A typical day on an NHS ward

A typical day on an NHS ward

In this article we will describe the pattern of a typical day on an NHS ward.

The day on most NHS wards follows a similar pattern:

• 7.30- 8.30am – Staff handover from night to day team
• 7.45-8.30am – Breakfast and patient medicines
• 8.30am-Midday – Doctors ward rounds and blood tests. The ward round may be led by a senior doctor – either a consultant or registrar (their deputy) – accompanied by a junior doctor, nurse and a pharmacist. There may be students as well
• Midday-1pm – Lunchtime and patient medicines
• 1-4pm – Medical activity (e.g. reviews by specialist doctors), or physiotherapy and occupational therapy, or rest
• 5-6pm – Teatime and patient medicines
• 7.30-8.30pm – Staff handover from day to night team
• 10pm – Patient medicines.

Notes
1. When is a good time to ring, visit, or ask to see doctors? Ring at 10am-12pm and set up visits (including seeing a doctor) at 4-6pm. To do this – if you are a family member and want to meet your relatives’ consultant or registrar (senior doctor, and deputy, in charge of their care) – please contact the ward staff or consultant’s secretary.

2. Operations, procedures and scans etc – these can occur anytime but are usually 9am-12pm or 2-5pm.

3. ‘Safety huddle(s)’. Many wards now have a huddle, once or more times a day, often related to changes in nursing shifts. This is usually done standing by a board on the ward. It is usually short (15 minutes) and mainly relates to nursing issues. Mistakes and key learning points on the day are discussed.

Other resource

This is a description of what happens on an NHS ward, produced by Chesterfield Royal Hospital.