nurses convicted of sedating elderly patients for a quiet shift!

Having seen it from many angles, I was a cancer patient, had operation and chemo, then did hospital car service 3 days a week for 10 years e, taking patients from home to hospital and therefore also saw many care homes , not on show, but in their ways of working tc etc. Had some really wonderful nursing from many people and one or two that I would not want to be in their wards again, but I would not be browbeaten by their petty attitudes. Rules for safety and medicine etc but I would not be told when to stop reading or to go to sleep etc. If I was unable to sleep I chose to read, making sure my light did not disturb others. I did not wish to lie in the dark in pain and just think! So you do see all sorts of things. Whilst my hair is now white and I am physically having mobility problems and so forth my brain is still working full time. So long as I am able I am living in my own place and so long as I dont make problems for other peoples intend to stay like this. Music and Art are my life, I want to listen to Bach with no background noise etc etc. Have no intention of staying in hospital for any longer that is absolutely necessary. Quality of life is far more important to me than length, and I make my own choices. If I was unhappy about the behaviour of the staff I would do my best to report them via the patient connection and so forth, and insist on leaving and would sign a waiver to get out. Remember the great poem Warning by Jenny Joseph, which begins
When I am old , I shall wear purple
with a red hat that doesnt go and dosent suit me

Well that is the way I want to carry on., and intend to do so!
On occasions I have spoken up about situations that needed to be checked on, I have also taken older friends and a member of my choir and we have agreed t on telling a white lie , that I shall speak as their niece. This was when they had no relative alive or local, and were not getting the informtion they needed, or where being patronised or talked down to. This did allow them to find out information they should have been given, but felt that they had been fobbed off etc. So I think we all need to look out for any vunerable person a that we know about who are in hospital near us.

Shantygirly

I have never got over the way I was treated at the birth of my first child. He was born naturally, at teatime on a Sunday. I was not allowed to hold him, I could see him in is crib in the corner of the delivery room (as far away from me as it was possible to be) making sucking movments. The next time I saw him was six o'clock the next morning, I had been awake all night. A nurse brought him to me for feeding. Having never breast fed before I was finding it difficult, the nurse came back 20 minutes later, I told her I had problems getting him to feed and her words were "He's not interested in you dear" and took him away. Those words still haunt me and bring me to tears 44 years later.

I can relate to that Shantygirl.
They took DC1 away and I spent all night worrying there was something wrong with her, refused me a drink (no tea, no water) in case I was sick, brought her the next day and the sister held her head and shoved her very roughly on to the breast.
We never did succeed with breastfeeding.
An auxiliary nurse came in and shouted at my mother because she'd picked up a fretful DC1: "Put that baby *down! now"!
Mum thought she must be the sister in charge!
I told her to ignore her.

I did hope things had changed over the years but recent events suggest otherwise.

Nurses are like everyone else, some good, some bad, most in the middle. The trouble is you can ensure the appropriate care is given with tick lists, procedures and training, but you cant make someone kind if they are not kind. I see medical procedures carried out to the letter on 'my ward' (volunteer). I see some incredibly kind nurses look after patients as if they were their own relatives. But as in any profession or walk of life there will always be those who put in the minimum effort, who cut corners to save themselves a task, who prefer to chat to their friends and who are plain lazy or unkind. Its also true that some patients are themselves staggeringly rude, demanding and obnoxious to the staff. Of course the staff ideally rise above it, but at the end of the day they are only human. Why did we ever start calling them angels.

It is very variable. There are kind nurses around as well as efficient but not very warm ones.
Patients have complained to me about unkind or very lazy nurses on Nightshift. I've discussed it with my manager but he couldn't say what I could do about patients' complaints to me.

CCTV cameras in wards (not manned by nurses or health care assistants) would protect patients. After a stroke I was sent for rehabilitation to another hospital which had a ward specifically for the elderly and stroke patients. The health care assistants dined on takeaways every night and seemed to be partying for most of the night. I wish I had just been sent home to recuperate.

I have never got over the way I was treated at the birth of my first child. He was born naturally, at teatime on a Sunday. I was not allowed to hold him, I could see him in is crib in the corner of the delivery room (as far away from me as it was possible to be) making sucking movments. The next time I saw him was six o'clock the next morning, I had been awake all night. A nurse brought him to me for feeding. Having never breast fed before I was finding it difficult, the nurse came back 20 minutes later, I told her I had problems getting him to feed and her words were "He's not interested in you dear" and took him away. Those words still haunt me and bring me to tears 44 years later.

I used to be a nurse and some of the nurses actions were terrible.
I left nursing because of one senior staff nurse,( I was junior) was cruel to a 16 year old girl after an operation.
I reported her to the ward sister but nothing was done.I later found out they were husband swapping,so that may have stopped her taking action.
This was a long time ago,and my dh has been in and out of hospital and has been treated very well, except for one occasion,and action was taken on that.
It seems juniors are listened to a bit more now.

My DH died in a care home (no room in the local hospice). He was not confused at all, but weakening steadily. He did have good care from the staff; in particular the two Nepali women carers were deft and tender.
But we did make sure that one of us was with him round the clock when he became too weak to speak much. The nurse in charge respected us for that, I think, and made sure his care was as it should have been.

Fleurpepper

MerylStreep

I know a psychiatric nurse who is evil. I’m sure that’s why he went into that particular field.
I know a woman who has been steeling from Guys hospital for years.

And what have YOU DONE about this?

Are you having a laugh? You seriously think I’m going to tell you.

Agree with TerriT as I have seen ‘angels’ behaving as unlike Angels as can be in the last 50 years whenever a
Loved one has been in hosp and it’s getting worse - my lovely Mum with dementia was ignored calling to go to the toilet - I know it’s true as I was there and had to virtually drag one of the ‘angels’ away from her chat - it’s appalling

I was unable to see the so called nurse who tried to pull my knickers off, calling me a disgusting old cow for sleeping in them. I was still very dopey from an emergency operation otherwise I’d have wiped the floor with her. I’d been undressed by nurses when brought in half unconscious and my last memory was a nurse telling me she would be leaving my knickers on for decencies sake.
As I slowly regained consciousness another nurse came in and said she wasn’t qualified but years of experience made her know that judging from the x rays, I’d be making a full recovery.
I hope she understood that I said” appreciate your telling me thank you”

chicken

My mother was in a nursing home,spending most of the day in a communal room where I was a constant visitor to the extent that I became unnoticed by the staff. One day ,I witnessed a very frail ,near death lady being "fed" by two nurses. The patient was trying to push them away and crying" No,no", obviously not wanting any food but the two nurses pushed her back almost horizontal in the chair and squirted liquid food down her throat with a syringe,making her choke and retch. The nurses were laughing and commenting that the syringe was sticking so that they had to squeeze hard, making the food squirt out with force. I found the phone number of the regulatory body and reported what I had seen, but they would not accept my report as I asked to remain anonymous in case of reprisals impacting my mother's care. The home owners denied ever using syringe feeding. There was an unannounced inspection of the home later and it closed soon after but my mother had died by then. The lady I saw being syringe fed died 2 days later.

Oh chicken that must have been dreadful for you to witness.

There is this fear that if you whistleblow then your parents “care” could be adversely affected.

At the care home I mentioned I spoke to 4 sets of families and they were all very unhappy with how their parents were treated but did not say anything because they were worried about what might happen to their parents.

My mother was in a nursing home,spending most of the day in a communal room where I was a constant visitor to the extent that I became unnoticed by the staff. One day ,I witnessed a very frail ,near death lady being "fed" by two nurses. The patient was trying to push them away and crying" No,no", obviously not wanting any food but the two nurses pushed her back almost horizontal in the chair and squirted liquid food down her throat with a syringe,making her choke and retch. The nurses were laughing and commenting that the syringe was sticking so that they had to squeeze hard, making the food squirt out with force. I found the phone number of the regulatory body and reported what I had seen, but they would not accept my report as I asked to remain anonymous in case of reprisals impacting my mother's care. The home owners denied ever using syringe feeding. There was an unannounced inspection of the home later and it closed soon after but my mother had died by then. The lady I saw being syringe fed died 2 days later.

Disgusting - but I think you'll find that 26,000 of our elderly were treated similarly before being sent to Care Homes in April 2020, and they did lose their lives ... Hancock et al need to be in jail for that one.

Actually in February 202 hen I had to go in for emergency surgery, I found out a coupe of days later that my Fentanyl Patches, and my Insulin had been taken from me - I was livid that they had been through my bag to start with, but the rest of my drugs has been put in my locker, but not those two, one which would definitely have been used recreationally, but the other could well have been used for 'seeing someone off' quite easily ... one of many complaints I had about that admission, and am waiting for it to happen again sadly. I absolutely agree with *Primrose's friend, and being a nurse who trained in the 1980's I know how it should be done, and nowadays it isn't done at all most of it (certainly in my local hospital which is dreadful, but had great care in Bristol Southmead Hospital - streets apart!)

Hospices are different, people work there because they want to give good end of life care.

This is rather close to home at the mo. If you know of any mistreatment of vulnerable patients or of any misbehaviours first report it to the matron/senior manager. If not dealt with then complain to The Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) (put PALs into google and the link to the gov.uk site comes up).
It’s easy to do and they have to reply within so many days, 40 I think.
The matron/senior managers are often not in the ward these days- they deal more with admin apparently. But, their name and contact number should be clearly displayed on the ward notice board.
Please, to stop this culture of a significant minority, do complain. It’s the only way it will make them think twice, and possibly even stop it. I, for one, hope it is stopped before I ever have need of it.

polnan

nothing new here, been reported on many years back.. see I do recall this! (referring to other thread about not remembering "things")

It was only on the news the other day

Merryweather that is awful.

I have had good care generally although I can remember one or two who were unpleasant.

teachkate

Wow - it’s definitely bash a nurse day today!
99.9% of qualified nurses are there because they chose to be - money is appalling, conditions, shifts etc are pants.
This thread has really saddened me, yes there are some dreadful nurses who make the headlines but don’t forget the vast majority of the ones who have dedicated all their working life to care - I hope they’re not reading this thread it’s heart breaking reading all these negative comments.
Every profession has people in it who shouldn’t be there please don’t jump on a bandwagon and make a generalisation about nurses 😢

We have several nurses in the family, all dedicated professionals.

But even they have been sickened by the way their relative has been treated in hospital, as were we when DH had a long spell in hospital - no visits allowed because of Covid so no family to fight their corner!
So yes, it happens and it is not as uncommon as you claim.

Not all nurses are angels, some are most definitely in the wrong profession.
I was once told I was lazy for asking for help getting to the bathroom. She said at 32 and there being nothing wrong with me she wasn't going to waste her time, if I was going to be this lazy I would have to either go by myself or lay in my own wee. She was busy (chatting at the nurse's station which was visible from my bed) I then pointed out that I had spinal damage with four discs out of alignment and were putting pressure on my spinal cord. Could she help me by bringing my wheelchair closer.
I was then told she would need help as I was a ’big girl’, and she wasn't going to hurt her back helping me. I'm a size 8 bottom and 12 top (boobs).The second nurse was just as vile and derogatory. Saying I was just putting it on and being lazy. I just needed help getting upright sitting and was still learning to transfer to my wheelchair and didn't want to fall.
Vile nasty women.
I was on the wrong ward as the spinal unit at that hospital was full. I think I was on a general surgery ward.
I overheard them being nasty to a lady with dementia too. Teasing her.

It's a pity these nurses can't be sedated, m then wonder what's been Done to them!

nothing new here, been reported on many years back.. see I do recall this! (referring to other thread about not remembering "things")

The portrayal of nurses as ‘angels’ is promoted by the MSM who often use it to push their own anti government agenda. My mother was a nurse and certainly talked of many she worked with as lazy, uncaring and cruel to the patients. Stealing was rife and expected, towels, sheets, medical supplies and drugs etc. They called it ‘going shopping’. Night nurses had a room to which they regularly retired clandestinely to sleep in, leaving the ward short staffed and the patients unattended. It disillusioned my mother who really did care for her patients. This was about forty years ago and continues to this day, I guess.

There has always been instances of medical staff becoming addicted to drugs because they have easy access to it.

This is just another instance of it, made worse by the fact that the women involved seem to have made a game of gambling with other people's lives and healths, and as far as I could gather they were not themselves either using the drugs nor selling them .

Not that there is any excuse for their misconduct and I hope they, and anyone else who misuses their work in this manner , are tried and sentenced for attempted manslaughter at the very least.

And of course, neither should ever be able to work as a nurse again anywhere in the world.

Wow - it’s definitely bash a nurse day today!
99.9% of qualified nurses are there because they chose to be - money is appalling, conditions, shifts etc are pants.
This thread has really saddened me, yes there are some dreadful nurses who make the headlines but don’t forget the vast majority of the ones who have dedicated all their working life to care - I hope they’re not reading this thread it’s heart breaking reading all these negative comments.
Every profession has people in it who shouldn’t be there please don’t jump on a bandwagon and make a generalisation about nurses 😢

👍Primrose53