Nurses.

I have never had to depend on nursing staff personally. But a close relative of mine has recently be treated in Salford Royal.

Her treatment was excellent and all the nursing staff helpful and pleasant.

What do you think of what is being proposed with future nurses.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ssion-NHS.html

Re: Nurses.

Hi, I heard this on the news this morning.

In the olden days, the job for a Nurse was Cleaning and Nursing at the same time, the Matron who sat in the middle of the Ward was very strict and made her staff do the jobs. It would save the NHS a lot of money by getting the Nurses to do the cleaning as well as Nursing.

Re: Nurses.

And put a lot of people on the dole. Really we don't want them cleaning just the cleaning done by the staff that are employed to do it.

What I think about the proposals is this could weed out those who really are not willing or able to do the job of caring at an early stage saving the money it costs to train them when they are never going to be doing the job properly.

Re: Nurses.

It is crazy to expect nurses to clean the ward as well as deal with the patients, that is what cleaners are for!

I started an SRN course in 1968 as my father insisted I became a nurse. I HATED it, especially nursing geriatrics. I told the matron politely where to stick her job, and walked out after a few months. I got married the next year and have never had to work outside the home since.

I think it is sensible to expect nurses to have some hands on experience of patients before doing the academic course, that would certainly weed out people like myself who are unsuited to the profession.

I think I would have enjoyed being an undertaker though, I didn't mind dealing with dead bodies, at least they don't answer back!

Re: Nurses.

It looks like the intention is for trainee nurses to do the day to day caring of patients not general cleaning.
I have had no experience of hospitals so have no idea what the role of a nurse is.
I will have to say it's a sad day when vocation goes out of the door and nurses feel they are above looking after the personal needs of a patient. I'm sure not all nurses can be uncaring.

Re: Nurses.

As with so many issues in the UK at present, the elephant in the room which no-one wants to address is the fact that a large proportion of our NHS nursing staff are not from the UK. The last time my wife was in hospital (in a large West London teaching hospital), the nursing staff were appalling and not one was UK born. She had just had a major operation and was not supposed to go to the toilet unaided but found it almost impossible to get a nurse to help her and 9 times out of 10 had to rely on a fellow patient (or me) to go with her. In many cases the nurses' grasp of English was so poor that it was almost impossible for her to communicate with them. She was prescribed morphine every four hours and once had to wait 12 hours in agony before a nurse bothered to bring her her medication. In the end, I just brought her medication in from home as the nursing staff couldn't be bothered to do their jobs (I also brought her a cooked meal in every evening as the hospital food was inedible). The doctors, anaesthetists and consultants were brilliant, but the whole hospital was let down by the nurses. It wasn't that they were overworked, as they seemed to spend most of their time chattering together around the nurses' station. I would fight to the death to protect out NHS, but we really need to look at increasing the numbers of home-grown nurses (and doctors) we produce.

Apart from anything else, the importation of trained nurses and doctors from overseas is a form of imperialism - whereas in the 18th and 19th Centuries we stripped the poorer countries of their raw materials, now we asset strip them of their intellectual wealth - their educated and trained workers.

Re: Nurses.

I did smile at today's news. As a Midwife and as lead on the wards I always arranged for students to work with support workers. I believed this was an imperative, not simply to get down to basics but also to appreciate the role of each and every person who works in the NHS. Everyone is an important link in the care given

As for the negatives in the NHS, sadly compassion and understanding can be lacking.

Re: Nurses.

Compassion and understanding are very important though surely.

You are quite right, I would have thought every one is an important link.

Re: Nurses.

my daughter is a nurse so not far to go for info or help

Re: Nurses.

My cousin is a nurse in a large hospital in Toronto, and has worked many years in palliative care, especially with children. On one hand I cannot imagine how difficult it would be working with children who have a terminal illness... on the other hand she is exactly the type to be wonderful in that role, both for her young patients and for their families. Calm, caring, compassionate without emotional extremes.