Eighty-four-year-old ex-nurse calls for nurses to do less paperwork and more care

A retired nurse has spoken out after the Royal College of Nursing revealed that only one in 10 nurses say they are able to deliver high-quality end of life care.

Their inability to deliver the right level of care is due to lack of time and lack of training, according to a survey carried out by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).

Around 70 per cent of nurses in the community reported patients having to be taken into hospital in their final hours, against their wishes, because there weren’t the resources to care for them at home.

Ida Harries, is an eighty-four-year-old retired nurse, hoping to eventually die in her own home.

The RCN survey does not surprise her as she recently spent three weeks in hospital and experienced for herself the pressure and time constraints that nurses today are under.

Filling in forms

She said: “I was an 'in patient' for three weeks recently and could not believe the amount of time nurses spent filling in forms. Mostly, they simply went through pages ticking squares to show that they had performed tasks - tests etc and it took them away from their nursing care.

“Ticking squares! Now what on earth does that tell us ? Anyone can make a tick in a box but that does not mean that the task has actuallly and truthfully been carried out.

“These forms are purely being used as a cover against litigation and most thinking people know it.

“When I nursed (oh so many years ago) we did not need to have these forms. We were trusted to care for our patients and we would have been mortified to feel that we had to use up precious nursing time with all the paper work I have seen being carried out in hospitals - nursing homes and by district nurses and other care nurses in my own home.”

Nurses must 'take action'

Ms Harries wants to see nurses take action against this. “Nurses - you really must do some of this jumping and down and let your leaders know that you will not tolerate the poor care that you see.”

She urged “do not be bullied by the people in suits who have never worked as a nurse or, indeed, those who have given up actual nursing to become managers who have - it appears to some of us patients - forgotten what nursing should be about.

“Our patients must come first. Their care is - or should be - our prime concern. Nothing is more important than the way we treat our sick and dying.”

Ms Harries said sadly: “I feel so strongly about the way nursing is changing into a job instead of the wonderful, fulfilling vocation it once.”

Her sentiments are backed by Dr Matthew Knight, who has been practising as a doctor since 2005 and is co-founder of home care provider, Penrose Care.

He said: “After almost a decade working as an NHS hospital doctor, I see on almost a daily basis the strain that our hard working nurses are under buried in endless pages of paper work (for which they face criticism for if not completed fully) which serves to draw them ever further away from bedside compassion and patient contact - which is so vital to the vocation of a nurse.”

He added: “This need not be the case- standards of nursing in hospitals such as the University Hospital of Navarra are very high with an emphasis on bedside care and patient contact. The NHS must reform - the chain of admin around the necks of nurses, carers and doctors is killing off these professions.”

For more on the RCN survey go to www.carehome.co.uk/news/article.cfm/id/1565777/nursing-survey-raises-profound