I personally think the author has obvioulsy been out of the workplace for way too long and while she has a valid point re: the lack of cleanliness in UK hospitals, she is totally unaware of the pressures on the nurse working on the wards today. I, for one, am sick and tired of nurses being held accountable for all the wrong doings and lack of cleanliness in UK hospitals these days. Last year, when I was working in an A&E in England, we nurses barely had time to ensure that the essential care was given let alone follow the cleaners round to make sure they were doing their jobs to a high standard. At nights, we had no cleaners so clearing up floor messes and changing toilot rolls fell to us (not that we weren't busy trying to look after that guy having an MI in room 6....'be there in a minute...just changing some loo roll") and at the weekends we went from 2 cleaners to one who only worked half a day and we all know what an A&E department looks like at the weekend. We nurses complained constantly about the lack of cleaners and cleanliness but to no avail. The management wouldn't listen to us and were thinking of making more cuts in the cleaning department and in fact they stopped clearing trash from the non-clinical areas in order to save money and the staff in those areas had to take thier own trash out. I would like to hear less nurse bashing going on (especially by fellow nurses) and more blame being laid at the door of those who are REALLY responsible for the problem. I know that we nurses are more frustrated than anyone by these problems but are hands are tied. The managements do not listen to nurses.
