'Inhumane': Letterkenny hospital ED nurse slams conditions

A nurse working in the Emergency Department at Letterkenny University Hospital has described conditions as 'inhumane'.

Last week was the worst on record for overcrowding in Ireland's hospitals. LUH was frequently among those with the highest volume of people awaiting admission.

Sarah Meagher, a nurse in the Emergency Department, told how she and her colleagues feel 'broken'.

“We can't keep going like this,” she said.

Sarah was rostered to work last Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 8am-4pm.

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She clocked off at 9pm on Tuesday and Thursday and worked until 10pm on Wednesday. Had she gone home at her appointed hour, there would have been no-one available to triage patients.

The ED at LUH is short-staffed at the moment with sick leave rates high. Many of these are believed to be down to staff burnout while some staff have also been hit with a virus.

On Friday, there were 50 patients awaiting admission to LUH.

“It is heartbreaking,” Sarah said.

“You're coming onto a shift and you know you're going to face anything up to 30 admitted patients plus any additional patients who are waiting to be seen.

“It's not unusual at the moment to walk into our department and find 40-50 patients. We only have 12 cubicles.

“You are walking in to an area that is full of patients sitting on chairs, patients sitting on wheelchairs, standing, sitting on the floor at times.

“You're trying to manoeuvrer your way around and determine who is suitable to be moved when the next emergency comes through the door. You have nowhere to put them. It is a shuffling game. You're moving from A to B to A to B to try to create space.”

Patients and family members become irritable in such scenarios - and nursing staff are forced to bear the brunt of their frustration and anger.

Sarah said: “You have to prepare yourself mentally for the fact that know you're going into work and you're going to be listening to people who are angry and upset – and rightly so.

“We agree with them: It is unacceptable, it's unsafe. It is inhumane the way people are being treated at the moment.”

The experience nurse told Friday's Claire Byrne Show on RTE Radio 1 that the current issues are resulting in creased episodes of missed care or delayed care.

She said: “There is a huge impact that flows on from overcrowding and short-staffed. It's not just the physical surrounds they're in.

“It's soul destroying. I didn't come in to nursing to be in crisis management - and that is what we are doing on a daily basis now. We signed up to be nurses because we care for patients

“We are constantly running from pillar to post and you're trying to prioritise the next big thing that we have to get done.”

Last week alone, Sarah wrote references for three colleagues around the country who are leaving the profession.

Nurses are reporting what they feel is an 'exodus' of staff.

“We are losing clinical skills and judgement,” Sarah said. “We don't same level skill and experience coming in as what is going out.

“We have had a large influx of staff over the last year or two years, but we have struggled to train those staff in the time frames we normally would because of the amount of staff and because of the work loads we are experiencing.”

Sarah admitted that she questions herself now every day.

“You ask yourself can you do it?” she said. “We asked for a winter plan in June and they only decided to publish it at the end of October. Physically and mentally, we can't do this again.”