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"Two nurses looking after my parent"

About: Angliss Hospital

(as a carer),

Recently my parent was taken to the Emergency Department with severe diarrhoea. I had left the hospital for 2 hours and when I returned to the hospital my parent had been moved to a different ward (2 West).

I arrived at the ward desk to inquire about my parent and introduced myself as a family member. The attending nurse said that they had just been talking about my parent and that my parent's details were up on their screen. The nurse walked down to my parent's room with me and advised me to put on a gown and gloves so I did.

Shortly after this, my parent had feces running down their legs, so I pressed the buzzer for assistance because my parent was too weak from days of constant diarrhoea to press it. A nurse came in and threw an incontinence pad at the end of my parent's bed, and then moved the buzzer where my parent couldn't reach it.

Before the nurse left the room I asked if they could assist with getting my parent onto the commode. The nurse said that they would be back in a minute, however, they didn't return to assist for another 10 minutes when they got my parent onto the commode. The nurse then left for around 45 minutes even though the buzzer was going for 20 of those minutes.

I had to get my parent off the commode and try to get them into a clean gown and clean them up which I didn't mind. I then pressed the buzzer to get assistance with removing the gown which was covered in feces, as the IV had to be removed. At this point, I noticed that the IV wasn't even turned on, and I took a photo of it switched off. I asked the nurse why was the fluids were turned off and they said that they didn't know, but that maybe the doctor wanted to do something else.

10 minutes later the nurse came back to flush site and really hurt my parent and they apologized and said that they had to do it. I asked the nurse to remove the dirty gown, and they said they would do it in a minute. I waited for a while, and then another nurse came in, so I asked them if they could remove the dirty gown instead. This nurse said that they couldn't because the doctor was coming and that they didn't have time. I was beside myself and didn't want my parent to sit in feces anymore as it was burning their skin.

My parent was almost crying over the way these two nurses treated them and I even heard the other nurse telling a patient across the hallway that it was my parent's room that smelled. 

These two nurses were the worst of the worst and as I was leaving I noticed that the second nurse ran into a room, I believe to get away from me. I think that they didn't want to talk to me or assist my parent, so I quickly turned around asked to speak to them in regards to my parents Webster-pak that was put away. 

I will not tolerate this sort of treatment to any elderly person whether it's my parent or not. I would like to be contacted so this can be investigated. 

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Responses

Response from Gayle Smith, Executive Director, Quality, Planning and Innovation, Eastern Health 4 years ago
Gayle Smith
Executive Director, Quality, Planning and Innovation,
Eastern Health
Submitted on 12/08/2019 at 10:07 AM
Published on Care Opinion at 10:10 AM


picture of Gayle Smith

Dear Nutsy,

Thank you so much for sharing your comments on Patient Opinion. I am very sorry that you and your parent had such a poor experience of care. I would like to assure you, we look to all staff to behave in accordance with the Eastern Health values of Patients First, Kindness, Respect, Excellence, Agility and Humility and I am sorry that this did not occur.

In order for us to follow up the particular circumstances regarding your parent’s experience, I would like to invite you to contact one of our Patient Relations Advisors in the Eastern Health Centre for Patient Experience either by calling 1800 EASTERN or by emailing feedback@easternhealth.org.au.

If you choose to call please be aware that it is possible that the Patient Relations Advisors may be on another call at the time you ring and if so you will be invited to leave a message so they can return your call.

I hope we hear from you soon.

Kind regards

Gayle

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