"Mixed feelings"

Mixed feelings when visiting my Mum in AMU short stay ward. One nurse was excellent in the care and attention they gave to my Mum and worked differently to a lot of the other staff, many of whom we came into contact with were rude at times. One time when the lunches were given out my Mums plate of food was dropped down onto her tray and the cutlery for it which was upside down was just pushed along the tray, still out of reach of my Mum, as I was visiting I placed it correctly on the tray for her, the same member of staff came back to bring pudding and shouted across the room to me asking if mum had had pudding, then also shouted asking if she was diabetic. Surely they learnt in basic care that as a nurse you address questions directly to the patient!

Upon arriving at the ward to visit another time the staff on were extremely loud around the nurses station and were having inappropriately loud conversations at times. At one point they all shrieked with laughter about something rude. I think many of them had forgotten at that point that they were there to care for sick people who may be trying to sleep. There is no way anyone would have slept easily with the amount of cackling going on.

Disappointingly it appeared to be one of the sisters on the ward who was leading much of this conversation. I also witnessed a member of staff who pushed a trolley into a bed because they were too busy texting on their mobile phone. As a nurse myself, I understand how important it is to retain a sense of humour at work but keep it within context and be aware of who is listening and watching. During these visiting times I was really saddened to see such poor standards and lack of compassion in these staff in a job which is all about caring for the sick and vulnerable.

On another note I don't think the infection control policies were certainly not followed very well as one member of staff stripped a bed then carried all the dirty bedding against themselves to take it off the ward! Finally, I feel it is important to say that my Mum is recovering well now, overall she felt her care was good, but I do feel some of these staff need to question how they are behaving at work and think about the reasons they wanted to become nurses. They certainly weren't upholding the good name of the profession during some of my visits.