Melbourne woman started her shift at a new hospital with a car malfunction. Then she claims budget cuts took away basic medical supplies

Zafina (@zafinaabebe), a nurse from Melbourne, Australia, started her shift at a new hospital after her car malfunctioned. Little did she know that she was about to encounter a slew of defective and missing medical equipment throughout the night.

“I think I’ve had the worst nursing shift of my entire career,” Zafina told TikTok. She had a 1:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. shift that day, which was a deviation from her regular morning schedule. Because she is an agency nurse without a staff swipe card, she parked at a nearby clinic to avoid the hospital’s hefty parking fees. As she was trying to park, she said something clicked in her steering wheel.

Zafina realized that her car’s steering wheel had locked. Because she wasn’t strong enough to unlock it, she decided to come back during her break to move her car instead. She didn’t want to be late for her shift, so she went inside the hospital and started her day. Zafina said she was moved to the neuro stroke ward on the first day of her shift.

“What does that mean? That means all of your patients, or most of them, are dependent on your full nursing care,” she explained. Although she thought it was a heavy job, Zafina had no issue with it and accepted. However, she had to retrieve a swipe card at the security office. After looking around for ten minutes, she found it in the hospital basement, near the morgue.

The technical difficulties happened as soon as her shift started

There was no phone signal, and no one was at the security office. She called them through the telephone, and the security guard allegedly told her to wait. After fifteen more minutes, she rang again and was allegedly told to keep waiting.

Zafina claimed that her agency has been trying to contact her. The hospital has allegedly accused her of being a no-show at the neuro stroke ward. Nevertheless, she messaged her agency, explaining that she had been waiting for her swipe card. They relayed the message to the hospital, and she finally got her swipe card.

After that, Zafina was finally assigned to a patient in the ward. She had to check their temperature, so she asked the nurse working with her where she could find a thermometer. Her co-nurse allegedly replied, “Good luck.” Confused by the response, Zafina looked for one herself and found one. However, she alleged that when she used the thermometer on the patient, it read 32ºC (89.6ºF). Alarmed by the number, Zafina asked her patient if he was okay. He allegedly replied that he was fine, so Zafina asked her co-nurse why the thermometer showed such an unusual number.

Her co-nurse allegedly explained that the thermometers available did not work properly. She said she found five other thermometers and even had to test them on other nurses to see if they worked. Zafina alleged that none worked, and she had to go to another ward to borrow a functioning thermometer.

Other equipment started malfunctioning at the hospital

When Zafina started working on the computer for medications, it shut off. Although she tried another computer, Zafina alleged that it already had a sign that read, “out of order.” As she looked for working computers, she claimed they either had no batteries or dysfunctional batteries. Seeing that the computers had battery problems, she tried to find a working battery but alleged that all of them were dead too.

“Crashing out because I’ve got a lot of s*** to do,” Zafina commented. One nurse has contemplated leaving her profession because of the heavy workload. But on her first day at her new hospital, Zafina had to deal with malfunctioning equipment and a heavy workload at once. Out of ideas, the head nurse allegedly advised her to keep using the computer that had just died. Then, out of nowhere, Zafina said that it turned on. The head nurse allegedly added that she should be prepared for when the computer turns off.

But after struggling with the computer, Zafina had to check her patient’s blood sugar levels before dinner. When she checked the box for the blood sugar test, she alleged that the machine was missing. She opened another box, and the machine was missing there as well.

“Everything is missing or broken,” Zafina said.  When she found a glucose test machine, Zafina pricked her patient’s finger. Like the thermometers, she said, the machine wasn’t working either. So Zafina had to redo the test and prick her patient’s finger again. When it was time for her to administer an insulin shot, she said that there were no needles available. She approached the head nurse about it, and Zafina was allegedly told that she was entitled to one only because the needles were rationed.

What’s wrong with the hospital equipment?

When she asked the head nurse to order glucose tests, she was told the manager was responsible. Then the head nurse said the hospital manager knew about their needs. However, the hospital allegedly has budgeting constraints.

“Aren’t we building a f****** hospital right next to this? Aren’t we ‘developing’ this hospital’s buildings?” Zafina said. It’s unclear if Zafina returned to the unnamed hospital for another shift. However, the head nurse allegedly said she “wouldn’t take it personally” if Zafina didn’t return for another shift. But not all nurses deal with malfunctioning equipment. In this ICU nurse’s case, he was left perplexed after his patient did something unexpected with her IV line.

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