[Odin]

Funny - during my Nurse training I don't recall being taught to mop floors wash windows etc....

We had people employed to do the cleaning whilst we attended to the clinical needs of our patients.

Nowadays... the cleaning staff also dispense the meals, the number of nurses on wards and other areas has been reduced, throughput of patients increased, clinical needs have developed and require more expertise.

Theatres used to be cleaned by a dedicated team. Now most hospitals expect the theatre staff to do the majority of the cleaning. Support workers do scrub the floors though. With the demands on theatre time, and the national shortage of trained personnel (we need to recruit 48 trained staff to match our requirements), the last thing the theatre team want to do at the end of the session (over running list + late off duty being the norm...) is start to wash walls and surfaces.
But they do!

The number of people having access to a hospital in a day runs into the thousands. MRSA and C Diff are out there in the community. We screen for infections and treat everyone as a potential source of infection until proven otherwise.

So DO NOT BLAME THE NURSES
WITHOUT THE NECESSARY RESOURCES THEY ARE DOING ALL THEY CAN!

18 weeks waiting lists? If we do not treat within this time scale we are financially punished. Emergency admissions can reduce the number of availble beds, theatres. Instead of allowing the hospitals to organise themselves and their resources the Govt states a policy. So when we cannot meet the 18 week target, we are "fined" which takes money out of the system, reducing the amount available to carry out the care we want to give.

DO NOT BLAME THE NURSES - LOOK AT THE LARGER PICTURE.

Paul (rant over)
p.s. and do not get me started on the £4k pay drop thanks to Agenda For Change!