"I would like nurse managers to show more..."

What could be improved

The recent focus on poor elderly care in hospitals and the explanation - that nurses are trained to complete tasks as opposed to caring for people - reminded me on an incident that occurred when my mother was admitted to the acute care unit. When we visited for the first time I noticed that hers was the only bedside table without a water jug. I asked whether this was because of her condition but this was not the case. It had happened, I was told, because the water jugs had been handed out before my mother was admitted and nobody had thought to check that she had everything she wanted. This is a clasic case of task focus. Perhaps the hospital could answer how this was allowed to happen. Surely the ward manager should ALWAYS ensure that new patients are given water whatever the time of their arrival on the ward.