"The nursing staff were always ..."

What I liked

The nursing staff were always respectful, cheerful (even when under pressure) & tried to oblige whenever possible.

What could be improved

Communication between different "teams" of doctors. I was admitted to AAU and was seen by doctors of varying specialities who of course would reccomend different forms of treatment. Therefore the nursing staff were getting different instructions at various times throughout the day. For instance at one point I was due to have surgery (hence nil by mouth) unfortunately the "list" overran that day so the surgery did not happen. Fed and watered some 18 hrs later! The surgery was then rescheduled for the following day (nil by mouth) only to be cancelled by another team of doctors later in the day! The evening before I was discharged I was told my IV drugs would be discontinued after the AM dose and I would be free to go home. In the morning I was told they would continue for another 24 hrs. At lunchtime I was told that the IV was discontinued and I was free to leave. All of course by different teams.

Anything else?

When it was finally decided that I was going to be discharcharged I was given a sheet with my various drugs needed for home use. By some stroke of luck somebody from pharmacy was on the ward at the time and I handed the sheet to her personally and she assured me that my drugs would be ready within minutes. I then arranged for a friend to collect me in an hours time. I was then directed to the "discharge suite" After I had waited approximately an hour and a half I sent my friend away to return later. I finally received my medications some two and a half hours after handing over the sheet!

Surely there must be a more efficient method than that?