"Breast Cancer"

I cannot express enough how wonderful my care has been, right from initial diagnosis all the way through (still ongoing).

My surgeon & their team couldn't be more caring & understanding & treat me as an individual person not just another patient.

So far I have had 3 ops & each time I have been cared for on Philip Yeoman Ward where all staff are wonderful. Despite being extremely busy & stressed at times they were always cheerful. It was so lovely that although 9 months had passed between my 2nd & 3rd ops a lot of the same staff were still there and actually remembered me in person - it was so nice to be able to catch up with them & see how they were all getting on.

One thing that did concern me was the 12 hour shifts - I only came across one member of staff that was happy with these shifts.

One staff nurse with a young child was finding it particularly difficult.

It must be very hard to lead a normal family life with these hours, even if you don't have a family I doubt very much whether you feel like cooking a good meal & looking after your own health properly when you eventually get.

I'm worried that we are making the people who are helping us get well, ill themselves.

Also, the nhs has trouble recruiting staff & I'm sure these hours are a lot of the problem.

One other thing, we are missing out on a lot of people who would make excellent nurses because of having to go to university to get into the profession - nursing should be more focused on the ability to care, being able to do a good job should be patient centred not paperwork centred.

Please train nurses in hospital & cut down on duplicated paperwork.