Chief nurse issues apology for ‘rude practices’ comments
Scotland’s chief nurse has said she is sorry for causing “upset” to hard-working nurses and midwives after she wrote a message highlighting examples of rude practices by some staff on hospital wards.
Professor Fiona McQueen said she had never meant to cause offence, or worry patients, but had been trying to set out how nurses can get it right for “every patient, every time”.
Her initial comments were contained in a New Year message in which she said her wish for the year ahead was “professionalism”.
In the online blog, she spoke of “outstanding nurses and midwives”, and said she had heard of examples of care being delivered that were “so good it’s breath-taking”.
But, drawing from examples over the last year, she also spoke of behaviour she would like to “banish to the history books”.
She wrote: “I expect registered nurses to speak to all patients and their families with unconditional positive regard and never again will a registered nurse say to a patient … ‘if you wet the bed we’ll call you pishy pants’.
“At all times I want nurses and midwives to put their patients first.
“No skipping off for a break when relatives need to speak to you, or worse when patients should be having their meals served.”
Prof McQueen also seemed to draw on her own experience of visiting a new mother who had been unwell and had her baby delivered at 35 weeks by caesarean section.
She wrote: “It would be nice if the midwives would lift their heads and say ‘hello’ when I entered the ward, or if I asked if I could stay with my niece until the baby’s blood sugar results were known (which would have been five minutes after visiting), the midwife wouldn’t draw her eyes to the clock and grudgingly say ‘yes’, then remove my niece’s baby without a word of explanation or acknowledgement that mums and babies should be kept together.”
The trade union Unison, which described the comments as unfair and demoralising, has written to Prof McQueen to express its members’ concerns over the message.
Prof McQueen joined a discussion on the topic on BBC Radio Scotland’s Kaye Adams programme on Monday, in which she said: “Can I just start by saying how sorry I am that I have upset so many decent, hard-working nurses and midwives and their support staff all across the country.
“I at no time meant to cause offence or to cause upset to the profession or worry to patients. I’m justifiably proud of all the work that’s done within NHS Scotland by very hardworking nurses and midwives.”
Setting out his concerns about the message, Unison regional organiser Matt McLaughlin told PA Scotland: “I think the first is just a general disappointment that the most senior nurse in Scotland used a blog to make very sweeping statements about bad practice across the profession.
“People, particularly nurses in Ayrshire where the blog was circulated, have been on to us in relatively big numbers indicating that they feel that was grossly unfair and really demoralising.”
Speaking after the show, he added: “To be fair to Fiona she appeared to apologise. If she’s been able to reflect on her conduct and is prepared to accept that maybe she should have done things differently, then that’s the standard we would expect of any nurse and so therefore we would of course welcome that reflection and contrition.”
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “The chief nurse is immensely proud of all the work done by nurses across NHS Scotland. The care they provide every day is second to none.
“But the chief nurse is also passionate about getting it right for every patient, every time. Of course, these examples were reflective of exceptional cases where treatment fell below what we demand, rather than generalisations.
“It is regrettable if anyone has interpreted them differently. However, this reflects what we all want – treatment with dignity and the utmost professionalism for every single patient, every single time.”
She added that Prof McQueen will consider the letter from Unison carefully and respond.
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