They have sunk even lower.

Can't believe I am having to tell you guys this.

We are losing our cadets/apprentices whom we have been trying to get up to speed for the last year or so.  Most of them are still crap as they have not had nurse training and don't understand the patients.  But if the trust refuses to staff the wards with real Nurses then the best we can do is try and help these kids succeed.

The apprentices have been doing NVQ things since they started in order to get them qualified as a Health Care Assistant.

All of them but one have passed their competencies and can now be health care assistants.  As they are turning 18, they will also be paid more than £3.00 an hour.

The trust has told them that they have to re-interview for HCA jobs now that they are no longer apprentices or whatnot.  Their contract as cadets is up.  Only one out of the seven is getting employed on the ward.  The rest are getting told where the door is.  Lots of tears.  A few of these kids were showing promise and were thinking of Nursing school someday.

And we are getting a new batch of 16 year old untrained inexperienced kids on £3 an hour to "bring up our staffing numbers".

The people who are the most pissed off at this situation are the two excellent experienced Health Care Assistants we have left on the duty roster.  Both of these women have been health care assistants for 15+years. They have been through hell in back trying to show these little snots the ropes. They have been through hell and back trying to carry all of the basic care while the lone Nurse was tied up with rounds, drugs, emergencies, and the cadets were chilling at the nurse's station.  It is easier for a proper health care assistant to get a job somewhere else than it is for an RN.  So these two are talking of leaving.

Man oh man we are so fucked.  No change there then.

The wards are going to be staffed with one or two RN's and 2 or 3 apprentices who don't listen no matter how many times you tell them that if a patient only has 50mls of urine in their catheter over the last 12 hours YOU NEED TO TELL SOMEONE.  The RN's have way too many patients and interruptions. It is physically impossible for the RNs to keep an eye on these things themselves.  Regulating the real health care assistants won't do squat for us as we don't actually have any health care assistants.

If you want to read more about the untrained assistants who are replacing Nurses on the wards as a result of management directives look at these links:

http://militantmedicalnurse.blogspot.com/2009/03/here-come-kids-god-help-us.html

http://militantmedicalnurse.blogspot.com/2009/04/more-fun-with-kids-part-1.html
http://militantmedicalnurse.blogspot.com/2009/04/more-fun-with-kids-part-2.html
http://militantmedicalnurse.blogspot.com/2009/12/feeling-sorry-for-kids.html