Nurse Anne is rightly getting heated about the shit we have to put up with from punters and relatives, while having to maintain the restraint of a saint, but she and her nursing colleagues are not alone. There is probably not a single group of NHS front-line workers who do not sometimes have to deal with unreasonable behaviour from the public.
It is not helped by management who do not stand by us, but are all too ready to jump on us when the abusive and the violent complain.
I remember two episodes that illustrate this.
1. A plaster technician witnessed an attack on a nurse, and weighed in, using the blunt end of a large pair of these on the assailant to remove his hands from the nurses throat.
2. A medical colleague who was attacked and successfully defended himself.
In both cases guess who found themselves in the shit. No prizes.
I have long maintained that the most difficult conditions the NHS has to deal with are stupidity and anxiety (as well their good friend, frustration).
ReplyDeleteThe battle is lost when lengthy explanations are required at the bed side - not because staff do not want to spend time talking to patients or their relatives, but simply because there is no slack in the system, epitomised by the ratio between bed occupancy (now almost 100% on many NHS wards) and the number of staff available to abandon stuff that is actually being done for a large number of patients so that such conversations can take place.
Time at the computer is sometimes seen as being emblematic of nurses being to 'posh to wash' - but if something goes wrong and nothing is documented then it becomes virtually impossible to defend the standard of care provided.
Somehow I think this situation is more likely to get worse rather than any better?
the a&e charge nurse