The basics of nursing...again

After four years temping in London, it's really hard to trust someone else to do a part of the care. This is mainly because of staff shortages and a corresponding lack of reliable aides to fill this shortage.

I've had aides that copied vital obs because they couldn't do a manual blood pressure. I've had aides who didn't know what was a good or bad blood pressure.

When working in london, with anywhere from 7-16 patients I have to rely on others to do the basics, but the fact is that the job is rarely done as good as I would like it. The result is that I'm not happy with the care patients are receiving, but I am helpless to do anything as the workload is too huge. I'm am not exaggerating when I say that in an afternoon shift I've been stuck with fourteen surgical patients, plus another that was admitted around dinner time. The Aide called in sick and the charge nurse got a second year student nurse to help me. Needless to say I soon left this job, in fact I walked out at around seven pm after an argument with the charge nurse.

Anyway, in my home hospital in New Zealand, we have maximum six patients per registered nurse. If you have a particularly heavy load, then you will have less. With this system you stay in touch with the absolute basics plus you have time to do the fancy stuff with all the new gadgets/technology etc. We have one nurse aide who circulates throughout the ward helping with bed making/washes etc.

On a more personal note, it is sad that we are too busy to do the simple jobs eg feeding patients. It is sometimes relaxing and therapeutic to sit with a patient, and spend some time talking, laughing, while performing a simple task. The more we move away from this contact, the more like a doctor we are becoming, eg assessing, diagnosing and treating. This is not what we are.