With all the recent news about MRSA and C diff?

have you or any of your loved ones been in hospital lately? If so, what do you think of our modern graduate style nurses? Do you get the impression that they never saw a patient before they pitched up as a Staff Nurse? Do they show compassion and do they show any sort of care that you would hope that a nurse would?

Think back to when nurses trained at the hospital, did all the dirty jobs and so knew from top to bottom (no pun intended) what care was needed.
Do any of these modern nurses have a vocation?
Or are they just graduates? What do you think?

thanks your your answers so far. However, surely the cleanliness of a ward is the responsibility of the ward sister. If it is not clean then surely she has the right to complain? Cleaners' jobs are not just for getting people of the dole list, they must do their job properly or else be sacked.
That does still not explain the treatment that so many people now get in hospitals. Speaking from my own experience, we don't want graduates we want the old style nurses who cared.

I think they are lucky if they get near a patient given the stupid amount of paperwok they're expected to do.

My daughter just had open-heart surgery and the staff was superb! Shand's Medical Center Gainesville Florida. I recommend them highly!!!

I don't think this has anything to do with whether they are completely ward based or learn out of books. Nurses are trained at hospitals they have to continually do placements at hospitals as well as attend university. Most trainee nurses I know also have jobs as auxiliaries when they are not studying or on placements.

The spread of MRSA is down to the fact that the NHS sub contracts the cleaning work out to a private company rather than employing cleaners themselves. It can also be spread via visitors.

That many do, but i have seen agency nurses who couldn't give a toss, both in Private and NHS. What should happen is that all cleaning goes back to hospital responsibility, no longer contracted out, that's basically where the problem has been. I was in one NHS place for two weeks and the level of cleanliness was appalling but the nursing care excellent. The cleaners really didn't do much other than the occasional mop and a lick with a a duster. The toilets were a disgrace, so time to bring back matron and the dedicated staff to sort the hospitals out.

my dear wife died in hospital almost a year a go,and I remember it as though it were yesterday,you cant say this for all nurse's,some are so dedicated,I HAVE EVERY RESPECT FOR THEM ..however there are another breed of nurse's who have no experience at all,and some will never make a nurse as we used to know them.but the cleaning of hospitals is the failure of the government taking on outside contractors,and being ripped off with cowboy's.
Also the coshy act makes it a farce as hygiene does not exist anymore

I was unfortunate enough to have an accident before xmas.
I spent time in A & E then went for an op in another hospital which was then delayed twice i even had the bed both times crazy.
I had to go to A & E whilst waiting for my op as my wound had become very painfull i was took to a small theatre by a doctor and told to sit on the bed to get my wound sorted.
I had to refuse the bed was covered in peoples cut hair blonde and dark and blood spatter.
so at least 2 people had been on it uncleaned. The doctor found us a side room at a table which he cleaned in front of me.He sorted the wound and i was on my way
My next appointment at the hospital where i was having dressing changes 70 miles away I was took into a room seperate from the other patients and told heres a leaflet you have MRSA.
Yes really caring it ended --good luck hope you get well soon.
"Thanks" When i had the op which they did whilst i still had
MRSA i was in a ward where the nurses where hands off totally.The ward was run by health care assistants there duties included bandage changing obs and everything.Must say they where first class.
I can tell you now that the nurses
that i came across where exactly that that just graduates.
And the health assistants seemed to be doing nurses jobs at half price no doubt.

I can only be honest from my own experience. A loved one of mine was in and out of hospital for a couple of years. The medical side was second to none and I can't fault it, however the nursing side left a lot to be desired. On the specialist wards, as in heart and kidney etc, the staff were professional and caring and knew exactly how to care for the patients but on the general wards, which were absolutely filthy, the staff if able to be found were cold and abrupt. They had no concept of hygiene and were evidently passing germs from one patient to another. The auxiliary nurses were awful and I wondered if they had been dragged in off the streets. I spent every possible minute with my loved one, so I could personally see he was being cared for while I was there. I have many examples of shocking and distressful treatment, which I witnessed but won't go into all the details.

I don't know why this is happening but can only say I would dread for anyone I love to have to visit, never mind stay there...

Quite a few of my relatives work in medical care and they agree with the failing and unacceptable standards...

Edit: I agree with your comments on the ward sisters and their responsibility but they are never around to speak to and even if the cleaners are contracted, they can still complain and refuse to have bad staff on their ward.

You posted this question twice you ******* retard

My daughter, currently in and out of hospitals was admitted as an emergency on New years day after I called NHS Direct. We arrived at 4.45pm, she was suffering from chronic headaches and nausea and had been unable to take her usual cocktail of drugs. She is on a hig dose of Prednisolone, a steroid and beginning to suffer withdrawal symptoms. A doctor gave her a cursory look and said it was crucial they were able to inject the steroids into her, and that a nurse would sort it out.
We were moved from one room to the next and it was midnight before any staff member came to see her. I actually had to go and knock on the staffroom door in the end.
They knew she had been admitted in severe pain and yet she was not offered so much as a paracetomol.
When I asked how much longer she would be left in this state it was evident from the look on the nurses face that she had technically been forgotten about. Another nurse hurried out and said 'oh she was next on the list' I think had I not alerted them she would have still been in agony the following day
It was a further three hours before she was admitted to the ward and offered paracetamol which was totally ineffective anyway, we had been giving her them for the previous two days.
The following day she suffered a nosebleed, the nurse on the ward told her to 'turn the pillow over' as they were short of clean linen.
She was wheeled down to X Ray for a CAT scan, and left there for three hours because the nurse had forgotten to ask for a porter to return her to the ward, so she missed lunch.
She missed breakfast the following morning because the nil by mouth sign above her bed had not been taken down.
They told her she would need a lumbar puncture and not to leave the ward, four hours later when I asked about it they said they were still deciding. 10..00 pm, nine hours later they decided not to bother. I'm sure a nurse at some point could have found the time to talk to my child about what was happening or not as the case may be.

She has been admitted to hospital again because she has shingles and the rash has become infected. We were told to be there at 5.00 pm, not before, not after, there were no beds available so she was left sitting in a corridor on the infectious diseases ward for two hours until a nurse said 'oh I forgot about you' her immune system is a cause for concern and having her wait on the infectious diseases ward was a great cause of concern, yet even though I mentioned it none of the nurses did anything to ensure she was moved. Eventually they moved her to the oncology ward.
She currently has no access to a shower or a bath and is on a mixed ward, she is a child, the other five patients are elderly, but because they forgot about her this was the only available bed.
A student nurse tried inserting a canular in her arm today and couldn't, she walked off saying 'someone will be along soon to see to it' and she is still waiting.
While I was with my child today there were elderly patients ringing their buzzers needing the commode, one old lady became terribly distressed that no-one was answering, in the end I had to go out and find someone, there were three nurses at the desk looking at baby photos. One tutted and stomped off to see to the patient.
This is a University hospital, my experience of the General where my daughter was before being transferred to the haemotology ward in the Royal was vastly different. The nurses there were wonderful, very busy, short staffed and while they couldn't answer buzzers as quickly as they liked they were doing the best they could, they had a much more hand son approach and took care with the smaller details that make a difference, the need for privacy when using the commode, the fact that my daughter was tired of being poked and prodded by medical students and had become quite tearful, a nurse mentioned to the doctor as soon as she saw him and my daughter wasn't pestered any more.
I can't say I'm impressed with the care my daughter is receiving at the moment. She has been in and out of hospitals for a long while now but certainly the last two months have shown a dramatic decline in patient care