To think night staff could be a bit quieter

You poor poor thing.

I don’t know anything about what you’re going through but I have to ask- are they actually doing anything?

In other words are you able to go home?

I read about an American cardiologist that ended up as a patient on his own hospital. His experience of trying to rest and recover was so awful due to noise at night that when he came back to work he totally reorganised his department.

The result was improved patient outcomes, such was the difference that patients being able to sleep made.

I genuinely think next time I have to stay in hospital it will be the hospital 'experience' that finishes me off..

So far:

• failed to provide pressure relief.
• put in a side room with no call bell
• provided unsuitable food (no way to calculate insulin for it, no way to avoid tons of carbs and the only food with data on it was sugary icecream)
• lights on 24 hours
• no sleep possible - unable to readjust position - pain from positioning - couldn't get out of bed to chair or toilet (the message 'wheelchair user, needs personal care' went awol no matter how many times I told them!)...

I had a massive hypo, despite multiple requests to call next of kin they didn't, fortunately their internet came back on and i got hold of him that way, but when informed of the hypo, no urgency in locating suitable food or indeed, any food...

When someone finally realised me saying 'I need the toilet please can someone take me' genuinely meant 'I can't GET to the toilet, someone HAS to take me'... I got a nurse who had never assisted a larger barely mobile person, who had never used a bed pan, with a bed pan too small... long story short, I pissed all over the floor, bed and myself. Which as you can imagine made me feel SO much better (then sat in pissy clothes for another 9 hours).

I was in for a fast atrial fibrillation that wouldn't piss off for 10 hours, i was kept in longer than necessary due to the total lack of communication between the on duty cardiologist and the nursing staff. I should have been discharged before cardiologist went home, but wasn't and then they didnt want to without triple checking with the cardiologist.

And nasty comments when I eventually lost my shit, terrified they were going to kill me, and discharged myself.

The endless lies really got to me, 'oh you will be given meds and discharged before x finishes, before x pm, before this, that, just a minute, I'll be back in a second....' which went on for HOURS.

For someone with a life limiting heart condition, being stressed out and messed around, unable to rest, unable to trust that they can manage my health as well as or better than I can at home... it's not an environment I feel safe in any longer.

OP, you have a say in your care. Ask why your obs need to be taken 2 hourly, and if it is not necessary, demand they are taken less frequently. It's hospital, not prison.

A few years back I was admitting while awaiting tests. They where urgent but I wasn't unwell and I simply told the nurses that I refused over night obs. Thankfully they complied with that request but they weren't happy even though there was no medical need to do them.

It didn't used to be that way. I was in for two weeks as a kid and it was really quiet at night.

This night 4 weeks ago DH was in hospital recovering from surgery. He was going to have to stay for night 2 if he didn’t pass gas out the back end! He desperately wanted to go home for some sleep, and thankfully he had lift off about 7pm and we were able to get a doc to discharge him.

The staff were pretty quiet and considerate, but they still came in every couple of hours all night to check stuff, so there was very little sleep.

Yep I self discharged against medical advice for this reason pissed me right off

This “having to have the curtains open” is ridiculous imho and totally for the convenience of staff rather than the well-being of the patients. How do they think virtually every hospital in Europe manages its patients who have individual rooms? And what about the negative health benefits of being deprived of sleep night after night when unwell?

Pretty sure it’s an NHS issue. I’ve stayed overnight in private UK hospitals and in US hospitals and had my own private room, all lights were dimmed and quiet hours were set with the staff coming in as quietly as possible to do OBs. I think a major issue is the NHS crams patients into shared wards which is so horrendous when I think about recovering from an illness or surgery and having to be that close to anyone else. It’s gross from an infection control stand point too. It nearly broke me when I was fresh from delivering my baby in the UK. In the US even the ER has separate rooms for each patient! I was able to even sleep last time I was in the ER as I had my own bed in my own side room with lights off.

You are in hospital and it is a noisy place - even a little smoke detector light above I would think..
It's hellish to sleep. Try ..
Earplugs, airoplane eye masks, a radio to listen to, warm milk and grapes at 9:00 pm and setting yourself up with dim lighting, "No visitors please", curtain closed, earplugs etc again from !:30 - 3:00 pm.

Get some good sunlight if you can in the mornings and later in the afternoons. Are you too poorly to have access to an open window?

Im just out of a private hospital after major surgery. In my Health Authority the NHS presumably pay for private beds to get the list down? I’ve no idea how it works.

The nursing was fabulous and nights were dimly lit and voices were quiet. I was clearly blessed with nurses trained by Florence Nightingale.

OP should complain to the hospital patient liaison service. I did that last year on behalf of a loved one who was in hospital for over a month. They were very caring and responded to say they would remind the ward to keep noise/voices down at night. We can only try. Feedback is important.

YANBU. I found this when in hospital around 10 years ago, I'm a rubbish sleeper anyway but there was just no consideration for people trying to sleep.

Though I have to say when I had my DD 2 years ago I was able to a little sleep on the maternity ward. They dimmed the lights and even took DD for me for a few hours so I could rest, thank god they did because I'd been awake for days by this point.

How long have you been in? In my trust it’s 4hrly (or maybe 6hrly, the nurses do the Obs on my ward, I’m just a HCA) for the first 72 hours. You can always refuse if you really can’t be arsed, I wouldn’t blame you! Hope you are better soon

YANBU. It was exactly like that when I spent 5 nights on a ward in 1995.

We wheel to the loo when we can but it’s sometimes safer nearer the bed, patients who try and get up theirselves or aren’t well balanced while you’re pushing them. The loud voices is normally because we speak to so many people who are hard of hearing and forget not everyone is!
I do agree that staff often forget people need to sleep, with loud laughing and chatting to those who are awake. Occasionally I start chatting away when I’m repositioning someone and have to remind myself it’s 2am

YANBU. I get that it's the nurses' normal working day but I'd have hoped that they'd speak a bit more quietly.

That is truly grim OP. I’m sorry.

YANBU I was on an antenatal ward next to nurses station for 3 days while being induced. No sleep due to them talking so loudly. Then took two days to give birth. No sleep for obv reasons. Then two nights in a room with side room with baby waking every 10 mins and broken fucking blinds on the windows so when the sun came up, that was it. The labour was the easy bit. It really set me up for a tough transition to motherhood!