To think night staff could be a bit quieter

A couple of my colleagues are very loud. And that's just in the day, not looking forward to being on a night with them. It's not just the speaking, it's the screeching laugh as well. Like nails down a blackboard.
Though it is a children's ward. And to be honest the main issue is usually the parents on their phones.

Watchkeys, dont put words into my mouth that I didnt say or intend. making the jump to immediately implying Im selfish and inconsiderate is immature. These people have work to do and they need to get on with it.

Well I've been an exam invigilator. I've worked with (sleeping) children. I've been a school pupil / student.

Lots of jobs / roles / circumstances require you to be quiet. Rushing in dealing with an emergency can mean necessary noise. Lots of health professionals do manage to be quiet at night. So I think it's fair to point out why night staff might behave this way, but they still should address it.

@Lobelia123

As a matter of interest, if the person sat next to you at work tells you they have a cracking headache, do you try to keep the noise down a bit, or just carry on at your usual volume, regardless, because that's how you normally are and that's what's important to you?

YANBU I can never understand why they are so loud at night! Loud laughing, screeching and chatting and banging and clattering machines, slamming doors.

I was in for an induction for my daughter and didn't sleep for a week, one night they woke me every hour for blood pressure, were laughing and chatting all night in the bay next to me, then had the cheek to ask the next day if I'd slept and looked surprised when I said no!

@FelicityBeedle you are not just an HCA. I bet you are a brilliant HCA.

Do you walk around on tiptoe and whisper on your work shifts

I'd be capable of it, if there was a room full of people trying to sleep, yes. As an adult, 'being quiet' isn't usually synonymous with 'falling asleep', especially when there's work to do and people to take care of.

To be fair, for shift workers this night time is their normal. Do you walk around on tiptoe and whisper on your work shifts? Id rather they be awake and alert (in 'day mode' so to speak) than quietly nodding off behind the reception area desk

I have had the joy of several months on a psychiatric ward. You would think a ward dealing with psychologically disturbed women would try and be at least a little bit therapeutically restful. Instead staff where loud at night, I was on 2 hour OBs where a man who I had never spoken to or been introduced to would open my door and check I wasn't dead. It would freak me out every time and I would be awake for an hour, just in time to be woken again.
When someone kicked off (about 5 times a day) and the staff were needed, instead of a pager or other system they set off the loudest siren with flashing red lights. It was hideous, even a mentally stable person would be shaking. The TV was on allllll day incredibly loud and showing whatever was on, I remember going in at about 10pm finding this little old lady who was rocking on her own whilst some.horror was showing.
There was absolutely no counseling or therapeutic treatment just drugs. No outside space just a courtyard where the smokers would go. So shite. And the food. I can't even begin.... I wrote to my MP afterward the first time but obviously nothing changed. It's basic stuff.
I have also been on a psychiatric ward in Asia. That was actually better unbelievably. Someone brushed my hair and they sang songs with us.

It's so fucking basic
Help people sleep well.
Good food.
Relaxing activities
Mindful Activities (jigsaws, art, yoga etc)
Nature.
Basic counselling (doesn't need to be psychotherapy just basic talking)

YANBU OP. Despite the restorative power of a good night's sleep, the night staff seem to have their own theories. 3 nights on a postnatal ward (bay closest the door) after surgery and haemorrhage. I nearly lost my mind.

Wireless headphones and https://mynoise.net/

I wasn't in hospital but I think this saved my life during lockdown with noisy neighbours. I think it saved the neighbours' lives, too...

Wonderful array of natural white noises that you can play for free, and alter to your heart's content, to fine tune every one to the precise levels you need. Oddly, thunderstorms and cafes can be very relaxing.

I hope you feel better soon.

I have to agree, think the staff do a wonderful job, but they don't exactly make it any easier to sleep on a ward. Sadly the other patients doing stuff they shouldn't be, like trying to remove their monitoring equipment for a fag or similar doesn't help.

Only been admitted a couple of times but never got a wink of sleep either time and the wondered why I was always tetchily asking when I could be discharged. The last time I was on a general ward and there was a woman who was constantly shouting abuse at staff and anyone who caught her eye - absolutely awful.

Yep! I was in hospital for a week recovering from an operation and I remember being woken up in the night to have obs done. And an injection before sleep each night? Except that was done at 11pm so I was often already asleep by then! So they’d wake me up to stick me with a needle. They also took blood from me during the night. Towards the end I started refusing as I felt like a human pin cushion. I was so exhausted!
Same when I gave birth and was recovering from a c section. To be fair, I was awake half the night with the baby but for the rest of it whilst he was asleep, it was so noisy!

Oh god, I’m with you op. I was in hospital for 10 days, I should have been in longer except I insisted I went home, faked how well I was. They’d come in in the night and flick the lights up bright, loud chatty voices while they changed the 81 yo womans bed opposite . I don’t expect them to be silent a slowly tiptoe but there’s an in between.

It does seem astonishing there is no protocol to keep noise down at nights. Please complain.

Yanbu. Sleep is so important to recovery. I hate this aspect of hospitals. It's surely possible to work quietly most of the time at night

Honestly OP, I’d speak to PALS as soon as possible. You’re not getting the care you need, and they’re not just for last treatment complaints. If you don’t feel up for advocating for yourself have a family member do it.

It’s a known thing in hospitals and some places are taking measures to deal with it, but obviously not this one! Speak to the ward manager and follow up with an email to PALS if it doesn’t improve. It will take ages though for the culture to change. Get a mask, ear plugs and white noise too. Hope you feel better soon

YANBU I've had the same when being in with dd. She's an adult now I miss the children's ward where it was quieter. They can't even shut the doors. We are usually in a bay with a couple of elderly. They usually just call out when they need something instead of pressing the button. Doesn't help I'm lucky if I get a recliner chair to sleep on. But I get told well you don't have to stay. My daughter is severely disabled and vulnerable, non verbal. They put her on a mixed ward anyone can walk into. She can also get confused after a seizure and go wandering. She needs someone with her to see to her needs 24/7.

I hear you.

The nights I tried to sleep next to my baby girl's bed...

One time, one toddler on her ward needed regular checks of her stats. Instead of using a handheld light to read the hourly data, they turned all the lights on in the ward. I kid you not. 6 babies/toddlers waking up every hour on the hour and all needing to get back to sleep.

Hell. On. Earth.

Just remembered (it's been a hellish few weeks) that when my parents was finally given a bed on a ward at 2am after 8 hours in A&E, I took my heeled ankle boots off at the ward door so that the sound wouldn't wake other patients up and the nurse and HCA were both totally 🤯.

YANBU, I cannot understand why hospitals do not prioritise sleep, we're always being told how fundamental it is to mental and physical recovery.

I have an elderly parent in hospital at the moment - two hospitals and three wards in and they're all the same.

Don't get me started on the nurse who refused to give my parent their usual long-term sleeping pill the first night of admission to a ward, so they just didn't sleep, at all, all night.

I’m a midwife on a labour ward, they are noisy places unfortunately day and night. But second time I stayed on the PN ward in a side room opposite the midwives station and oh my god! The radio was noisy, constant laughing plus call bells which are insanely loud. I didn’t sleep at all and didn’t quite self discharge but persuaded my consultant I was leaving the next morning. I did tell them and still do how noisy it is, not sure anything has changed. They do turn lights off in the corridors however, and in the bay probably around 10/11pm