unhappy at work.....

[uk_nurse]

They have just closed our ward for the summer as they say they want to save money... oh dear! We now have only 1 main paeds ward. We have a PAU and now we are an over night stay ward (downstairs with PAU) It is so confusing for us, patients, parents and docs. Parents come up to us and ask us a questiion and if they are a PAU patient we have no idea whats happening as we are over night stay. It is so embarressing not know whats happening on the ward.

Its coming up to hols kids have accidents and the question is where r we going to put these patients? I think its time maybe to move on. It very difficult to work in an environment like this, too much activity is going on in one place, staff get too stressed and angry. I think may staff will leave. its such a shame.

[purplemania, BSN, RN]

I am confused. What does PAU mean? Acute unit? Why would the parents come upstairs to ask you questions? Aren't there nurses in PAU? Our facility has closed the pedi unit if there are zero patients, and the nurses have the option of floating to another unit or staying home. Sometimes we consolidate pedi with another unit, if we only have a few patients, and the pedi nurses care for the kids elsewhere. You are right. It is very discouraging.

[uk_nurse]

I am confused. What does PAU mean? Acute unit? Why would the parents come upstairs to ask you questions? Aren't there nurses in PAU? Our facility has closed the pedi unit if there are zero patients, and the nurses have the option of floating to another unit or staying home. Sometimes we consolidate pedi with another unit, if we only have a few patients, and the pedi nurses care for the kids elsewhere. You are right. It is very discouraging.

sorry i have confused you PAU means paediatric Assessment unit. When i said come up to us i meant come over to talk to us. Our ward was upstairs we closed and moved downstairs and 'invaded' so to speak the PAU. So half of ward is PAU other is overnight stay. The nurses in PAU deal only with PAU and we only with overnight stay, but we are all on one ward. Before we closed we were a general med, orthopaedic and cf ward running 24/7. They slowly reduced the number of beds and we werent allowed to take admissions. When we closed we had 14 patients on the ward! who we had to move downstairs.

[Torachan]

Closed a ward to save money? If you are working for the NHS this is a real shame, nah almost criminal.

Leaving may not solve your problem. It will be a case of same Sh1T different place

you sound depressed, which usually relates to a sense of loss. So the question would be along the lines of "what have you lost?". When you establish this try and get it back.

If you don't know what is happening on the ward can you find out?

Might sound corny or cliched but can you take this on as a learning experience?

Hope this helped