"Unsure if my standards are higher."

A few days ago, I had emergency surgery at Sunnybank Private Hospital and stayed overnight to be discharged on doctors request the next day.

I work in the healthcare service, so am unsure if my standards are higher or whether this hospital is lacking in a service standard.

The nurses clearly had poor communication amongst themselves and with patients. Coming out of theatre into recovery I found the nurse abrupt and showed no compassion. When I voiced my high level of pain she didn't say anything but added a drug into my cannula.

I was not offered anything to eat in the hours after my surgery - I had been very unwell all day and had not eaten anything. I asked the nurse for something to eat. An hour later, and still no food. I pressed my nurse call buzzer, which wasn't answered in a timely manner, to be seen to by a different nurse who had not been told I was needing to eat. She got me a sandwich.

An hour later I buzzed again as my pain level was growing higher and very uncomfortable. A different nurse came in, who was an agency nurse, and told me what I could have and when. I had to then request pain medication. No nurse on any shift asked how my pain was. The night nurse told me breakfast was 7am. The morning nurse told me 8.30am. There is no communication booklet for patients with simple need to know information. My breakfast was cold, my porridge was tasteless and the boiling water for my coffee was so cold it wouldn't dissolve it. I purchased something to eat from the cafe at this point.

After my operation I had vaginal bleeding which was obvious and evident on the sheets. 5 different nurses saw this and not one offered to change the sheets for me.

In the morning two nurses came in to take out my drain. I didn't have a drain. They both laughed and said they must have been given the wrong name. This is clearly poor handover communication.

Not one nurse came onto a shift and introduced herself. No one asked how I was going. Not one offered a clean gown and a fresh towel to have a shower.

On discharge the nurse went through the paperwork explaining all they had done for me. I looked at my obs chart and my respiratory rate was charted as normal but in fact was not counted each time. Each nurse had signed (12 times in total I was told) that they had all checked my wound. Not one of those nurses did check my wounds post operatively. Nor did they ask about heaviness of bleeding etc. I asked the nurse to check my wounds, I explained my experience of my overnight stay and asked her to explain if my bleeding was in fact normal.