Birmingham Childrens Hospital care standards

Silverdragon102, BSN · Nov 9, 2008

Wow, just shouldn't be happening

Hyacinth55 · Nov 10, 2008

I did my SEN peds training at B`ham childrens in 1980 and it wasn`t a great experience - dirty and unorganized is what I remember the most. Never wanted to do peds after that until I worked at Shriners Children`s hosp in Sacramento - what an amazing difference. A much better pediatric experience in a absolutely beautiful facility! Blossom

MandaAnda · Nov 10, 2008

I commented on this on another message board I belong to:

Yep, stop cutting staff, train them better, actually try to retain them - things will improve. It seems they'll never learn this lesson, though.

I do hate things like this though, which does make articles look exaggerated:

In the case of Lisa and Jason these shortcomings became apparent very quickly. When they were sitting with Thomas after surgery they noticed that his chest was no longer moving. 'We later found out that a temperature probe had become dislodged and this had gone unnoticed in the minutes before he stopped breathing,' says 38-year-old Lisa, a carpet company

I don't think a dislodged temperature probe has anything to do with nursing staff not noticing him breathing or not. However, a dislodged apnoea monitor probe makes much more sense, although you would hope that a child just out of cardiac surgery would be on a cardiorator/oxygen saturation monitor as well, which would start showing desaturations and bradycardias, if he'd stopped breathing. And if an apnoea monitor probe became dislodged, the monitor couldn't feel the breaths and would alarm anyway. So that whole quote just doesn't make sense to me no matter how I try to work it out.

Smiler3 · Dec 10, 2008

I currently work at Birmingham Childrens Hospital on PICU, and I am very proud to say I do! The article that was published was very disheartening to read, the temperature probe written about belonged to a ventilator circuit and the insident happened 5 years ago! Maybe the press should comment on the good work the hospital do and all the children that leave alive, instead of knocking the good work that goes on day in day out within the hospital and PICU where I work hard for the sick children I care for.

Billy Shears · Dec 12, 2008

I currently work at Birmingham Childrens Hospital on PICU, and I am very proud to say I do! The article that was published was very disheartening to read, the temperature probe written about belonged to a ventilator circuit and the insident happened 5 years ago! Maybe the press should comment on the good work the hospital do and all the children that leave alive, instead of knocking the good work that goes on day in day out within the hospital and PICU where I work hard for the sick children I care for.

Good for you I totally agree. The media in this country has a lot to answer for.

honey75 · Dec 12, 2008

Agree 100%. The press, patients, relatives are to quick to pick up on the negatives and not enough is said about the good. No praise, no thanks and no appreciation. Yet we still continue to work our butts off.

Silverdragon102, BSN · Dec 12, 2008

I think the public like someone to blame unfortunately it is the nurses that take it.

Management need to take stock and improve staffing but that would mean spending money. I remember before I left working in a hospital we started putting in incident forms every time we felt there was a staffing issue (most days) so that we had it to back us up if anything happened

Billy Shears · Dec 12, 2008

I think the public like someone to blame unfortunately it is the nurses that take it.
Management need to take stock and improve staffing but that would mean spending money. I remember before I left working in a hospital we started putting in incident forms every time we felt there was a staffing issue (most days) so that we had it to back us up if anything happened

We do that too. The other day I was triage and treatments! Triaged a bunch then ran round to cubicles to treat pts I had triaged 1 hour earlier. Back to triage, repeat.