I was admitted to Leighton Hospital in December 2013 with pneumonia and sepsis. The A&E staff and the staff on the first ward I was admitted too were great. In particular there was a male support worker who was amazing and made me cups of tea during the night. However I was very disappointed to moved 3 times in 3 nights. I felt like I was not important and that I was just a number. I was woken during the night, (when I had just fallen asleep after 2 days of no sleep at all), to be told I had to move wards.
One afternoon I was told that as I was pyrexial I needed blood cultures...they weren't done until the early hours of the morning. Again when are patients allowed to sleep?
One of the lead staff that took over my care on the second ward, (a respiratory ward), was on was very rude to me. I had been aggressively fluid resuscitated and was full of water so I was desperate to use the toilet.
I asked if my drip could be transferred onto a drip stand and let the side of the bed down so my fiancé could take me to the toilet. I was told no and that I had to use a bed pan. I was so angry at this.
I am a 29 year old intensive care nurse and this is not a good example of nursing care. I told the,member of staff that this was not acceptable and they eventually carried out my request. I also asked them to redress my cannula as the previous one was not secure. The staff member said they were too busy. 10 minutes late my cannula had come out whilst I was eating. The nurse said 'I knew you would do that! ' and stormed off. I had to ask a student nurse to dispose of the cannula for me.
During this staff did not know my occupation. After some time I told her that I was an experienced ICU nurse, this seemed to change their attitude and then couldn't do enough for me but in my opinion this is too little too late. The student nurses on the ward showed more compassion and professionalism than the lead member of staff did.
On my third night at around 00: 30 I was transferred to a surgical ward as someone else needed my respiratory bed more that I did apparently! I was an outlier on the surgical ward and due to this I was missed off the respiratory ward round and my discharge was delayed for several hours.
It is the first experience I had of Leighton Hospital. The support workers and students were great but I think some of the nurses need to remind themselves of what basic nursing care should be. How would they feel as an experienced nurse in my position? I felt humiliated and patronised at times, so much so that I cried myself to sleep every night. ] think Leighton needs to give extra training on privacy, dignity and basic nursing care.
"I felt like a chess piece."
About: Leighton Hospital / Accident and emergency Leighton Hospital Accident and emergency Crewe CW1 4QJ Leighton Hospital / General surgery Leighton Hospital General surgery CW1 4QJ
Posted by Rebecca1984 (as ),
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