Had a Blast on the Surgical Ward. part 2

I just remembered one of the best things I experienced during my little shift on the short stay surgical ward.

His name was Sam.

No no no stop thinking like that.  Nurse Anne is a happily married woman.

Sam is an utterly fabulous health care assistant.  By the end of the day I called him Saint Sam.  Nurse Anne is a bit rusty with Surgical Nursing but I couldn't have failed with Sam on my team.

He was good with the patients.  He could do observations, blood sugars and he cared enough to let me know of any problems he felt were arising with a patient.  He even brought people back from theatre.

A good HCA is worth their weight in gold.  They may not be able to help with drugs and all that kind of stuff.  If I am the only Nurse on a medical ward for the shift I may have over 80 IV drugs to give.  That takes hours.  And Nurse's make drug errors and cannot get to their patients when they have that many IV's to do.  So even if I had a hundred Sam's working with me in a situation like that I would still be struggling and short staffed.

But if I  knew that Sam was keeping a careful, knowledgeable and watchful eye on my patients whilst I was tied up with Nursing stuff it would make me feel a whole lot better.  I wish we had people like Sam on our medical wards.  It would be a real help to know at least there was someone reliable to look at my patients whilst I was preparing over 80 IV meds and getting dragged on doctor's rounds and to the phone.  But we do not get Sam types on the medical wards.  We used to have Sam type HCA's but as they quit and retired they were not replaced.  And we got the kids instead. Sucks.  We have a couple excellent HCA's left in medicine but the rest of the care assistants are all kids/cadets/apprentices/auxillaries with serious knowledge and common sense deficits and a whole lot of attitude.

I asked Sam why he doesn't do his Nurse training.  He gave me a wry smile and laughed out loud.  " I am happy as I am.  From  my vantage point Nursing looks like a nightmare.   I used to work on a medical ward as an HCA and I know how the qualified nurses suffer.  As an HCA I don't have to fuck about with drugs, assessments, orders, doctors or take any responsibility.  And on the surgical wards things run more smoothly than on a medical ward. I just enjoy interacting with the patients and helping them out.  And it is great.  Why would I want to give up a job I love ?"

Our medical wards need to have good RN's and health care assistants.  I think the ideal ratio is 80% RN's to 20% health care assistants in the composition of ward staff.

But the current ratios we are working with are something like 30% of staff are RN's and 70% are cadets/kids/apprentices/axilliaries.  

The hospital lies and tells people that on any given shift their medical wards are staffed with 65% Nurses and 35% care assistants.  This is a lie. 

Anyway I tried to get Sam to beg for a transfer to my ward and he nearly fainted because he laughed so hard.

Forest Gump GPs and hospital Consultants all across the land are telling anyone who will listen that the problem is "degree nurses who don't want to work on the wards".  Bullshit.  Managers are turning away both older trained and newly qualified Nurses when they apply for jobs as bedside Nurses on the wards.  They would rather hire kids.  Cheapo cheapo productions.