Early this morning my beloved wife and nurse practitioner) Lynn, wrote the following on her Facebook page having just had surgery at north tees hospital. An astute reflection of the state of the NHS from both sides of the recovery bed. The NHS needs more funding. Not less and be judged on its current underfunded state.

As I lie in my hospital bed following major surgery it has set me to pondering why nurses are reported as making the ‘worst’ patients

Could it be that we set high standards knowing how things should be done so we can see when things are not right ?

Could it be that we see how the staff are stressed over worked and rushed off their feet.

Yesterday when I arrived on the ward it took 2 hours to get some water I had to wait over an hour for pain relief on more than one occasion . The nurse was too busy  to ring my next if kin to let them know I was back on the ward she was nearly in tears when she admitted she forgot. The easiest thing for me to do would be to feel annoyed and cross at being left in pain ,angry that james wasn’t informed I was back and ok (thankfully I had my mobile to text him).

I could join the other patients moaning and griping…. But all I honestly feel is compassion  for these over worked nurses knowing that if I press my buzzer again to ask for more pain relief it puts more pressure on them. I know that they do not want to see me in pain but they are only human not superhuman they have only one pair of hands, one pair of legs.

I also know it takes two trained nurses to check the medication  that I needed that meant both nurses needed a windows of space at the same time and they would have had to get doctor to prescribe it first. I know that I am one of maybe more than 10 patients that nurse has to look after. I know the nurse yesterday didn’t have a break but still smiled and kept going.

So in reflection if I am the ‘worst patient’ its because when in hospital I feel like a spare wheel . I feel all the emotions and pain like any patient after major surgery but I feel helpless to support my ‘Nursing Family ‘.

I have Huge Respect for hospital Nurses XXX

sorry if this is garbled I did get pain relief lol and it was strong 😂