"Nursing care"

Last week I spent a few days in hospital 

I am an ex hospital trained nurse with many years experience.

I would like to congratulate the nurses now on their knowledge and expertise. 

Unfortunately, I believe this has been achieved at the cost of basic patient care.

To demonstrate this last year I was admitted to hospital and had a drip put in because l was dehydrated but it was 12 hours before l got a drink of water. This time it took 6 hours to be presented with a bottle of water.

Told to ring the bell if l wanted something only to find the bell was out of reach and at another time not turned on.

Taken to the shower room and left to shower myself only to find the shower was out of reach and later there were no towels.

The staff wash their hands every few minutes but it seems nobody thinks the patients hands need washing occasionally as well

 Could go on with more tales like this, unfortunately I hear this repeated from fellow ex nurse from Perth Busselton Bunbury. It seems it is not isolated.

As I understand it, the trained nurses are so busy doing more technical things that there is very little time for the basics of nursing.  

In my opinion, we need another layer of personal carers who are not involved in the medical treatment but could relieve the trained nurses of the more mundane care thus relieving them of some of their work load. 

This could help relieve the trained nurse shortage hopefully at lesser cost.