I took my mother in to A&E with chest pain and sob. Initially I was disappointed with the fact she was kept waiting in the waiting room for 40mins with severe chest pain. My mother doesn't like to make a fuss and looked quite well but was obviously in pain. The triage nurse saw us and was apologetic and polite and did not delay in taking us through to resus after initial tests. But it was the attitude of the staff nurse in resus that quite frankly saddened me. She didn't seem interested in her job or even general interaction. She gave the impression that my mum was wasting her time. Didn't take any observations (until I highlighted that this had not been done) even though my mum was initially hypertensive on triage. Took half an hour to come back and take bloods after telling us she would be back in a minute... With no apology or explanation (although I did notice she was busy fetching biscuits for the paramedics) and then took her time in physically sending the bloods off. Her attitude towards my mother and me when we asked questions was quite short and abrubt. She seemed very unimpressed when I even asked where the water machine was (after being there 4hours!!) The two doctors and male charge nurse were nothing but polite and informative, they diagnosed her with gallstones (a very painful problem) so although not life threatening the urgency and attitude of the staff nurse could have been extremely detrimental if the pain was cardiac related, and in my mothers case it was not treated as an emergency or even serious. I'm a nurse myself with A&E experience which I didn't make the staff aware of at the time.. And I am saddened at the experience my mother had.
"Disappointing attitude of one nurse letting the..."
About: The Tunbridge Wells Hospital The Tunbridge Wells Hospital Tunbridge Wells TN2 4QJ
Posted via nhs.uk
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