"General"

Anything else?

30% of nurses very poor. 83yr old man left by bed with no pillows or locker for 8hrs. Seen by HO after 8hrs, he had to answer his bleep 6 times when taking a history,another HO finished for him. Doctors had far too much to do therefore little explanation or planning discussed. General observations while visiting: no hand rub at end of bed for 3 days, none at entrance to ward. Asked 3times for pillows, finally took some off a cleaned empty bed and found pillow cases. Nurse stuck her nail in tablet to halve it. No touch technique with tablets unknown. Nurse thought daily tablet (the reason the man was in) had been stopped, had to be pushed to give it at 3pm. Fluid charts generally ignored although Doc said catheter was necessary for fluid balance, at times they were filled in much later with no relevance to the facts. A patient urinated in a washing bowl fetched by another patient as night nurse didn't answer bell for over 1hr and hadn't left a bottle. Patient sick,bowl shoved at him, no help offered or mouth wiped. Dressing requested and promised 6times in 12 hours. Jugs of water rarely replenished in spite of need for fluid intake. No one ever, in 2 weeks, looked under the stockings patient was wearing when transferred from another hospital. Patient asked for help to go to toilet for bowels, finally tried to go by himself and fell. Nurse didn't understand sitting and standing BP required, wouldn't do it. When asked for something, some nurses stared at the patient and walked away, or said yes but did nothing. the belongings of a patient not in the ward remained in a bag by the washbasin for 3 days. The 'poor' nurses worked at half speed, the 'good' nurses were much quicker and achieved more. I could go on and on. A few nurses were very good in evey way,some were OK. Putting technical abilities to one side, too many nurses lacked compassion or kindness. I appreciate there is a lack of funding but my deep misgivings about nursing standards are not connected with this lack of money, it is attitude and training.