a doctor. One mistake recorded a diagnosis of cancer, which thankfully was not correct. I had had a tumour removed. The tumour was very rare, but benign. On challenging that, the Practice Manager told me it was correct and if it wasn't it didn't matter anyway, because the histology report was available, "somewhere".

Not important? It was to me.

Never, EVER has there been a time to be a stronger advocate for our own health and that of those we love. I would urge everyone who can to have access to their full medical record, but that's swerving this off topic which was never my aim.