To throw my hospital bed neighbour’s phone out the window

Ugh I hated being on the maternity ward.

The woman I was next to had her bed surrounded by visitors all day AND members of her family on video call.

I didn't know I could feel rage like I did and I actually told the midwife I'm scared I'll lash out.

I'm so glad I returned to normal once I was home but you've got my utmost sympathy OP cos the maternity ward is what nightmares are made of.

My sister wasn't able to sleep after a long & difficult delivery because she shared with an awful woman who blathered on endlessly on the phone. When the neighbor had 10 visitors arrive shortly before visiting hours ended & they overstayed and showed no signs of leaving, my sister did end up lashing out & screaming "shut the F up! Shut the F up! I haven't had a minute of sleep because of you and now you have a bus load of people screeching in the middle of the night!" The midwife arrived and kicked everyone out. My brother was on the lift with the husband the next day whilst he was blustering about how my sister "wasn't allowed to speak to him that way" and he was going to have words. His plan went out the window when he arrived in the room to find my giant, terrifying BIL (in uniform) hovering over my sister. They didn't hear a peep from either of them the rest of their stay.

I think the issue is that one poster was stating there aren't nurses on a postnatal ward, and the other poster then said for the case in hand i.e. telling someone working on the ward who has the authority to speak to patients, it actually doesn't matter whether those people are nurses or midwives.

IMO it's actually often really hard to tell what the different colour uniforms mean.

Well I was one & had to train an extra 18 months after 3 yrs of nurse training to become a midwife. No the person who said there were nurses in the first place then still persists to acknowledge they were wrong feels they are the superior.

you bet wrong…… how old are you?

I completely sympathise, I spent 10 nights in hospital after my baby was born and had maybe 6 or 7 other mums come and go on the ward in that time, all but one of them would watch TikTok without headphones and have all their phone conversations on speaker. It absolutely baffled me, apparently consideration for others and your surroundings is not a social norm! I think it should be ward rules to use headphones when watching videos and to not have loud speaker conversations, but equally it shouldn’t have to be a rule it should just be basic manners!

Some people are just eyewateringly selfish. When I had my ovaries removed I was on a ward with a woman who was either crying or shouting into a phone. She also had about 6 visitors at a time too. Everyone on that ward had had surgery for less than happy reasons. I had to ask nurses to ask her to shut the fuck up so I could get some sleep. Perhaps she had main character syndrome but a 40+ woman acting like a petulant child is pretty fucking tiresome when you’re absolutely knackered.

I had this at 4am when I had my son. I was very sleep deprived. Went to the nurses station and told them if they didn't shut her up I was going to kill her! They soon sorted her out thankfully

Congrats op. Please ask the midwives to help you. I was in the pharmacy this week. I handed in my prescription took a number and sat down with the other 20 folks waiting. When your prescription is ready. One of the Two softly spoken pharmacist will call your name. There was a woman on speaker, foreign language, turned up at highest volume having a full on conversation with the person on the other end. None of us could hear the pharmacist so we all just sat there. After about 30 min I went to the counter to ask… he said he had being calling my name a few times - I just couldn’t hear it over the racket! Please speak up!!!

Talk to the nurses. They will aak her to keep it down. They might say you told them though 😵‍💫

I was in hospital recently after a major op and a young woman in the bed opposite had non-stop visitors (I had absolutely no problem with that) but then she would talk on her phone in a low urgent voice for hours. By 12.30am I snapped but wasn't rude, reminded her of the time and asked her to (please) make her calls in the corridor. She immediately hung up and it never happened again - I just don't think she was aware. Everyone else on the ward came up and thanked me!

Speak to the nurse, she is probably upsetting others and no one has spoken up. She is just rude

NHS wards are Dickensian in my opinion. When I broke my hip I was admitted to an NHS hospital, allocated to a broken bed and had no bathing facilities apart from a WC and a washbasin with cold water only and no plug. The physiotherapist propped herself against a nearby wall and made no effort to help or advice people on regaining mobility. Extremely vulnerable patients - aged over 90 - had their hearing aids removed so that the "Health Care Assistants" who had no concept of "care", could comply with the latest hospital rule of temperatures being taken via the ear. The aged female patient next to me was crying because she couldn't hear and the bullying Health Care Assistant couldn't be bothered to fit the hearing aids back in place.
It was a nightmare experience and I am now practically bankrupting myself paying for private medical cover in order to avoid a repitition of that dreadful situation.

Yep!

@Hateam We need a Hattie style matron in every hospital!

That's awful

Shame the NHS staff have to tolerate this behaviour

I really feel for you with this. I had the same last time I was in hospital and I asked the nurse if she would mind asking the lady to take the speaker off.
The conversation both ways was really unpleasant and very loud.
The nurse did ask politely was told very loudly and rudely to fuck off and mind her own business. I was given some earplugs which took the edge off but some people these days really lack basic manners and consideration for others.🙄

Just mention it to her nicely. If no action tell the Midwives and Nurses.
Get some ear plugs and / white noise

Bet wrong then.

Do they though, or is it pendants who feel superior pulling people up for the slightest thing that doesn’t make a difference to the case in hand.

Nurses & midwives care, bet you are one of those on the phone.

I did something like this once.

My AirPod had no battery, but I didn’t realise and was playing music. I noticed people looking at me and realised what had happened.

it was so embarrassing. I always check now.

What people are all describing is not a inevitable.
In many countries hospitals have rules like no phone use on wards, no loud talking at all including from staff, visitors required to be quiet and only allowed a few hours a day. (And certainly no fast food deliveries lol.)
It's not difficult to grasp that hospitals are places of healing and recuperation, not holding pens in a farmyard. As someone said upthread, if we could ban smoking in public places overnight, we could get a grip on this problem too?

Though phones have good points i am fed up no matter where you go there are always people yapping away great to spoil things like if you are admiring something lovely like the poppies cascading from a church, this was a local craft make it was stunning i was admiring it but i did not need someone behind me going on and on about which pub to go to! opposite my shop is a Turkish barber between customers they stand outside holding their phones away from their face practically shouting at whoever is on the other side. its frustrating for me as I dont speak their language so I cannot even listen to some gossip !

Hope last night was better for your OP.

I'm still working as a Nurse, also qualified Midwife but haven't worked as a Midwife since 2006.

I was always strict about visitor numbers, timings and noise overnight.
The only times I had patients make complaints about me (& it was only twice, but still I remember) it was because I had politely asked their numerous extra visitors (meant to be only 2 per bed) to leave and take turns coming in, to leave as visiting had finished at least 30 mins before and for the woman to keep the volume down on her TV (or use the headphones that came with it) as it was after midnight (mobiles not really a thing then).

I got hauled up in front of our Midwifery Manager and asked to answer these complaints. Both times.

I'd do it again now.

We all need to be less selfish, and I'd agree OP to complain again if nothing changes. But I can see why some staff & patients might be reluctant. It certainly disillusioned me. You do your job and try and keep the ward as quiet and peaceful as you are able to under the unnatural circumstances and you get official complaints made about you. (Luckily not upheld in my case, as I had other staff as witnesses and I documented everything).

I'd have hidden it somewhere on day 1 and absolutely denied denied denied. It could mysteriously reappear as she's leaving.

Facetimers without headphones in public spaces are selfish self centred idiots

I feel so bad for you. I recently had major foot surgery and was in the worst pain of my life and just wanted to sleep. There was a woman who had a minor surgery and was pacing on the phone speaking so loudly and prevented me from sleeping. I don’t understand why people in hospitals cannot respect other people there. And I also don’t know why us as a country cannot have our own independent rooms instead of relying on the ‘privacy’ of a curtain.