A student nurse on a ward is, as medical staff go, about as junior as there is. If they saw a more senior, and experienced, nurse doing something wrong, there would be an element of trepidation in flagging it up. It is easy to see how someone might think such a scenario could unfold. We can assume that the senior person carries more weight with their colleagues and managers, which would be expected. Length of service and experience matter in such an environment. The senior nurse would defend themself against any accusations, and again, that is only to be expected. For those who have read How Many More Reports? you will see those different explanations come into play, and we looked at how Martin might manage such challenges and questions. The student nurse misinterpreted what was happening or what had been said. What has been flagged up simply shows a training issue or a procedural problem, nothing more. Once such explanations had been offered, the spotlight can go away, and the student nurse is then left in that environment. It would be unusual for everything to return to normal now. Often, it is just not what happens. At best, things might be strained, at worst, it will become unpleasant for the student nurse. Just who was this upstart who came along and decided they knew better? Then the silence, the personal possessions being messed around with, the belittling in front of other staff and patients. The nurse, after a period, would likely go sick. You cannot go through that and keep your mental health intact. After some time, it becomes clear that they cannot continue, perhaps for those health reasons, or because the workplace has turned toxic as a result of them challenging their mistreatment by others. As is the way, a sum of money is paid out, providing a non disclosure agreement is signed. The student nurse leaves.
The staff have seen that they should not challenge. Those more senior people who ill treated the student nurse feel emboldened.
The next student nurse comes along ………………………………
Whilst the organisation has control over NDAs, this pattern can continue for a very long time.
In the above story, I used a great deal of poetic license. In fact, everything written after the sentence that ended, there would be an element of trepidation in flagging it up, I made up. This is because this story played out differently.
In the real-life version, when the student nurse saw something wrong in a hospital ward, they reported it. At this crucial point, the management considered what had been said, and then did something quite extraordinary. So what was that?
They contacted the police and told them. It changed everything.
How remarkably simple. The student nurse did the right thing as they saw a patient in danger. The management did the right thing to protect patients, and to identify and root out misconduct. They even got an element of protection by involving the police. Any staff complaining or the press, or the public, could simply be informed that it was a police matter. Another benefit to the hospital is that they could focus on their jobs of running the hospital, and assisting the police, as and when they were asked for any information. The police, with no other dynamics to worry about, except to work out what had gone on, and whether any crime had been committed, could just get on with their investigations.
Everyone got protection and was better off except those that had behaved not just poorly, but criminally. Five healthcare professionals committed offences, including the ill-treatment of patients, stealing from their employer, and conspiring to pervert the course of justice. For three of them, that meant prison time. 1
Both the student nurse and the hospital showed courage in their actions. The right thing to do is not always pain free, but it doesn’t alter the fact that it is still the right thing to do.
I hope the NHS has made it clear to everyone throughout the organisation how pleased they were with the actions taken by that student nurse and the hospital. I also hope that the student nurse could advance in their career at an accelerated pace. We need individuals with that unshakeable sense of right and wrong at senior levels throughout the public sector, not just in the NHS.
The tragedy of this incident is twofold. First, there were those staff who disgraced themselves and their profession, for no particular reasons except being lazy, or cruel, or both. Second, if you consider the simple action that the hospital took, you cannot help but think about how much damage, harm, and even death could have been prevented if this technique had been applied early enough in many other public sector scandals we have witnessed.
- For those in the UK, the BBC have produced a 26 minute documentary, The Doping Ward, outlining what happened at Blackpool Victoria hospital.
