Here's a question you will all probably know the answer to..

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So , Hi everyone I work on a mental health ward in Wales (acute) and something has come up that I just cannot find the answer to. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place :)

Here's the question in a nutshell. The ward has around 20 patients, some on sec. 2 or 3. At nights 3 hca staff and two qualified (I'm one). Now the management want to reduce the qualified to one. So heres the question? On an 11 hour shift I'm allowed to take a break / leave the ward..so is that legal? A detained patient on a ward with no nurse and no Dr?

Does Sec.2 or 3 require a qualified nurse?

Thats the question in a nutshell although it obviously raises a lot of other questions? I am all for improving patient care and reducing staff seems like a backward step, so I intend writing to the management but I would like to have the facts at my fingertips and the MHA is a big document...Finding the right bit is difficult. Also all the issues are hard to find the documentary evidence for. eg: Can I leave an HCA in charge? If I leave the ward , no PRN can be given..

I'm glad I found this forum because I'm getting in quite a stress trying to justify my stand to management..

al

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Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.

I'm not in Wales, though I know about 5 words in Welsh...croeso :)

Here in the US, if I leave to take a break without turning care of my patients over to another nurse (RN or LVN), that is considered abandonment--I can be reported to the Board of Nursing and possibly lose my license. I can not leave a tech in charge of the patients, even overnight when they're all (hopefully) asleep. I would see what the regulations are in Wales regarding that...I'd imagine they are similar.

My facilities insist that we take our lunch break every shift because they don't want to pay us extra. The times I have been the only nurse on the floor, I would politely tell management that I refuse to take a break because that would be abandonment, and that if they wanted me to take a break they would need to send a relief nurse to cover me. Half the time I got the nurse. The other half I got the paid break.

In addition to posting this question here, you may want to post a copy of this thread in the International/UK forum since they're more familiar with nursing regulations in the UK than I am.

Hope this helps!

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Thanks for that. Its a good idea, maybe I should look at the nurses responsibility to stay on the ward..

al

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