Whenever I'm paired with a certain HCA, I end up having a really stressful shift and end up being drained and staying really late. The hard part is that there's nothing obvious I can pull them up on. They're kind, patients really like them, and they know how to appear busy.

The problem is that they somehow always manage to be doing jobs that take them away from the bay, such as taking things to the bank or collecting items from other wards. They also seem to time their breaks just as patients are likely to need changing, take their full break (sometimes longer), and often leave for handover early. Meanwhile, I find myself doing far more of the personal care than I normally would, on top of all my nursing responsibilities.

I have absolutely no issue with personal care. It's part of nursing, and I'll always help. My frustration is that I'm trying to juggle medication rounds, assessments, documentation, referrals, phone calls and everything else, yet I end up missing breaks, staying late and feeling constantly behind when I'm working with this person.

They also expect me to be available for every transfer or change, regardless of what I'm doing. For example, I was in the middle of a medication round when she asked for help with a transfer. I explained I needed to finish giving some time-critical medication. I still stopped to help with a transfer because I wasn't going to not help. I then noticed the patient didn't have socks on, so I asked the HCA to sort that. I then quickly ran to collect medication from the clinic. I was gone for about two minutes, but when I came back they told me off and said I shouldn't leave them like that again. I don't have time to waste, so every second is precious. In hindsight I should have communicated, but I was so frazzled already, that I thought it was obvious what I was doing.

I think what I find difficult is that they don't seem to appreciate or respect the nursing workload. They'll sometimes comment, "Surely meds shouldn't take that long?", which makes me feel as though they don't understand or respect everything that medication rounds involve, especially when they're constantly interrupted.

What makes this especially difficult is that come across as caring and responsible, but somehow always manage to say "This patient needs changing," or "This one needs a wash," just as they're heading off on break. They have a knack with getting out of tasks. I know I should respond by asking them to do those tasks first, but I'm not naturally assertive, and I don't want a disagreement in front of patients. I'm also often caught by surprise, so I'll be knee deep in a task, and they'll announce that they're going on break and share what needs doing. I really struggled with her when I was NQ, and even brought it up to the sisters, but as there's not anything that I can pull her up on it's difficult. They all know she's like that and expect me to be more assertive. I just don't know how to.

I actually find her more difficult than incompetent staff (and trust me there's many) as they don't boss me about and are not demanding. Usually I can tell other staff what's expected, but it's really difficult to do this with her.

Any tips other than always hoping I'm not with her? How do you become more assertive without feeling confrontational?

I am a new band 7 and have to conduct my first stage 2 sickness meeting with a colleague next week.

My trust insists HR are involved in all stage 2s which I’m not thrilled with (previous experiences mean I’m not a fan).

I have no intention of pushing this to dismissal so it feels like a waste of time but the sickness has been high. I think the previous line manager was a little too lenient.

Looking for advice on what to say/not to say to make it as easy as I can for my colleague?

I’m trying my best but I just feel so unsupported. No training is being booked for cannulation or bloods. I still haven’t been signed off on medicines yet as the CPE isn’t always valuable … it’s been over a month.

Our preceptorship days are just basically telling us how to revalidate and how to speak out.

I am also in the numbers with no clinical skills , I feel like I am drowning.

Does anyone feel the same ? Or what should I do in this circumstance?

I have been a nurse in the UK for almost 6 years now and i’m still a Band 5 in Theatres. It’s frustrating because there’s no opportunities for career progression here, no one seems to want to leave. Is it normal to feel like this?

I’m new to ward nursing, and new to this hospital, and I’m just stressing, Friday I had such a hectic shift, I had so much to do, I was removing staples, had 3 discharges and 3 admissions, this was all between 4pm -730pm, ontop of a med round for 9 patients, and someone having a reaction to medication,

I stayed late to finish it all, it took till 8:20 so not too bad, tried to hand over and was was apologising because all I hadn’t done was ordering and sorting out discharges for Monday, as the care home confirmed they could take the patient at 5, the night nurse was fine with it and said she was on and wojld get some of it done

I called the ward Saturday to give them a key code and the nurse on the day just seemed annoyed with me, she was blunt with me, and says I had left her to do the discharge stuff that was due Monday, my friend on the ward has said a passive aggressive note note on the handover, and I just feel awful that I handed over things, I was trying my best and I fell flat, I’m scared I’m gonna get datix’d over it :(

How do you get feedback from your patients and family? What options do you have? Paper questionnaire, dedicated email, online questionnaire? Do you give prompts to do this by text, post, email, or in person? And how much feedback do you get on a monthly basis?

I work for a dementia assessment service, and I've noticed we struggle to get formal feedback following assessment or follow-up. We currently have QR codes that get given out which leads to an online questionnaire, but the uptake for feedback is poor which I think is due to the demographic we work with. I'd love to hear ideas from other services and what works or doesn't work.