A NHS trust hospital in London has devised a new plan by which nurses are lauded and appreciated for their kind affectionate demeanor by gifting them with ‘thank you cards’ and later to coffee and chocolate chip cookies as an incentive every time a head nurse or other senior nursing staff note that a patient has been considerably cheered up by the nurses’ effusive nature.
Recent surveys done among patients revealed that many patients were aghast that most nurses who attended to them were hardly courteous and seemed to have an air of detachment from chores that seem menial when compared to administrative jobs which they seemed to be happier attending to.In the light of such a grim report the authorities of King’s College Hospital NHS Trust London, who are actually having to compete for patients, to stave off stiff competition from more posh hospitals offering more sophisticated infrastructure and patient care, introduced this scheme of ‘a carrot at the end of the stick’ in an attempt to motivate all nurses to be kind and considerate to all patients mindful not to discuss them as mere ‘cases’ and to have a very positive attitude when dealing with patients at their bedside in an attempt to make their stay at the NHS hospital a pleasant experience.
In a shocking move, two years ago a resolution was proposed at the annual congress of the Royal College of Nursing that since more and more nurses are being reluctant about attending to patients by the bedside it would be a better option for health care assistants to take over the mainstream compassionate jobs whilst the senior nurses tackle administrative jobs which they are more willing to do.
Although this scheme is very encouraging it has had to face its share of stiff criticism from a number of quarters saying that nurses don’t need bribes like little children would to get their home work done and its simply the excessive paperwork and administrative workthat gets loaded on them that bogs them down draining out the last dregs of effusiveness and willingness to carry out their more demanding patient care with the expected dollop of goodwill and cheer justified an editorial in a leading periodical for nurses, Nursing Times.
Source-Medindia
MST
