"Disappointed with paediatrics Wishaw"

My two year old son was  admitted to ward 20 for 2nights with a chest infection requiring o2 and nebulisers. As a staff nurse employed in another NHS hospital I was disappointed and alarmed at the standard of care we received on this ward. 

During our stay we saw very little of the nurses. On the night he was admitted to the ward at 4am, from ward 19 after waiting 3hrs for a bed, we saw no staff until the day shift nurse came in the morning to do my sons observations! On the second night, I saw a nurse at 4am doing observations and that was our only contact with the nursing staff overnight. In my clinical area we would always ensure we have meet our patients and introduced ourselves as a courtesy and also to assess patients condition. 

I was alarmed that my son didn't receive a name band as part of the admission process. He is 2yrs old and couldn't identity himself if he wandered away whilst I was at the toilet. He received medications on several occasions over the 2days and only 4hrs before discharge did the charge nurse administering his medication act on this and put a name band on. 

I was also worried about his safety with the bed. He still sleeps in a cot at home. The bed he was given seemed unfit for purpose. The cotsides had a very large gap between the bed and the side and also the gap between the cot sides are larger than spaces on adult beds I use. My son repeatedly slid between the cotsides and was at risk of falling from the bed. I had to use pillows to prop the gap and even then he still managed to slide between the sides. 

On the first morning I asked if I could take my son to the shop to buy us juice. The health care assistant said she would check and returned to tell me no because he had previously been on o2. No offer was made for anyone to watch my toddler to allow me to go and get food & drink after 14hrs away from home. A short time later I was told to take him for an X-ray so we managed to detour to the shops for supplies at this time. 

I was also disappointed that having being admitted from home with a history of not eating and drinking and refusing ice lollies, no nurse asked if he had ate or drank in our time on the ward. At 6pm on our first night I asked if we could have some water as my son had finished all his juice I had bought, we hadn't even been offered any water since admission. The nurse asked if I had been shown around and I told her no, she told me she would show me around later but never did. I couldn't believe the poor food choices offered to children in the hospital. We asked for a sandwich fruit and yogurt for lunch and didn't receive the fruit as only one was to be selected, instead my 2yr old was given a low fat yogurt!

Despite being a patient for 2nights and 2days my sons bed wasn't changed, and he wasn't offered anything for washing. No towel to get dried and no bedding was offered to me. When I asked a nurse for a pillow I was told to take one from an empty bed! 

During our stay we were not given any information about the ward, no details of visiting times, facilities etc 

This was our first experience in a paediatric ward and I hope our last experience. Apart from receiving o2 my son received no care!