"UCC Triage"

Attended with my daughter who is experiencing severe mental health issues and self harming. She had injured herself and needed stitches, and was very distressed. The triage nurse was curt, showed no compassion and tried to steristrip a wound that clearly needed stitches. I’m a nurse myself and know when her wounds require more than steristripping. Furthermore, her triage assessment was woefully inadequate. She wasn’t asked how she was feeling, she wasn’t asked about any other injuries (there were more), and she showed no concern whatsoever for either of us. She did not ask about any future risk. She failed to bring painkillers after being asked and put her hand up to tell me she was busy when I approached her. We were shown nothing but kindness and compassion from the admin staff on the desk when we booked in, but sadly the triage nurse didn’t hide her feelings of annoyance or lack of empathy. On my insistence we were transferred to A&E where the staff were brilliant as always, sutured her quickly and admitted her to the ward for further observation and assessment. We experienced the worst and the best of nursing care during this episode.