Being fed against beliefs in care home?

I worked full time and could only see my mum in hospital in the evening. She was there many weeks while awaiting a placement in a local nursing home. I worked in hospitals previously and didn't care if anyone was annoyed at me lifting mum's notes from the foot of the bed. That's where I noted her weight was dropping by about 2lbs per week. I spoke with the nurse and then management. They tried to waffle around it. Her weight stabilised somewhat but was only 6 weeks into the nursing home when she died from septicaemia (sp).

Also as far as I can see, her Care Home is equally good re dietary requirements. Nothing lavish, mind you.

Today I visited my sister in hospital. She has had difficulty swallowing, so all her food is puréed. She was fed by an HCA and this requirement is shown above her bed. She was asked what she wanted this evening, and I was asked about any allergies and preferences. I cannot fault them on today’s experience.

As this is a question about food and care homes and hospitals I should say that food choices in the hospitals are always dodgy.

It is not easy to cover when patients are changing and the budget is low.

In care homes though the situation should be easier as patients are there for a longer time.

my friend was a HCA for 12 years and saw close up how the attitudes of the nurses has altered.

The degree nurses appear to have been told that basic nursing care is beneath them, It is for HCA's. Who do their best but are not always well trained.
My friend already had one year nursing training under their belt so saw the situations from 2 sides.
Friend stopped the Nursing training because they did not want to study for a another degree as they were already over 50 and had a one good degree already.
They did not feel ordinary caring was beneath them.

I am not blaming nurses but blaming the system that has been changed into making nursing a degree course instead of vocational.

My mother was a patient in hospital at 93 she had all her faculties and held many conversations about her lactose intolerance. In spite of it being written in her notes, a meeting with the dietician and all the staff she was still presented with foods that had a dairy content. It seemed that communication between the staff and the kitchens sometimes failed massively. When she was given dairy free her choice was sometimes severly restricted. As she was losing weight and disliked the drink supplements she was given to help her I finished up taking her a lunch in each day. It wasn't a major intolerance but I would imagine trying to get vegan or even vegetarian meals would be similarly difficult.

When my H was in hospital last year for nearly 5 weeks ( he died there) the only time I saw a nurse was when I sought one out to ask a question or to mildly complain.
HCA’ S did everything to the best of their ability, which in some cases was pretty poor.
I went in to feed him at lunchtime and my GD went in as often as she could in the evening.
My H hardly ate but we tried, he was past food by then.
My GD heard one point to my H and say he refuses to eat, if I had been there I would have reported her.
I also saw a patient given two large meals which he ate greedily, he had dementia, another HCA came and saw what had happened and rushed off as he was diabetic and had a special diet.
I wasn’t filled with confidence.

Having had little contact with NHS Scotland for most of my life, I have been making up for it this past year. With DH's Dementia, my Broken Arm and my Dsis' Breast Lump we have been in and out of ED, hospitals, care home, physio and had carers coming into my home. I cannot fault any of them. As one of the carers said to me - "It is a vocation, we are certainly not in it for the money.

In my DH's Care Home there are two choices at each meal, + specials for individuals who have difficulty eating or special dietary preferences or allergies. These are listed in the Kitchen and in the 8 person units. I realise that this would be difficult in a larger establishment (DH's Care Home has 40 residents in 5 Units) or in large Hospitals where patients come and go unlike Care Homes where there is continuity of care and a personal relationship with each resident.

Nursing has changed as a role though. A lot of traditional nursing jobs are now carried out by health care assistants. And that is reflected in training which may be task based rather than compassion based (I don’t know, but knowing how the NHS works in other areas that is my guess).

I don’t think this is a good thing btw - I think the loss of compassion in the NHS - where staff can be penalised for being compassionate because it ‘wastes time’ is awful, but I think the idea now is that nurses administer drugs and do medical things while feeding and care and compassion is meant to come from (overworked, underpaid) health care assistants

I tend to agree eazybee .

A lot to do with degree qualifications; some nurses, only some, regard many basic nursing tasks as beneath them.

The hospitals I attended recently, were overstaffed, not just my opinion.

I’m not sure it is really just about under funding or short staffing though Hetty . From my recent experience it seems more about some people becoming nurses that don’t have a caring, compassionate bone in their body .

Not saying “all” before anyone jumps down my throat . There are some excellent nurses and some absolutely terrible ones. I suppose like in all walks of life and all job roles.

And people don’t even realise it comes ultimately from who is in government Hetty. They think it’s the same whoever is setting the policy. Having been caring for a severely disabled family member for decades I can confirm it is not.

It's what you get with under-funding and short-staffing. There's no time for decent care when everything is cut to the bone. People find out, too late, what they voted for!

It’s completely unacceptable & symptomatic of a care culture that doesn’t give a damn about the well-being of the person cared for. The issues run from commissioners who don’t commission enough staff to feed people at their pace through to care home staff who don’t see the person in front of them as quite fully humans.

And not all care homes are like this - often depends on the management because they set the culture & define what is acceptable.

I understand that the new type of nurse lacks compassion but surely they still have common sense.

It’s not a lack of compassion, it’s a lack of time!

Re volunteers: not many people want to volunteer for the abuse hospital staff receive. Especially for free!

If nothing else why don't they advertise for volunteers to do this common decency?

I don't understand how the nurses/hospitals ares still getting away with not actually feeding patients.

I have heard about this for many years from a friend who was a HCA at a large hospital in Bristol.
Why hasn't there been some kind of legal case for neglect, which is what it is .

Surely even a busy nurse can see that a person needs food?
I understand that the new type of nurse lacks compassion but surely they still have common sense.
I am horrified.

The same was true for my Dad and he had to have a relative there every meal time also .

So sorry for Happy Girls experience. To sum up , nothing is changing. Having the same experience with my husband's care in the NHS and a care home, I would like to see a movement to change this culture.
Money would help but better organisation and empathy would be a start.
I have seen instances where even common decency was not observed.
Too many stories over the years, no action !!

That must be very difficult for you Gillybob

Here goes, sorry . I can’t get much right these days.

Well this is going to be controversial but her goes....

My DH has been in and out (mainly in) of hospital for the last 3 months and while he was on the ICU I saw the very best of nursing care.

Sadly on the wards I have seen the very worst . Nothing to do with staffing levels and everything to do with the wrong people being in the job roles. Sorry.

I've seen it many times, along with other sub standard treatment.

OMG I have seen this recently Happygirl.

Dinners plonked in front of elderly patients and then taken away untouched . My own DH would have starved in hospital if I hadn’t been in the position to feed him.

We seem to treat our elderly people badly in this country
My father in law was in hospital for weeks and no one fed him. The meals were placed on a tray which was not in reach then taken away without being touched
We ended up having to be there to feed him at every meal
Their response was they didn't have time to feed him and he was far to fragile and ill to feed himself
He died after 5 weeks in hospital