LETTER: We nurses work hard to care for patients

My name is Sarah Couch and I am a staff nurse at the Royal Blackburn Hospital.

I read the article from Friday, February 15th, regarding the poor lady who died. This indeed is not something we like to hear about but I am upset about the way the hospital is being perceived in the public eye (I am not defending her treatment in any way).

I realise there is a lot of negativity surrounding the hospital at this time in relation to the Francis Report but, being a nurse for many years at this Trust, I feel the public should be aware of the positive side of nursing care and the success I see every day.

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We work hard to ensure our patients get the care they deserve and sacrifice our own lives to do so.

The number of unpaid hours we work over our regular hours is uncountable, the amount of times we don’t have breaks and work extremely short staffed to ensure each patient gets the right amount of care, dignity and compassion they deserve when receiving treatment.

We fight for every one of our patients every day. I feel the need to stand up for the dedicated nurses and other health care professionals who spend so much of their time on shift and off keeping the hospital afloat. We are currently under so much pressure that the public just aren’t aware of from new protocols, very understaffed wards and a lot of negativity from the media especially.

It would be refreshing to see an article at least highlighting the positive care we deliver every day so the public can have an informed decision when using their local NHS trust. Of course hearing the story about Joan Kinlin is not something we want to hear and I am positive standards are improving, but I just hope that and want the public to realise this isn’t the same story happening all over the hospital, there are many, many successes and happy patients that leave our hospitals every day.

SARAH COUCH

STAFF NURSE, ROYAL BLACKBURN HOSPITAL

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