Stafford Hospital

[Phone]

Chesters1,

 

Where did you find a "budget nurse". One problem is that one wage fits all.

 

I bet you missed me yesterday. Had a simple 2 hr proceedure as an "out patient" to the tune of $5,600. All went well and must say everyone was very nice - - - but dam!

 

Phone

[chesters1]

We get them from all over you get yours from mexico etc

I am not saying they are necessarily bad but i expect most are hard worked and poorly paid lowest of the low because they wont have any qualififications gained here but from back home so easily treated as basic nurses.

 

Also a i mentioned i guess they dont treat nursing here as a career more a job ,a couple i spoke to had husbands and kids back home so you could see it probably wasnt long term so no need to do especially well to get noticed for promotion

 

In the 11months between the two in patiant stays only one nurse was the same nurse there last time ,perhaps the career minded british nurse rotates to get more experience so they can decide what to do later in their career but i hardly think a foreign nurse unless shes got a heart of stone can leave her kids for years .

Unfortunately some had very poor english and i heard more than once a senior nurse having a "word" (i have very good hearing) about something in the notes they continually make but i expect the sames going on for the british nurses but unfortunately there only seemed to be one on the 4 wards of the section she was in.

 

I for one cannot see how they exist never mind have a good enough life to actually care a damn about the patients if british nurses have a hard time i cant see them faring better in or out of the hospital

 

When a hospital is run finantialy as a company not morally as a hospital i guess "cheap" looks better on the books ,if you can get two low end nurses instead of one high end doing the same job i guess theres more money for the golf course for the big shots that run the place

 

The rediculous thing is agency nurses not only are hospitals going by the word of a company with vested interests the nurses are any good the hospital no doubt pays far more than non agency nurse they replace

Edited February 8, 2013 by chesters1

[nursejudy]

Community Nurses tend to stay in Community ....hence my 30 years,would not be able to work in hospital,most community nurses are very vocal and speak up for the patients ..... out team has had many battles with gp's,i have in my time nursed 3 generations of familes

[chesters1]

Thats because you are 104 just joking nursey

You think of generation in a different light when you get older ,5 generations of my family have eaten seafood from the same stall ,the stalls owners have changed though

Edited February 8, 2013 by chesters1

[captain cojones]

Community Nurses tend to stay in Community ....hence my 30 years,would not be able to work in hospital,most community nurses are very vocal and speak up for the patients ..... out team has had many battles with gp's,i have in my time nursed 3 generations of familes

 

I can see that your retirement would be a real loss to the health service. Shame.

[Sportsman]

Hi Dave,My daughter works in the local cancer unit, (radiotherapist). I was talking to her about this, and although she agrees with much of what you've said, she says that there many other issues involved. Her job is to treat patients, and they have a quota to reach, or they are in trouble, and the hospital is fined. Often when treating patients they have to take extra time, because they are all afraid of the big C, and many are elderly and frightened of the treatment using radiation, (might kill them, or turn them into mutants, I kid you not!). Many are claustrophobic, and afraid of going into the machine, and many just won't/can't keep still long enough. They have to explain everything and try to calm them down, it all takes time. Then after the treatment they should be taken either back to the ward, or a waiting room ready to go home, she often has to stay with them because of the 'traumatic' experience, that is until someone whos' job it is appears. When she's taken them back to the ward, often there just 2 nurses on the ward, and if they are busy, she can't just dump the patient and leave, she has to wait a while. After all this, she has to fill in a form to explain the 'lost' time'. During the recent bad weather when outpatients couldn't make appointments, it meant even more form filling to explain why they hadn't been treated, and hope that the explanation is accepted. She is 'fed up', and says the moral is so low, you can feel it in the atmoshere. many of the nurses are the same, and anyone new to the hospital picks up on this, and soon they are of the same mind. They've lost about 25% of the staff in her unit, but the targets/quotas are still the same, she and a few others are looking at moving to New Zealand or Australia in the near future, they already have friends who have gone over. If the moral is so low, then it is bound to filter down to the newer staff, and eventually down to the patients, no matter how good the intentions of the staff. They are all of the opinion that plans are afoot to dismantle the NHS, and that's hardly condusive to a good patient experience.

 

John.

Hi John

sorry for the lack of reply, I haven't revisited this thread for a while.

I am sure that the problems are complex and affect many different departments and disciplines. As I said in my first post I can only speak about nursing as that is what I know about.

There are many other problems.

My last stay in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary was for some very tricky surgery on my cervical spine (neck) When I left hospital the consultant said he wanted to see me in 3 weeks to make sure the implants he had put in were settled in place. When I got my outpatients appointment it was for 4 months. I phoned the outpatient dept I was told that was the first appointment they had, take it or leave it. It seems that an appointments clerk out ranks a consultant neuro-surgeon in the NHS.

I didn't bother pursuing it.

[John S]

Hi Dave,My daughter works in the local cancer unit, (radiotherapist).... [snippy]

 

 

Good post there John

 

When my father had to spend time in hospital (thankfully not for long or too often), the meals were good but just not big enough for him. The guy in the next bed however was getting fish and chips or kebabs brought in for him by his wife, or she'd be cooking something to bring in for him.

 

After an operation you need to build up your strength to make a fast recovery and that means good food, but in many hospitals the food is simply not up to standard. The main problem is that the pencil-pushers opt for outside caterers who (obviously) need to make a profit. So, the cheaper they can make the meals, the more money is left for them.

 

Same with cleaners. Most hospitals pay a cleaning firm who come in once or twice a day to do a marginal cleaning job, which could explain why there was a trail of faeces along the corridor when I visited my father one day and it was still there a couple of hours later when I left, after it had been walked in and trampled about by other visitors/patients/staff

[dave k]

I doubt few of our budget nurses have even read it nursey, perhaps they havnt bothered ,perhaps they dont know it exists ,perhaps english is their second tongue so they cannot read it

 

Perhaps rather than a career nursing is just a job to many or perhaps our overseas nurses dont see us as human enough to deserve care ,i for one wouldnt regard foreigners as human if the roles were reversed its just a job so i would do the least i could to get the money ,i expect they do to you can pay for actions but not much more ,you cannot regulate what the person feels doing it as yet

 

I have worked with hundreds of foreigners liking them wasnt in the job description as far as i can remember

your so called budget nurses were in the majority on my ward, and do you know what they were fantastic

i had a lot of confidence in their ability to do the job and their care and compassion as well. because of my confidence i was able to sleep better. i never went to sleep until i knew who the night nurse was, and if it was a new one i had trouble sleeping.

 

when my trackyotmy tube came out in the middle of the night, one of your so called budget nurses dealt with it and calmed me down fantasticly. if a tracky tube comes out it has to be put back within minuites or it will close up.( i had a trackyotamy 3 weeks before the larengetomy to help me breath )

 

you have a very synical view of the nurses who are in the majority in the NHS. it is compleatly alien to what i have experienced in the past 6 months. i do hope as i get older i do not get get as synical as you

 

 

edited for bad spelling...and i know there is a few more mistakes as well

Edited February 9, 2013 by dave k

[Old geezer]

your so called budget nurses were in the majority on my ward, and do you know what they were fantastic

i had a lot of confidence in their ability to do the job and their care and compassion as well. because of my confidence i was able to sleep better. i never went to sleep until i knew who the night nurse was, and if it was a new one i had trouble sleeping.

 

when my trackyotmy tube came out in the middle of the night, one of your so called budget nurses dealt with it and calmed me down fantasticly. if a tracky tube comes out it has to be put back within minuites or it will close up.( i had a trackyotamy 3 weeks before the larengetomy to help me breath )

 

you have a very synical view of the nurses who are in the majority in the NHS. it is compleatly alien to what i have experienced in the past 6 months. i do hope as i get older i do not get get as synical as you

 

 

edited for bad spelling...and i know there is a few more mistakes as well

 

Well said!

[chesters1]

your so called budget nurses were in the majority on my ward, and do you know what they were fantastic

i had a lot of confidence in their ability to do the job and their care and compassion as well. because of my confidence i was able to sleep better. i never went to sleep until i knew who the night nurse was, and if it was a new one i had trouble sleeping.

 

when my trackyotmy tube came out in the middle of the night, one of your so called budget nurses dealt with it and calmed me down fantasticly. if a tracky tube comes out it has to be put back within minuites or it will close up.( i had a trackyotamy 3 weeks before the larengetomy to help me breath )

 

you have a very synical view of the nurses who are in the majority in the NHS. it is compleatly alien to what i have experienced in the past 6 months. i do hope as i get older i do not get get as synical as you

 

 

edited for bad spelling...and i know there is a few more mistakes as well

perhaps if that was the only nurse on duty then logic says they will deal with it ,no-where did i say they would deliberately let you die ....they need the job like anyone else.

your experiance differes from mine fine but i expect not only was the ward you were on different to my experiance the whole damn hospital was

 

the 92 year old whos computer i fix on many occasions didnt believe a word i said about this hospital ,he had a fall and spent a week in it ,now hes more biased than i am.

 

are the budget nurses the majority? perhaps thats because they are budget nurses

 

theres a whole lot of difference even in nursing to doing what your paid to do and doing what you may want to ,care comes from inside not a name badge

 

i was nice and polite and even on occasion smiled because i was paid to work with foreigners it didnt change the fact they are just foreigners and worthless ,i expect because our budget nurses are just that they probably regard us the same way

Edited February 9, 2013 by chesters1