"Ward 27 (Trauma/Orthopaedics and Plastic Surgery..."

This review and the ratings I have given relate to the regular staff on Ward 27 (not the Doctors). [Please read my separate reviews on the Doctors / A&E / Ward 28 / the Porters] Admitted to this Ward from A&E at 8:00pm on a Sunday night; on this Ward for 5 days out of a 14 day stay. The cleaners, the porters, the domestic staff, the Staff Nurses/Nurses, the HCA's, the Student Nurses, all truly wonderful. Could name them all but not sure if my review would get published, given the Terms & Conditions of posting on this site. Thank you to all of you who looked after me (and everyone else on the Ward) so well. Thank you for allowing and helping me to retain my dignity despite the difficulties posed by my injuries and my pre-existing disability. I was particularly impressed by how you all dealt with some difficult and rude patients; particularly a patient who was dropping names of senior hospital management and consultants and quite lucidly explaining the process as to how one could get bumped up a waiting list for appointments and scans based on who they or their families knew in the hospital trust. These were more than likely the delusions of a single patient, especially as I saw that patient being treated no differently to anyone else on the Ward i.e. that is with the same care dignity, patience and respect as everyone else, despite that patient's rude treatment of the staff. What did seem strange was hospital management lumping trauma/orthopaedics together with plastics, a strange combination, given the completely different care and treatment needs. Question is were the nursing staff orthopaedic or plastics specialists and were there enough staff available and of the right expertise? Unlikely given how run off their feet the nursing staff were on this Ward. The role of the nursing staff was prioritising the needs and care of those on the Ward, choosing between those who were most in need of care. Everyone received the care and treatment they needed, some just had to wait longer for it, and unnecessarily so. This was no fault of the nursing staff; they could not be in two places at the same time, no matter how hard they tried, and it was apparent they did try. Those hospital managers allocating staff would do well to spend time on a Ward both during the day and on night shifts ‘shadowing’ the nursing staff to see whether the Wards are adequately staffed. With ‘adequate’ being assessed objectively rather than based on an interpretation devised by the managers themselves.