My take on 'Basic Care'

OK...so i suggested a topic for discussion on the NURCHAT twitter chat (every 2 weeks on a Tuesday) about 'Basic Care' in nursing, so I thought it only fair to say why I suggested it.
As always, any views are my own (now there's a disclaimer if i ever heard one!!) but it is a very emotive subject I think...
I was on my way back from a conference on 'wound care' in the South Glos region, and was listening to a show on the radio all about health care and the 'state of nursing' in the UK. Actually, i think it should have been called "Lets slag off Nurses because they do Sod all for people".
The 'presenter' was saying that the general public (including herself, with first hand experience of it) had seen nurses give some medicines out, Ignored the patients requests for help and then gone back to the nurses station to discuss their 'Facebook & social life', until it was time for the next lot of blood pressures & obs.

Yeah....right...coz Nurses have sod all to do when they are at work. Sure, you Idiot (that's the last time I ever tune into "you & yours" on Radio4).

I work Night shifts, and as any of you with any experience of them know, realise that it becomes a skeleton staff at night. We don't have the luxury of office support, people to answer phones, kitchen staff, extra care staff, management, domestic staff, maintenance staff etc...on a night time, I do all those roles.
I also do my 'nursing' things as well as my 'carer' things.
And that is what bugs me.
Not the fact that I have to help out with the 'carer' things, but rather that people (and colleagues) seem to differentiate between the two.

I do my nurse things and get on with it, but when i do carer things like change pads, empty catheters, feed someone, wash someone, wipe bums, roll people, wipe bums, make beds wipe bums and wipe more bums, I seem to get a look that views me with surprise or that i am an alien for doing them.

(wrong kind of 'Bum'.....idiot)

I think in all honesty, it comes from a culture that some nurses and carers have made a differentiation between the two roles, but actually this so called 'basic care' is so extremely important in nursing.

When i wipe a bum on shift, It's never just that easy. It becomes an interaction, an assessment and helps me put into context a care package for that person. Some carers are so busy rushing to the next thing on their list that they don't see the full picture - it really is just a case of doing a pad change and then moving on. And to some degree, that's fine as they do have a billion things to do so they get on with it. But Nurses don't have that excuse.

But for me as a nurse on night duty, I get the advantage of some 'up close and personal care' with that person and can spend some valuable time assessing things without even the person knowing that i am assessing them. Sometimes it's not even something related to a care plan or bit of paperwork (which we love as nurses), but rather it's a chance to get some insight into that persons life and upbringing, which you can relate to where they are at now and how it affects their overall perspective on it all. It's such a complicated process that it's SO hard to even explain the interaction and how it fits. I try to use my people skills, some of which I have had to learn when being at the sharp edge of youth work on the streets of wherever, or the times spent with kids or elderly folk, to try to read into situations and connect with that person so that they feel able to open up to me. Sometimes with all this (limited) experience, the only major factor missing is 'time'.

'Basic care' for me as a nurse, is a gateway.
It is the shop window that allows me to see deeper into a persons care experience, and allows me to make some guided decisions and choices that suit and agree with that person. And as a nurse, I have the unique position of being empowered - which means that after an interaction I can put measures or plan care in such a way that it actually affects things in a positive way!
'Basic care' isn't just the remit of care assistants, it's a nurse thing and I hope that we don't drown too much in paperwork or assessments, to miss the interaction with that person in a real and dignified way.

Don't get me wrong, Nursing is hard and wiping bums is truly NOT rock & roll, but being a nurse is rewarding and can give opportunity for that nurse to 'do the right thing' in a given situation in life.
I have a good advantage on night duty, coz i do get get to do 'basic care', but i would challenge the term 'basic care' because that makes out that it's simple.

And it's not.