"My experience on the ward"

I was to be admitted to ward 23. At 5pm I was told I had a room in the ward but it hadn’t been cleaned yet. At 9pm I was sent up to a flow room which consisted of a room with a single plastic chair. Due to my back issues I was not able to sit in the chair for any length of time so I made the decision to leave the room and sat on the benches in the corridor outside the ward. The room was finally ready at 23:00. 

The nursing staff came in and introduced theirself. They were friendly and seemed nice. They told me I wasn’t written up for any medication. I advised I had my own which I had taken. They told me not to take my own in the morning. At 5am I was then moved into a bay room. 

In the morning, I am unable to get out of bed without taken my medication. I spoke to a student nurse to ask if I had been written up for anything as if I had not I could take my own. They came back to say that the nurse said the computer was broken, which was false as the nurse was doing the medications for everyone else in the room. So at 9:30 I took the decision to take my own medication so that I could get out of bed. 

Breakfast came, options being cereal or a roll with jam/butter. No option for toast but staff were walking around with toast for themselves. I dislike milk so can’t eat cereal. I had a roll with jam. 

Not one nurse introduced themselves to me. The doctors came round and sorted my medications, they set them to the times I needed as well. These were to be 6am, 12pm and 8pm. I buzzed at 8pm and asked the nurse who told me the other nurse was doing the meds round, I got them at 21:36. 

During the night, staff talking very loudly to each other and then patients with no consideration to sleeping patients. 

Nursing students walking around the ward not doing much. I spoke to a few who were third year students. Not once have they been given the chance to do nursing duties. They were being auxiliaries. The nursing staff appeared to be busy, they should be delegating these tasks to the third years. These students are going to be qualified at the end of the year and need to be given tasks to ensure they know them when they qualify. It would also take the pressure off the nursing staff. 

There were a ton of admissions while I was on the ward and not once was a student nurse shown how to do this. There is so much a student nurse could be learning in this ward but they are not being shown. 

As a nurse myself, I feel that my expectation of care may be higher than most. I have worked in wards and the simplest gesture of an introduction can mean so much. Training the students so that when they qualify they have the skills to be the most amazing nurses. 

I did ask a nurse why the student weren’t doing nursing tasks and I was informed it was because they were short staffed with auxiliaries which is ridiculous as students are supernumeracy and shouldn’t be an auxiliary for their full placement. I get they learn a lot about basic care from them but not nursing skills such as admission, cannulation, medication rounds etc. 

On the day I was discharged the staff seemed a lot more friendly and did chat more to me, however I still couldn’t tell you their names as they didn’t tell me them. 

Telling someone who is now in a back brace to sit in a plastic chair for 1.5 hours is not acceptable.