Staff are working longer shifts and at handovers things can be missed.
At inter-ward handovers (handing over patients from one ward to another) things are almost always missed. A typical handover from another ward to ours (conducted over the telephone ) usually goes like this.
Hello, Ward xx
Hi there , I have a patient I want to transfer to your ward and see there is an empty bed on there. Can you accept this patient?
Hi , yes give me the patient details.
Certainly, he / she is aged 87 and has been admitted following a series of falls at home resulting in a broken NOF left leg.
Ahh thanks. Can you tell me what their mobility is like ?
Yes, they are currently nursed in bed, but can transfer using a WZF + 2 staff.
Great. Can you tell me if they are currently on an Increased Nursing Supervision order or need 1:1 care ?
Hi there, they are not on INS nor are they on a 1:1 nursing care plan.
Thank you . Any special dietary needs ?
Hi, no, they are on ND /NF (normal diet / normal fluids)
Ahh nice What's the patients continence like ?
Hi, the patient is continent.
Great, can you arrange transport for this afternoon and we'll prepare the bed for them
Yes thanks,, Bye ,, click, brrrrrrrrr
A few hours later, the patient arrives on our ward. We admit them, do a set of observations, weigh them, check pressure areas etc, then have a look through the nursing notes,,,,,,,,,,, only to discover that 30 minutes before the telephone handover, the patient was on 1:1 supervision and for the two weeks prior to that they were on constant INS. Further reading reveals that they are in fact doubly incontinent and have behavioural problems such that staff are putting themselves at risk during every intervention.
Had you knew this patient was actually like this, they would have probably been refused admission to the ward, together with the suggestion that the transferring ward staff get in touch with the Mental Health team to have the patients MH assessed.. But that's just how it is though,, We're left to pick up the pieces and just get on with it..
PS, a few months ago we had a patient on our ward who's husband was also in hospital (on a different ward) suffering from terminal cancer. Our sisters moved heaven and earth to ensure there was a bed available on our ward for him so his wife could be with him at the end (our ward is not an EOL ward nor cancer ward) But, that never got mentioned in the local press far less the Daily Fail.