To think night staff could be a bit quieter

How can you simultaneously ‘not recognise this at all’ and then go on to describe exactly the issue?

ive stayed on nhs wards multiple times, a week after giving birth, and they are awful and loud places. Ive stated in private hospital, stil in England, and not had the same experience at all.

It's terrible! How they expect people to recover on no sleep is beyond me

I was on my knees with lack of sleep when I was in hospital in the UK having DS and in for an extended stay. It was so noisy sleep was impossible- although I was lucky enough to be in a side room, it was opposite the ward kitchen and the night staff loved congregating there for noisy chats.

Contrast this with a stay I had for surgery while living in Switzerland. The hospital was so quiet at night (and, in fact, even during the day) that I felt that I was the only patient. Then the night nurse slipped quietly in to my room in the evening to ask me if I wanted aromatherapy cream rubbed on to my back to help me sleep! (And before anyone asks, our Swiss health insurance policy was fairly basic.)

12 hours is a long time, we have to talk to colleagues

But not about your sex life, neighbours and nasty mothers in law. Not loudly at night, when patients can hear you and are trying to sleep.

Chance for that would be nice, on wards only 1 nurse can go on break at a time and in a 12 hour shift we get 1 15 min break and 1 30 min break alone. I agree that the volume of conversations should be addressed, but 12 hours is a long time, we have to talk to colleagues.

I work in A&E where lights pretty much never go off and the noise on nights is the same as day. I imagine wards are similar with pressures on them now. Its rubbish for patients, sleep is so, so important. But we are now unfortunately in a position where a hospital isn't a place for recovery its a place for acute treatments and recovery can only start to once a patient leaves.

Nurses turning lights on didn’t bother me at all. It was the very loud conversations about their personal lives at 4am that I really objected to. That’s something that should be done on a break in a staff room or outside of work, not on a ward full of sleeping patients.

I don't recognise this at all - as a nurse or a patient. Unfortunately, nurses need lights on to see, acute wards are very busy with admissions, transfers between units, and subsequent cleaning, ready for arrivals,theatre trips, trips to xray. People are poorly - they need care at night, if they didn't they would be day cases. Most collapses/cardiac arrests occur at night. Confusion revs up at night, in the elderly. It's not safe for some people to be wheeled to the toilet - they aren't well enough. People can need hourly obs or more. Patients need turning and changing frequently or they develop sores. Monitors amd machines need to bleep to alert staff. Drips need changing - drugs adminstering, the list is endless.Calls need to beade and answered. Maybe I more tolerant as a patient, because I know what's going on.

@CaroleSinger nurses have to work on the wards whilst you are sleeping (or not). How are we supposed to see things ? Maybe we have to check a surgical wound or a stoma post op, or empty drains, change a patients bed linen if they’ve had an accident….I don’t actually think some posters understand what goes on at night in a hospital.

They already do but I don’t realistically know what they could do to reduce the noice and disturbance beyond what is unavoidable. Most don’t work nights anymore anyway and tbh nursing isn’t like it was 40 years ago when matron sent nurses into the sluice to wash bed pans. Obviously cackling and screeching is absolutely wrong but it’s not something I’ve experienced often and I’ve worked many nights over the years.
Patients are sicker and have more complex needs than ever on general wards.
Back in the 90s there was a white paper about ‘ICU without walls’. Nurses have to care for these patients whilst relatively well, recovering patients could be trying to get to sleep in the next bed. Patients deteriorate at all times. Lights need to be on to see things. There can be much chatting and discussing. Observations need doing at ridiculous times. Someone with a single venflon in has a NEWS done every 4 hours regardless. And if you are sharing a bay with 4 or 8 or 12 other folk, most of whom will be elderly and frail, heavily dependent, possibly confused, it’s incredibly difficult to keep the noise down.

Old fashioned matrons running the wards?

That fucked me off so much. They dimmed the lights in the room with emergency lighting still on….but the hall lights were left bright and the curtains would be wide open. I used to have to get up, in pain, draw the curtains and the curtains around my bed to try and block the light

I was wrong, it was quarter to one as I posted it on FB at the time

The worst part when I was in hospital is how the lights never really go off all night. I just could not sleep because it was too light on the ward, not because of noise.

@88milesanhour it was me who was woken at 1am
I came in the morning for an operation. Operated on 10-4pm. Had my tea after, went to bed but couldn't sleep
I was in a side room. A woman came in at 1am and asked what I wanted for lunch the next day with the menu in her hand

Seeing as nurses seem to be the culprit here - screeching, cackling, laughing at people in pain, sneering, generally not giving a fuck, what’s the solution ?

To the lady who sat in urine for 9 hours, I am so sorry to hear you went through this.

I have had the pleasure of many hospital stays right from being a tiny baby and have ended up sitting in excrement for hours, sleep deprived, at the mercy of nurses laughing at me, in fact most of the things mentioned. You do get kind hospital staff too and these people seem like they're sent from heaven.

I think that being poorly lessens tolerence to things and staff should be respectful, especially sleep because the overarching theme of the thread seems to be the helpless feeling of being utterly alone, poorly, emotional, sleep deprived with no one to help communicate this to staff. Staff do ignore call bells if they think you don't actually need anything or when they come you feel small and bothersome so you don't have the balls to ask for something as small as paracetamol.

As an adult, I am probably night nursing staff's worst nightmare as I will ask for quiet and anything I need but as a child/teen, I would just break down and cry. My mother never stayed with me, even as a tiny baby so she "could get some sleep" and I ended up relying on other kind parents in the bay to help at night.

Someone touched upon it upthread, patient relatives also seem as disrepectful as some nurses. Phones up loud all day and night, 8 people round a bed. I could go on, but it maked me feel worse when I had no visitors day after day.

And yet the nurses in German hospitals on Acute ward manage their duties without waking the whole ward. They manage not to talk about their sex lives or how drunk they were at the last leaving do or waking you at 01:00 hours to ask what you want for lunch. The problem is Nurses don't want to be in work during the night and have the mindset that if they are awake then the patients damn well will be too

I have done countless nightshifts as an HCA, nurse and a junior dr and can categorically state that nobody has ever been woken at 1am to ask what they want for dinner. If they're new to the ward and been in ED all day they might quite rightly be offered a snack whilst being clerked in but otherwise food orders are always taken mid morning.

I have also never witnessed any nurses/other discussing their sex life at the nurses bay. Never say never but the majority are much too busy and professional to do this.

If we want to play this game as well the German healthcare system also missed a very obvious postnatal complication in a relative of mine causing her to be a whisker from death. It will likely also result in a significantly reduced life expectancy. When she tried to take legal action the medical team lied their backside off to avoid any litigation.

But hey if you are so convinced that the German system is better then feel free to get treated there. I promise the NHS will not be sorry to treat one less patient.

I believe that this problem actually contributed to my PND with dd1.

Complications meant that we ended up in hospital for four weeks after she was born.

Yes there was the usual stress/anxiety, but it was made so much worse by the sleepless nights. It felt as though I was being tortured.

The nurses just didn’t give a fuck. I understand they had things to do, but just attempting to keep their voices down (I was right next to a station) would have helped. I was also sneered at when I begged them to keep it down a little (after the cackling had finally got to me at 2 am).

Yeah I've done the same before for my own sanity. You can't hope for a good recovery without decent rest.

I've been through this nightmare in hospital too 🙄
Ask a visitor to bring in ear plugs for you. These really help.

How do they prioritise it in France and Germany?

Had many hospital stays (UK) and honestly has massively contributed to mental breakdowns which followed almost every time. It's just unacceptable isn't it.

I've just been through antenatal classes and they mention the role of oxytocin approximately a million and one times, and tell you "oh, induction isn't as bad as it sounds"...

Well, I know what I'm like. And I know that I'd be angry as fuck after a few days like that.

All the mums I know have been utterly desperate to break out of hospital asap to get some bloody sleep.

Hospitals are the worst places to sleep. I’ve just gotten out after an 8 days stay and oh my god it was a nightmare. I was so thankful I was deaf because I was able to doze through the noise

Oh and I could hear the 6 babies in the adjoining ward too

When I had dd1 I thought I was going to end up on a mental ward due to lack of sleep at one point. It's tiring enough being in labour from Wednesday night to Friday night when I gave birth, but then to never get any sleep due to 6 crying babies on the ward and having to stay in due to complications. It's nature's way to sleep when the baby sleeps after you give birth. No chance.