I asked the nurses about the patients mental health issues. "We don't know", one nurse said, "she's only been here four days, so we don't know much about her." Ok - fair enough, maybe she has a long and complicated mental health history. I think you're probably being a bit over-generous in your opinion there. Okay, they may not have much info about her previous history, but she's been on the ward 4 days and they can't tell you about her mood levels (depressed? elated?), if she's describing any delusional ideas, responding to hallucinations, if she's attempted to harm herself or others...? All things that would be pertinent for you to know and they should be able to tell you. If they can't, they're not doing their job. There's really no excuse for it. I know us RMNs are notoriously rubbish at dealing with physical health issues (just as RGNs are equally rubbish at dealing with mental health) but there is such a thing as common sense, and they clearly weren't displaying any of it. A foot infection? If they were worried, why didn't they just bleep the psychiatric SHO to take a peek at it? It's what I would have done