4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[Alis girls]

As you know I am a PN in a Drs surgery and have been out of hosp nursing for yrs. The only time I have experience is recently and for kids and when I had the kids.

This gripe is about c/o the elderly . A friends lovely 87 yr old mum is in hospital with circulatory problems. Still mobile with a closed drip except at night and fairly self caring. However she cant wash her hair because of drip and being a bit unsteady. My friend asked a nurse and was told they didnt wash hair but not why. My friend said care is ok but they spend a lot of time talking at desk. I told her to ask why they didnt wash hair as it part of nursing care keeping someone clean and dignified. I have said I'll come and wash it myself if she can hold mum and to sus out if this is poss and what bathroom etc is like.

yrs ago on wards we had a contraption which allowed us to wash a patients hair in bed and a bucket on the floor catching water. If we had time and we often made time the patient got a blowdry as well yes I'm no Nicky Clarke!!

If there are any younger nurses please can you explain why cant an elderly lady have a hair wash? Nothing worse than manky locks. I am a dinosaur but see it as good care.

[Redwing]

My Oh says he washes patients hair all the time, while they are in bed using a basin behind the patients head or if the patient is more mobile he will wash their hair in the bath or shower

 

He does admit that time does run short sometimes especially on an elderly persons ward when there is a an outbreak of the runs and he is forever cleaning patients up

 

Knowing how busy he is on the ward time spent chatting is rare but occassionally the nurses do take a moment out, they are overworked and underpaid so who can blame them, I do know that hubby wouldnt let a patient sit dirty because he was chatting - hopefully most nurses are the same

[Alis girls]

Thats good to hear, i will ask myself if I go, especially if they seem to be sititng around chatting. We were horrendously short staffed when i trained but we did what we could. The hospital she is in has had bad reports in past MRSA etc but seems to be on the up. However my experience with students is that they seem unable to communicate with patients - i can only think this is down to uni education and not ward based. however ward based had its problems too. I just wanted an idea. My own experience recently is that my wound was not checked and nor was the other patients for haemorrhaging. however I checked myself, but what if i couldn't? Just wanted some feedback. Your OH sounds lovely and caring - a good hands on nurse.

[Guest]

Trouble is they have so many carers on the wards trained in so many aspects of patient care that originally was done always by trained staff that where as a nurse would have made beds and taken observations BP Temp etc it has taken away the trained qualified nurses from talking to the patients, which whilst they undertook these functions could have chatted to the patients, they now spend time doing admin

 

A friend of mines wife was dying and ended up doing mouthcare on all the other neighbouring patients (4) and complained the nurses sat at the desk. He was livid and worked in that particular trust.

 

 

I have this conversation all the time with staff, not saying they are all bad but the nursing course has become college based nowadays that the basics are not learnt from the beginning and in some cases not until they qualify onto the wards

 

What is sad is no one complains I think the ward nurses who work shift work do have the hardest job and are paid considerably less than the mon-fri specialist nurses who are on quite some money in some cases. £57K etc

 

What a shame make sure you complain or do it for your friend. It may help staff get more help too

 

Hope they get their hair washed..am sure it will make them feel so much better...

 

indie

[Alis girls]

Thanks Indie - i will ask their reasons and if not satisfied will report to RCN and nurse admin. I am not on a witchhunt just feel cross that someone cannot have a small treat which we all take for granted.

[jess]

I do it all the time! Especially if they are in patients!

[bluekarin]

I'm not elderly, although feel it sometimes, but I was in hospital a few years ago with a badly broken ankle. I was in there for a week sat in bed with my foot raised and couldn't get into the shower (it was raised up on a platform) so couldn't wash my hair. I felt bad enough that my poor hubby was having to run a business and take over looking after the house and kids, but to be sitting there with manky hair was just so depressing. It was bliss whenI finally managed to wash it. I think its the small things that make life easier to bear, especially when you are not feeling your best.

[Guest]

Thanks Indie - i will ask their reasons and if not satisfied will report to RCN and nurse admin. I am not on a witchhunt just feel cross that someone cannot have a small treat which we all take for granted.

 

 

Another place is Nursing Midwifery Council ..NMC their professional body. If things continue so will bad practice..whatever happened to individualised patient care..targets targets targets..the nhs is tied up in knots!

 

indie

[MedusA]

It's a good few years since I was nursingon the wards, but we always washed patients' hair if they requested it. There was also a hospital hairdresser, if longer term patients needed a cut/style.

 

It's probably just another in a very long line of NHS "improvements".

[Clash City Rocker]

Slightly off topic,

 

As some of you are nurses,

 

I've been getting some help losing weight from my GP practice nurse for nearly 2 months, weigh-ins, food diary etc. Got weighed yesterday and I was 5lb heavier with the nurse's scales than the scales at home. Got taken into another doctors surgery and I was the same weight as at home.

5lb difference in the 2 sets of scales at the doctors (both sets calibrated feb 2009). ????

[Alis girls]

Hmmm - several things spring to mind bearing in mind we have all our stufff at work calibrated. My room has lino, some Drs rooms have carpet and so do some bathrooms. Is the floor level? The other thing I find is that sometimes kids leap up and down on scales - possibly putting it out GRRRRRRRRR. But if its non of these sorry cant explain. Probably go on yours as you can weigh yourself with no or less clothing

[Clash City Rocker]

Probably go on yours as you can weigh yourself with no or less clothing

 

With my ownscales, I can also:-

 

Stand on Tiptoe, Use no Talc, Deodrant or moisturiser, Balance the scales between two floor tiles, Shave, cut toe and fingernails and anything else that might just help a little.

[jenimac]

I too am a nurse still working full time (in theatres) but trained a long time ago when we always washed the patients hair even when they were in bed. However most hospitals nowadays have hairdressers that will come and wash and blowdry a patients hair on request. Just ask the nurse in charge of the ward to arrange an appointment. Hope your friends mother is feeling better.

[Joojoo]

Prior to his death a couple of weeks ago, my Dad had three spells in hospital from February to June. His hair was NEVER washed whilst he was in and on two of the occasions it was for 3 weeks at a time. We asked the nursing staff if it was possible for them to wash his hair and the reply was "no but you can if you would like to".

 

I was absolutely appalled by his treatment and his hair was the least of the problems, believe me there were many many more. If it hadn't been for upsetting him I would have made more than one complaint. Due to his illness he developed severe diarrhoea that he had absolutely no control over. He was a very proud man and this distressed him immensely as it would anyone. On one occasion it happened just as I arrived to see him so I ran out to the nurse at the desk to explain what had happened and could they clean him up and got the reply "help yourself to the incontinence pads. They are on the trolley over there". An absolute disgrace I ended up having to strip, wash and redress him. Can you imagine how that must have felt for him? An 82 year old man. It wasn't very pleasant for me but you would do anything to help somebody in that situation but for him to have his daughter having to clean him in that manner must have been absolutely heartbreaking. I sincerely hope that I never end up in the same hospital. That said the treatment he received the last time he was in was very good but why should it be so different depending on which ward you are on. On all three occasions he was treated for the same thing and each time he was given a prognosis of a few days before he passed away.

[The Dogmother]

There really is no need for indifference, if they are busy, then I can understand it.

 

I was in hospital for a major op last year and couldn't fault their care of me. Due to the scale of the op, I (thankfully) had my own room.

 

They bed-bathed me on the day after the op, then the day after that, they helped me to the shower and helped me to have a proper shower and wash my hair too.

 

I was very appreciative of their diligence and care - it made me feel so much better.

[feemcg]

As a 'retired' Midwife and senior Practice Nurse I have to say I've been appalled at the training and experience of some of the students I've had to 'mentor'. I cannot understand why the 'powers that be' deem it appropriate to send 1st year students out into the community to work with midwives and psychiatric nurse when they haven't even learned basic nursing care and communication skills. I've also had 3rd year students that couldn't do a simple injection or blood pressure!...'we haven't been shown that yet'!!.....WHAT??.....in 3rd year we were in charge of the ward on night shift!

My training involved blocks of 6 weeks in the classroom, 3 months on the ward, of each speciality......starting in geriatrics, then medical, surgical before moving on to specialities like paediatrics, maternity, A+E etc......by the time I finished I had seen and dealt with most things......from making beds and wiping bottoms to dealing with stab wounds and chemotherapy drugs.........No better training, in my opinion (sorry, bit of a rant there )

[Tiggy]

it makes me sad to hear things like this, I too have been a nurse for nearly 30 years and thing have changed so much, as students we were based on wards & learned to care for people nowdays the course is based in the Uni & they nurses have so much accademic work to do that sometimes I feel they miss out on the real fundementals of nursing care. we were there to do most of the hands on caring and the move to university based courses has left a gap.

 

My MIL is dying at the moment & has been in bed for months and there is not a mark on her so it goes to show there are some good caring nurses out there that still know their stuff

[Woodcat]

hey

 

We recently had a family friend who died in hospital. The lack of hair washing was to be totally honest the least of the problems. I shouted at the nurses on several occations because the weren't washing there hands when they went from patient to patient even when they cam out of the ward that had MRSA spreading round. They would leave food siting out of reach when she couldn't move or get up to get it and even when they brought it they would leave yogut sitting infront of her for 6 hours in the summer. Malnutrition was one of the factors in her death and she had been in hospital for nearly 2 months.

 

 

On a slightly lighter note another friend of ours called Betty (she is female) got sent a letter informing her she hadn't got prostate cancer when she'd been in for a broken ancle. I really inspires faith in the hospitals here

[Alis girls]

Yes we've had men sent smear letters from health authority and in one case a man came for his. When explained that it would be physically impossible to do it without major surgery he got a bit uppity until I explained further. It caused major hilarity in reception i can tell you However joking aside - such a litlle thing can lift your spirits in hospital. Elderly people are generally very proud and to feel clean and cared for not to mention fed is a big part of that. i too was in charge of wards at night early on in training. scary and un safe but we got in with it. Thanks for you replies guys - I am out of touch with hospital care.

[TheGirlsMum]

When my Dad was waiting to die in hospital his food was always left out of his reach....I know he had refused to have any further whole blood transfusions because he felt the blood was of more use to babies and young people but that didn't give them the right to starve him. Sorry, rant over, will just add he wasn't in hospital here in Cornwall but many miles north.

[Snowy]

I am also 'old school' trained, 20 years ago this year! I just missed the first Project 2000 intake thank goodness. But I haven't worked on the wards for many years, so have missed a lot of the changes. It does sadden me to hear all these stories - I can't imagine nursing someone without giving them the basic care. In fact I can't imagine anyone wanting to go into nursing if they didn't want to do that! It does make me ashamed to admit I am a nurse sometimes