31-Jul-2011 10:56 am
Apologies to Mark Simmons if my comment is not entirely relevant but I just wanted to respond to Mike above to clarify I point I made which is also related directly and indirectly to poor care.
Actually Mike, I didn't make my sarcastic comment clear. I was referring to nurses on the ward who spend most of their day in the office rather than providing hands on care! as you know this puts considerable extra stress and strain on the team. these taskmasters always manage to come up with a good pretext which can be difficult to dispute even though it is wrong and they are good at putting others down. they don't seem to want to spend time with the patients or to nurse at all and i just wonder why they have chosen this career. because they spend so much time in the office they are usually the first point of contact on the ward with anybody who comes on the ward (giving the impression to some that they are in charge), including our superiors with whom they then have more contact than the rest of the team working harder on the ward. they act as our spokespersons and develop good relationships with them which enables them to jump up the ladder to an official office job where they can continue to bully their juniors!
i have met a handful of these types on several of the wards where i have worked. Perhaps their behaviour is a blessing for the patients as they may be more suited to work behind the scenes than being involved in direct patient care. In fact some may be hiding behind a mask, to disguise their own insecurities, in the office where they can give the impression of being busy and bustling with efficiency whereas they are often the one's whose 'care' patients complain about!
when I started a new job there were two nurses who regularly went off the ward for a smoke at the same time each morning before we got our coffee break, smugly saying that they had already finished all their work but leaving one nurse to prepare the drugs, answer phone, colleagues queries and buzzers (often for some work they had not completed) all at the same time. obviously as the new girl I did not answer back but found it highly stressful coming to grips with their very complicated medication system which required all my concentration and needed more time than normal. support for the other tasks to avoid constant interruptions would have been greatly appreciated to relieve the pressure on me. however, I had to stay until my tasks were completed.
we were not allowed to go and have a coffee break when our body clocks dictated a need for a shot of caffeine even though we might be on our knees by the time our break came. so why are tobacco breaks prn but not caffeine breaks? when they both take about same length of time!
in fact coffee could be brewed in the ward kitchen at any time so, unlike smoking, one did not even need to leave the ward.
as a footnote, I was actually employed to take charge of this ward who last person in charge had left one whole year previously unbeknown to me when i took over. By mutual agreement i worked without being in charge for the first three months to learn the ropes but there were so many difficulties within the team and I was forced by the Director of Nursing to hand in my resignation following an incident where I told another nurse off for being extremely rude, offensive and insulting to a new patient in the corridor who had just arrived who she was admitting. To sack me she had to prove professional negligence but the team psychologist who knew the Director well said that if I did not resign she would make my life hell with the risk of me making an error out of pure stress and thus a blemish on my cv. i sought union advice and apparently there had 20 files of similar cases and five of these had gone to the tribunal but I declined to follow this route and handed in my resignation.
In such circumstances, a bad reference is not given and mine emphasised one or two of my strong points but there are gaps which can leave prospective employers wondering and this is a well known strategy they employ not to condemn the person but also not to help them in getting further employment.
This last scenario took place in a medical, surgical and mental health rehabilitation clinic in Europe outside the EU where employment laws are different but the difficulties and attitudes may be the same wherever one works and the office scenario described at the beginning refers to periods during my training and time in a London teaching hospital and a university hospital abroad.
Nursing needs its leaders to respond to Francis
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