The comments by Lord Manscroft recently on the "morals" of the nurses that cared for him in Bath's general Hospital was an interesting comment on modern nursing today. He didn't pull his punches by saying:-The nurses that looked after me were mostly grubby. We're talking about dirty fingernails, slipshod, lazy."
The hospital said it had received no complaint but would be contacting Lord Mancroft to discuss the matter.
During the debate on NHS patient care Lord Mancroft went on to say: "It's a miracle I'm still alive. But worst of all my Lords they were drunken and promiscuous."
"How do I know that? Because if you're a patient and you're lying in a bed, and you're being nursed from either side, they talk across you as if you're not there.
"So I know exactly what they got up to the night before, and how much they drank, and I know exactly what they were planning to do the next night, and I can tell you, it's pretty horrifying."
The hospital said it had received no complaint but would be contacting Lord Mancroft to discuss the matter.
During the debate on NHS patient care Lord Mancroft went on to say: "It's a miracle I'm still alive. But worst of all my Lords they were drunken and promiscuous."
"How do I know that? Because if you're a patient and you're lying in a bed, and you're being nursed from either side, they talk across you as if you're not there.
"So I know exactly what they got up to the night before, and how much they drank, and I know exactly what they were planning to do the next night, and I can tell you, it's pretty horrifying."
I know these comments are subjective and emotive, but as an example how "unprofessional" many nurses can be nowadays, it is, I am afraid rather accurate. I won't bang on for the possible reasons for all this: the lack of leadership perhaps , the lowering of admission criteria to nurse training maybe? a change of ward discipline, it is possible.The whole thing saddens me greatly.
Conversely, I have been working today, and have done so with a tight knit, professional group of staff that have made a particularly stressful shift a lot easier than it might have been. "My" spinal patient suddenly deteriorated today and sadly died this afternoon .As usual ( as it has been for the past 7 weeks or so) I have been allocated to care for him and although it was incredibly sad, to be able to "finish" his care and support his family through his death was a privilege and very satisfying.
When nurses work well together, professionally and with skill, the nurses themselves do not always celebrate the fact. I made a point of thanking each member of the team for their individual contribution, not only for my patient, but for me personally and this personal and professional "pats-on-the-back" are vital, I think, to develop staff awareness and pride.
Perhaps the nurses caring for Lord Manscroft have lost a little of the "pride" in their own profession?, and instead of arguing that these nurses don't exist, or shouting for these staff to be expelled from the register, perhaps the senior nurses supervising these nurses should look to themselves on how to professionalise nursing as a whole- a tighter rein on things is perhaps a start,.........
I think this is an interesting debate. I am split between a cultural/political explanation (that the patient has been commodified to such an extent that their place in healthcare is defunct: they exist in only a rhetorical form for exploitation by politicians and bureaucrats, and they are no longer necessary participants in the delivery of care; the behaviour of some nurses has become unconscious reflection of this), or a personal/tabloid one (that people are, increasingly, just plain rude). I guess that these are both true. I remember endless trips to the dermatology clinic, and the despicable, insensitive manner I (and, it seemed, most of the other patients) were treated by doctors and nurses alike, although to describe them as being individually culpable is pretty difficult. Ditto for my former GP (who answered her mobile phone without any embarrassment during consultations), although to be fair, the practice nurse was nothing but professional.
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