"Day patient experience"

My arrival (5mins early for scheduled appt) was not announced to nursing staff despite my checking in at reception and giving my name, DoB etc ... they seemed surprised to see me there.   

During admission process a member of staff walked in.  This was apparently the third time that morning that the staff member had walked into an admission session despite room door sign clearly signed to ‘occupied/engaged’.   The student nurse apologised but I felt was visibly flustered. 

Chatter amongst staff just outside the ward on reception was very loud, very much in earshot, and didn’t instill confidence:  patients mentioned loudly by name with who needed what and what had or hadn’t been administered.  

I felt there was much confusion and repetition amongst staff about patients and where everyone was up to.  

The most distressing part of the visit was what I felt was an absolute lack of expertise from the nurse inserting my canula...  at a pre procedure point when one is feeling vulnerable and anxious, to have the nurse bounce off one arm to the other and then finally call someone else, was the most distressing part of the entire visit.  The member of staff caused pain as they hit a nerve, and told me to relax or I’d make it worse , when my arm was involuntarily convulsing.  I felt that this person was untrained in the procedure and lacked any support. They were getting visibly more flustered as each attempt failed, muttering away to themself.  I asked them to repeat what they had said as I didn’t hear properly, and they said they were just talking to themself.   After two failed attempts, the nurse left to get someone else to take over.  I felt like a pin cushion, I felt in very unsafe hands, it eroded my confidence entirely and made me extremely jittery about the procedure that I was scheduled for.  As first impressions go, this was pretty dire.  

The consultant and main nursing support team were however excellent.  A conversation with the consultant delivered exactly the correct outcome for me that day.  The nursing support team were sharp and introduced themselves clearly, and suddenly one felt in safe hands again. 

What a shame that a couple of very weak links in their support team left such a negative impression.