An Untrained Nurse For Mum? Healthcare Assistant Training Instead

mumps

Cherry_Bomb wrote: »

Im a registered nurse actually.

HCA's do do the vast majority of the personal care whether your experience agrees with it or not. Who else do you think does it?

Not in my local hospital, last time I was in they seemed to do drinks, meals, chatting to patients and general running around i.e. pushing wheelchairs to other departments, collecting from pharmacy etc. They also seemed to spend a fair bit of time helping patients with the very expensive TV/internet/telephone system.

When I needed help with a bath it was a qualified nurse who helped, when my drip was taken down it was a third year student, meds given by nurses. I could go on but it would get a bit boring.

Dunroamin

Person_one wrote: »

I disagree, theory is just as important as observation (which is vital, of course.)

We need to understand why certain things work better than others and how to look at situations critically and analytically in order to make improvements. It makes more sense to me to try and get nurses fired up, enthusiastic and questioning before they qualify than just hoping that will happen later on.

Once nurses are out there working to earn a living, they can too easily get entrenched in the status quo, or are so busy that they're just keeping their head above water day after day.

There are also other aspects to nursing theory besides theories of care delivery. There's history, ethics, psychology and sociology on the humanities side and anatomy, pharmacology and pathology on the science side. Not to mention things like health promotion and epidemiology.

Even if you don't care about your nurse having a basic grasp of ethical theory or the impact of your socio-economic status on your health, I'm sure you'd want your nurse to understand what the drugs are that she's putting into your veins, or to have a vague idea of what your illness is and how it progresses/is treated?

I agree with the last part of what you've written, I just question whether "an understanding of evidence based medicine and an appreciation of the challenges faced in managing the delivery of care on a larger scale" would really "get nurses fired up, enthusiastic and questioning".

It's probably just me.:o

Person_one

Dunroamin wrote: »

I agree with the last part of what you've written, I just question whether "an understanding of evidence based medicine and an appreciation of the challenges faced in managing the delivery of care on a larger scale" would really "get nurses fired up, enthusiastic and questioning".

It's probably just me.:o

Well, you haven't committed three years (or more, for most of us) of your life to becoming a nurse, so that's understandable. When you have, you care about this stuff.

Dunroamin

Person_one wrote: »

Well, you haven't committed three years (or more, for most of us) of your life to becoming a nurse, so that's understandable. When you have, you care about this stuff.

Possibly. I just hated the theoretical part of both my professional qualifications; I like my academic study to be, well, academic .

Person_one

Dunroamin wrote: »

Possibly. I just hated the theoretical part of both my professional qualifications; I like my academic study to be, well, academic .

What were your professional qualifications in? Maybe they just weren't as interesting.

I've done a traditional arts degree, I enjoyed that too, but this one makes me want to change the world and believe that I could have an outside chance of actually doing it. I'm all for academia, but academic study with real world applications is no less worthy.

Dunroamin

Person_one wrote: »

What were your professional qualifications in? Maybe they just weren't as interesting.

I've done a traditional arts degree, I enjoyed that too, but this one makes me want to change the world and believe that I could have an outside chance of actually doing it. I'm all for academia, but academic study with real world applications is no less worthy.

For me, more interesting than nursing - college lecturer and careers adviser.

I've never been interested in studying anything except literature (my degree subject) to a high level, not because it's more worthy but because it's one of the few things that interests me.

Person_one

Dunroamin wrote: »

For me, more interesting than nursing - college lecturer and careers adviser.

I've never been interested in studying anything except literature (my degree subject) to a high level, not because it's more worthy but because it's one of the few things that interests me.

Fair enough, there are about a thousand things I'd happily study to degree level if I had unlimited time and money.

Cherry_Bomb

Person_one wrote: »

So dispensing medication isn't care then? Why is running to pharmacy care but writing notes isn't? Everybody answers call bells surely, I hope you don't just leave it to the HCAs!

Not in the sense that patients and their families really care about. I've never had to deal with an irrate family member concerned that I haven't written my notes yet I've had upset family members thinking their loved one has been left in soiled bedding.

Person_one wrote: »

I'm not denying that HCAs do an awful lot of the personal care and hygiene on the wards, but 99% is just hyperbole. I'm still a student so I suppose I can see all sides on this.

Care as an umbrella term, no of course the HCAs don't do 99% of it.

My 99% comment was in relation to a post querying whether levels of care would be affected with the switch to degree only. As in what the general public associate with the term care. Washing, feeding, toileting, general patient contact ect. Not doing discharge paperwork, or writing letters to the DNs asking for weekly visits for wound care, ordering TTOs or disconnecting lines etc.

jobbingmusician

My husband has recently been in hospital. Personally, I think patients are already at risk, simply because there is no difference in the uniform which nurses and HCA's wear (in the hospital he was in. I understand there is a distinction in some hospitals).

One of the staff (presumably, and hopefully, a HCA) had such poor spoken English that he eventually gave up trying to ask her to move the bed controls to a position where he could reach them, and get a decent night's sleep........:mad:

DecentLivingWage

Oh no that's awful - ironic as well as when I posted it was jobseeker slaves I was worried about - i'd rather people trained for a job they really had a vocation for rather than being angry at having to work for nothing/pittance benefits looking after our loved ones - I expect Nursing responsibilities to be carried out by qualified degree trained... nurses!