"My observations of nursing at the Lister Hospital"

Firstly the GP on site at the Lister dismissed my suffocating throat as just a sore throat and sent me away.

A few hours later as I was nearly unconscious as my throat has closed up I got my husband to take me to hospital, where i was finally diagnosed with a quinsy and had an operation immediately so that I could breathe again.

The doctor I saw who performed the operation was professional and efficient and pleasant. It went downhill from there onwards.

I was admitted on to the ward after the operation and immediately felt that some of the nurses were lacking in a warm and caring attitude. It seemed to me that instead of tending to the patients they instead went to the nurses station and chatted and laughed quite loudly when patients were trying to sleep.

One poor lady was shouting for the nurses to help her for hours. Eventually I got the attention of a nurse and told them that the lady was obvioiusly in pain or distress. They just told me to ignore her because she always did that! No one went over to her to hold her hand or to find out what was the matter. The only time I saw them pay pay her attention was when her relatives came to visit her.

In my opinion the food was unfit for humans let alone sick humans and it seemed no one had paid any attention to providing nutritious or healthy food.

When the nurses were asked for help most of them acted as if it was a real nuisance and an imposition. From what I saw, many of the nurses' behaviour changed dramatically when the doctor did his rounds - suddenly the smiles and professional behaviour appeared and the nurses began to take some interest in the patients. It was a real eye opener and quite a shocking snapshot of human behaviour.

I was only there briefly and felt fine after my operation so my stay was not traumatic - I discharged myself as soon as I could, as I knew I would get no sleep because of some of the nurses chatting and laughing. However I really felt sorry for the ladies who were in that ward for longer than one night. I found being surrounded by nurses who behaved this way sickening and frightening.

What can they do about it? Well to begin with I think training should focus on the importance of basic human respect and those students who are immature or are not able to learn to be kind need to be filtered out before they qualify.

Perhaps they need some personal development so that they are able to show kindness, patience and dedication. Or psychotherapy if they have psychological issues which has prevented them from feeling compassion to their fellow man/woman.

I believe that the hospital needs to create a sense of pride and team spirit rewarding those nurses who do work hard and want to make a difference to the lives of patients on their ward.

Those nurses who are able to show humanity and kindness and truly look after the patients need to be supported and promoted and made into role models to assist those who are struggling to do this.

I am sure that there are many kind and hard working nurses in other wards and in other hospitals so I am not having a go at nurses per se. I don't even blame the individual nurses really - I think that there can be a culture within the profession that encourages this attitude. Perhaps if they are not nurtured themselves within the hospital then they have little energy left to share with the patients.