Nursing staff disappoints at this hospital 2008-08-21
I WOULD just like to know why some people decide on nursing as a profession.
Don’t they know that nursing is about compassion and not money? You become a nurse for the love of it and nothing else.
I am so disgusted with the attitude of some staff at Paarl Hospital. It seems so difficult for them just to be nice to you. You are so scared to even ask for information.
Recently I visited my sick aunt again at Paarl Hospital. It is not the first time that I have seen my aunt being treated here with so little respect.
The last time she was in hospital, about a month and a half ago, we found her soaked in urine from head to toe. You could smell it in the passage.
It was visiting time (19:15) when we told the staff about it. They were shocked to see her in such a condition. No one apologised. The day staff was blamed, obviously.
If you see a patient vomiting and you have to leave the kidney dish on her bed so she can reach it quickly. Check in on her to empty the dish and put a cover or a piece of paper on it.
It’s not necessary for visitors to all stare at what is in the dish. Spare her the embarrassment please.
I am an ex-nurse and in our days, when nurses were still nurses, we used to make sure our patients were clean and comfortable before their visitors came.
It was done three times a day and it was done with love an affection. That shouldn’t be too hard to do.
Ex-nurse
Paarl Hospital superintendent Dr Breslau Kruger replies:
I must apologise to the complainant for her bad experience at Paarl Hospital. The nursing profession is a caring profession and as such nurses are expected to be friendly, helpful, trustworthy and dedicated to delivering quality health services to our patients. It is certainly not hospital policy to make clients feel unwelcome or uncared for. It should also be remembered that most of our nurses are doing fantastic work under difficult circumstances in a state hospital where the bed occupancy rate at times is more than 100%.
The new specialist out-patients at Paarl Hospital will be opened soon (within a month or two) and then all patient files will be kept at Paarl Hospital, eliminating the need for files to be sent from TC Newman day care centre.
I would like to invite the complainant for a personal interview so that this matter may be fully investigated and acted upon as required. We will always strive to improve the quality of our services to the community and are prepared to address any deficiencies in our system.
