To think night staff could be a bit quieter

@TinglingTangling

NHS don’t have the resources to take patients on a wonder outside. If your parents were able to be taken outside you could of done it yourself.

And I did, whenever I could. But with two desperately ill parents being at hospitals at different parts of the country, sometimes at the same time, and with young children too, it's wasn't as simple as that. But I am partly talking about simple fresh air coming through windows, not just 'going for a wonder'. I just think that the NHS should be making the most of the free benefit of fresh air and sleep.

My Mum was in hospital for a few days after having me in the 70s. One night a nurse woke her up ..to give her a sleeping tablet.

I think its a hit and miss depending on what ward you are on. I was moved to a ward at midnight and all the lights were off bar the nurses lamp, monitor and a little christmas tree. It was pitch black and silent. I actually started to get creeped out as my eyes couldnt adjust to see if there was anyone in the nearby beds!

I would like to have serious words with whoever invented the bins used in hospital, the slamming of the lid can be heard for miles......

YANBU at all OP. I've experienced the exact same thing. Incredibly inconsiderate and short sighted given how essential rest is to recovery.

It's a bit of a thing that it's so quiet at night that you hear every little thing. Hospitals suck, i really feel your pain, got f all sleep in hospital myself.

Totally agree - sleep, good food and fresh air - all massively beneficial for good help (and free/cheap) don't exist in hospital. Humans just aren't very bright generally though are they ?

Oh god. I feel your pain. I really hope you are able to get a bit more rest today. It is indeed a form of torture. 😥

A few years back, I was in hospital for quite a large, planned, surgery. I was in for 5 days, and was in a side room. I went home feeling I'd actually had an opportunity to rest up a bit. Unfortunately, 4 days later, I ended up with post-op sepsis, and was wheeched back in for the wound to be re-opened and cleaned, and to be on IV antibiotics.
I'm also allergic to a few antibiotics, so ended up on this overly-complicated titration of IV antibiotics, which I was hooked up to for 18 hours a day. So, 6 hours on, 1 hour off, ad infinitum for 11 days.

Fuck me, if I hadn't been so poorly, I'd have walked. It beeped. Constantly. Like, X much has gone in through the drip - beep; X much is left in the bag - beep; the bag is finished - beep; I've not beeped for about 15 mins - beep. I was driven to distraction by it, and really felt for the three other women in the ward. (Well, not the nasty racist, but that's a whole other story...)

That’s bad. Annoying when you are about to sleep and someone wakes you up.

i hope you feel a lot better soon 💐

So as a nurse I can see this from both sides

Yes some of my colleagues are noisy and I have told them to quiet down on many an occasion.

However sometimes noise at night is inevitable - a memory sticks with me of I was giving a toddler CPR whilst their parents were screaming (understandably) at 1am, staff were all rushing around shouting for equipment (obviously) and another parent coming out of their room shouting at us all to shut up as we were disturbing their sleep.

Obviously sometimes we don’t mean to be so loud and this isn’t the case in most scenarios, but people need to be mindful that they are not the only person in the world and sometimes some things are more important than being silent at night.

Some people just don't seem capable of being quiet either

I was at the vets having my cat PTS. They put a light/candle on with a big notice that someone is saying goodbye and to please be quiet
There was a woman with children playing games in the waiting room who wouldn't keep it down even when staff told her to be quiet
Ended up saying goodbye to him with the noise of them screaming and laughing in the background

This is so frustrating because it’s so easily fixable. It’s not something that requires funding or an additional burden placed on staff, it just requires a change in the hospital culture/mentality of staff to run the wards as quietly as possible to allow patients to rest. We all know that rest is imperative to recovery.

Ah you are not unreasonable to expect night shift nurses to make attempts to be quiet during nights. While there seams to be so many bad experiences on here, as a nurse I know I do all I can at nights to stay quiet but sometimes it’s literally impossible. I work on an acute post op surgical ward and it is loud at all hours unfortunately.
As an example me and my night shift colleagues don’t really have chance to have ‘chats’ as there is a maximum of only 2 nurses on shift. So if we are talking, it’s is about work and what to do about patients we are worried about or co-ordinating care for a patient who requires 2 or 3 nurses at a time (even though we don’t have 3).
we have all bought our own neck torches so we can keep lights low during overnight observations and to actually check patients are breathing without turning all the lights on (nhs won’t provide these despite making a big difference in regards to disturbing patients).
we get admissions from emergency theatres day and night, and in the immediate post op period patients need to be monitored at least every 30 mins. That’s a full set of observations and input/output charting and line management. That wether your surgery was at 2pm or 2am, no exceptions. This would be much easier and efficient if the hospital provided us with equipment that wasn’t on its last legs at least 10 years old. The amount of faffing and broken wheels we deal with is rediculous.
we can’t stop machines bleeping, they are bleeping so call the nurses attention. All you can do is try to respond as quickly as possible. Again this is difficult if both nurses are busy assisting another patient. we can’t stop other patients disturbing you by messing with the machine so they can nip out.
we can’t turn the lights out til we have safely finished medication rounds. On a good night this is 10pm (ish) on a bad night it can be close to midnight, it depends how unwell patients are and how often the medication round is interrupted. We could get this done a lot quicker if we had more hands on the ward but alas the higher up decided 2 is a safe number for overnight.
We can’t give sleeping pills out like sweets. They have to be reviewed and prescribed by a doctor as sleeping pills (like zoplicone) can be very dangerous for acutely unwell patients.

it’s so hard. I feel for our patients who end up need lengthy stays. We don’t provide eye masks and rarely have ear plugs in stock. The hospital won’t provide them. Rest assured while there seam to be so many complaints, most nurses would never laugh at a patient for complaining or being in pain and needing help. It’s awful to read but some of us do really care and try to keep the noise down over night. It’s an impossible task though 😔. I detest the night shift as they are always understaffed and hectic. Nothing you do is ever good enough and management are no where to be seen to see what staff and patients have to suffer through.

I think both YANBU for all the reasons mentioned - sleep is so important - but also YABU because it's bloody hard for night staff to maintain a sleep-conducive level of quiet for hours on end when they're wide awake and having to do their jobs. If someone asked you to speak in a low voice and move around quietly during your whole shift at work, you would find it very taxing.

So I think it's one of those situations that really sucks but we have to, well, suck it up. An eye mask and ear plugs would be a great solution.

@wishihadagoodone Not on MN are nurses put on a pedestal lol.

I got woken up at 1am to ask what I wanted for lunch the next day

Completely agree, most nurses do a fab job, but when you’re in hospital at night trying to sleep, they shouldn’t be having loud conversations about their husband, dog, children, garden or laughing loudly about the person in bed 7’s funny injury so that everyone can hear.

Yep - I found this when I was in hospital being induced due to high risk labour. It was pushed back for days because they were so busy - but i just didn't sleep in there at all as was being checked, but also lights that didn't turn off, lots of conversation in the room etc, just no sense of day/night at all which i guess is understandable as health workers don't have the same day/night pattern but it meant that when I was finally induced i was absolutely exhausted before i had to go into labour and then look after a unwell newborh in hospital for weeks after. i was starting the process on empty because i did not sleep!

I really hope you get better soon and that you are able to get some sleep eventually.

When DS was 3 weeks old, he contracted a mystery infection and was hospitalised for a week.
I was breastfeeding so stayed the whole time with him in a side room.
The noise from the nursing staff was unreal. I was suffering as it was with a poorly 3 week old not sleeping on my own but then one particular nurse would come in during the night. Me and my husband called her "Mr Bull" (ala Peppa Pig) because of the amount of banging and clanging that she did.
Nurses do a very important job but I think we put them on a pedestal a bit. They're not angels or saints. They people doing an important job and when they're doing it poorly, we should feel comfortable to challenge it without feeling like we're pissing on the "poor nurses".
I was too tired, vulnerable, young and scared at the time to speak up. But I wouldn't hold my tongue now.

I can’t believe they wouldn’t give you ear plugs!! Our hospital is far from perfect but they would have provided you with ear plugs if you’d asked. We’re all aware how noisy the place can be and how hard it can be for patients to sleep.

Yes, I actually think it is like a sort of torture - the sleep deprivation and the surprise loud noises!

YANBU, my DD 11 at the time was told an overnight stay for Asthma attack. They put the lights off about 12 but a couple were arguing with their little one, being horribly strict considering she was a patient, taking it in turns to go out for a cigarette so lots of chair scraping, and the nurses did not tell them to pipe down, even though the woman was saying she couldn't hack being in there any longer to care for her sick child 😔. Then more children arrived and more banging, tablets playing Peppa pig at 1 am. My DD just wanted to get the hell out of there. She finally drifted off about 2.30, a nurse comes again, loudly and abrubtly pulls the curtain across to say she is now discharged so we had to leave at 3am! I am really unsure why we were told to stay until the morning. Obviously I am thankful to them for providing the health care but yes, it is a complete nightmare.

No one does this at the time as when you are ill and vulnerable and these nurses are the ones in control of your pain meds and food and drink and care you don’t complain as you are shit scared that your shit care gets worse.

I think everyone should have single rooms and family allowed to stay 24/7 for basic care and help

@NannyOggsWhiskyStash one night nurse walked around saying how much she hates her job talking to herself on the medication round and not to the patients. Even if as a young person craves human interaction and a few sentences to each old person rather than telling the middle of the wars she should have married someone rich.

the trouble is nurses who only do night shifts. They historically did them for an easier time/pay but they de skill and the Night Shift is time when you can fill in discharge paperwork to enable people to be discharged sooner and help the bed state etc. Not as these ones did come in with a bag and get all their knitting set out on the desk and be pissed when they were disturbed

It’s completely batshit that in 2023 with electronic communication staff talk so loudly around patients at night.

Its so inconsiderate in non emergency situations.