"Too posh to wash?"

[OldMedic]

The expression “too posh to wash” has been used in the press about some student nurses on the present diploma / degree courses.

In the 1980’s I encouraged and helped a young man enter nurse training. He progressed from Enrolled Nurse through to being an RGN with a BSc.

Now married and living in another part of the country he is Senior Nurse on a Head & Neck Unit in a major hospital. We still have contact a couple of times a year and he has expressed concerns about the students he gets on the unit. Recently, he told me of an incident where a patient just back from theatre and still not fully round from the anaesthetic, vomited. He and a student went to attend to the patient. Once everything was settled he asked the student to clean up the patient – she refused saying it wasn’t her job. Asked whose she thought it was, she replied “A Health Care Assistant.”
When it was pointed out that there were no HCA’s on duty she said, “Well, you can do it, because I am not!” Little wonder he is looking forward to retirement.

One thing about nursing in the RAF was that over and above the self-discipline of most nurses, the military discipline meant things were done and done properly.

Please tell me it is still the same!

 

[Rambling Sid]

To me it is amazing that a junior would take that sort of attitude, but this is the 21st century.....!!!!!

 

[penfold93]

The expression “too posh to wash” has been used in the press about some student nurses on the present diploma / degree courses.

In the 1980’s I encouraged and helped a young man enter nurse training. He progressed from Enrolled Nurse through to being an RGN with a BSc.

Now married and living in another part of the country he is Senior Nurse on a Head & Neck Unit in a major hospital. We still have contact a couple of times a year and he has expressed concerns about the students he gets on the unit. Recently, he told me of an incident where a patient just back from theatre and still not fully round from the anaesthetic, vomited. He and a student went to attend to the patient. Once everything was settled he asked the student to clean up the patient – she refused saying it wasn’t her job. Asked whose she thought it was, she replied “A Health Care Assistant.”
When it was pointed out that there were no HCA’s on duty she said, “Well, you can do it, because I am not!” Little wonder he is looking forward to retirement.

One thing about nursing in the RAF was that over and above the self-discipline of most nurses, the military discipline meant things were done and done properly.

Please tell me it is still the same!

I was the ward manager for the trauma/surg ward in Shaibah during TELIC and I would pick up the mop and clean down the tent just as often as the HCA's and the nurses.

As to patient care we all muck in if I ever heard any nurse say it was not their job then they may find themselves on the wrong end of a conversation and a suitable reflection in their report plus a few extra crappy shifts to boot.

 

[Talk Wrench]

With the requirement for nurses to have a nursing degree, could this be the reasoning why some have the too posh to wash attitude?

A lot of people who have a degree use it as a symbol of status and believe that those without are degree are somehow subhuman.

(There are of course those with degrees AND common sense, who as Penfold suggests are willing to muck in with the rest of 'em to get the job done.)

Maybe part of the nursing degree course should be a lesson in humility


TW

 

[smallesttradeintheRAF]

I was the ward manager for the trauma/surg ward in Shaibah during TELIC and I would pick up the mop and clean down the tent just as often as the HCA's and the nurses.

As to patient care we all muck in if I ever heard any nurse say it was not their job then they may find themselves on the wrong end of a conversation and a suitable reflection in their report plus a few extra crappy shifts to boot.

Are you sure - I heard a rumour that you never left the card table DT_Xtremez_29:
No, really, I hear from many patient that had military nurses and HCAs looking after them - nothing but the highest praise for the their professionalism and care.

 

[OldMedic]

Talk Wrench - With the requirement for nurses to have a nursing degree, could this be the reasoning why some have the too posh to wash attitude?


If everyone has a degree no matter what job they do, then the coinage is devalued.

Many of us wanted initial nursing registration to be at diploma level with a degree remaining as it was, a post-registration attainment.

We lost the argument and the educationalists won!