to not want a television in my hospital ward?

[carlajean]

just thought I'd throw this one in and see what others think..
I was in hospital to have my appendix out a week ago. I was really pleased with the care, but there was a tv in the four-bed ward. One of the other patients liked having it on all the time, as background, but I hate having tv on unless I'm watching it. So, Jeremy Kyle was on when I was waiting to go into surgery, and feeling too poorly to object.
When I came out, I said to the other woman that perhaps we could have the tv off for a couple of hours, alternating with having it on for the same period of time. I wasn't feeling brilliant about doing it, and she was quite stroppy.
I know that I could have asked a nurse to turn it off, but wanted to be on good terms with the other patients in the ward.
I feel that patients shouldn't be under pressure to have to negotiate this with each other (one of the other patients was an older woman who said afterwards to me that she didn't want the TV on but didn't feel she could object) AIBU?

a bloke on the other side who had a knee operation and needed a poo so they wheeled out a commode and my husband could hear and smell everything on the other side of the curtain etc

Been in the poor bloke's position (albeit bed pan) and it's absolutely awful. I think I cried more over the fact everyone else knew I was having a wee than the pain of it (cystoscopy/dilitation) . That shouldn't be allowed to happen for the sake of his dignity but unfortunately I can't imagine the ward bathrooms being big enough for a commode and another person.

This would drive me mad too - i suffer from anxiety and excessive noise and clatter, of the type that comes with shit tv shows tend to fry my head. I nearly had to walk out of the supermarket today as they had the music on too loud, which in turns makes everyone shout to get themselves heard, don't even get me started about clothes/shoe shops

But i can also see how TV would be a good distraction for people in hospital so i am going to have to stay on the fence on this one.

TattyDevine

He got the full NHS experience in the ward which included a nutter on one side of him (there's one on every ward and if you can't find them, its you!)

PMSL - thanks for this. I recently fell and damaged my knee and life's a bit painful so I'm glad of a bloody good laugh!

Oh thanks Andrewofegg, I thought I'd get slaughtered for that one

You are right Gertiegusset, that would suck for an old person who hates TV. Though I have no idea why commode-man couldn't be wheeled, perhaps the nurses didn't have time.

Shouldnthavesaid I agree, it would be awful!

Sitting in hospital day after day with the TV on constantly would make my discharge myself no matter the risk to my health. There is no way I could stand it. Sorry, but I can't see why anyone has a right to TV over anyone else's right to peace and quiet. A couple of programmes a day that they really enjoy? Yes, maybe understandable. A constant stream of noise just because they want "something"? No. Isn't that what the communal TV room is for anyway?

One of the things that I most hated about my rotations on general wards was the fact that patients are expected to defecate and urinate in public because make no mistakes, a thin curtained partition is public. I would got out of my way to try to get patients to the private bathrooms then catch seven bells of hell from senior staff 'because it took so long'.

It offended me on behalf of the poor patients. By Christ, psychiatry gets a lot wrong but at least our patients get elimination privacy!

Op YANBU!

Dreadful. We had tiny tvs that you paid for at our local hospital and listened to with headphones. So expensive but at least I could choose to listen....

Do any hospitals have communal tvs any more?
I thought they had swapped them for those little money machines on sticks.

YANBU OP. You shouldn't have to put up with that.

But I spent two years in hospital with DD and without a tv I would have gone insane er

TV was really important to us. We were always in a side room though so we didn't disturb anyone.

If it were now I would be able to use a tablet to watch but back then it was a tv or nothing at all.

The four bed wards my Mum was on had loos that could easily accommodate her on a wheelchair and me helping her stand and sit on the loo then leaving her till she'd finished.
They were designed for disability.

Mignon I'm away to start doing hca work on a neuro unit (including neurosurgery and HDU - so a lot of wheelchair bound) in a few weeks and am already thinking I would ideally not want to help patients use the loo behind the blimmin curtains..

I know though that unfortunately the "standard" toilets and showers on the unit I'm working are so bloody small that you wouldn't be able to fit anything else or anyone else in them. It probably becomes unfortunately much much easier to have the patient use commode, etc, in their portion of the ward but it just seems awful for everyone. Not to mention a bit unhygienic!

Fortunately the new building we have (which presently is only built for very specific stuff and emergencies/acute admissions) is quite good in that all toilets are built for wheelchair access, same with showers, so there wouldn't be such a problem over there but it really is awful for those staying on older wards.

I wonder if in twenty years we will look back on the way wards are now and be horrified at the way the way things are done in comparison to how I hope they will be in the future!

Tatty, she didn't hate the telly, just couldn't stand the volume and it being on all the time.

YANBU. I'm quite glad our local hospitals have those small tellies by the beds.

Ds1 was in hospital a few months ago and as it was a children's ward it was free 7am-7pm which was great as they can be so expensive. I did give one teenage boy a disapproving mother look when he was blasting some music channel one day, he turned it down.

Yabu, try being stuck in a Thai (gov) hospital for a week with about 16 people in one room, no tv and no AC.... I was too dizzy and feverish to sit up. Very boring!

Those pay as you go tv's are the work of the devil. its a hospital and no, I cant come back during the adverts to do whatever it is I need to do. I also dont have the time to listen to you tell me you have paid for it and I am breaching your human rights for interrupting. Its a bloody hospital not a trip to the cinema.

Completely missed the point of the thread, sorry!

I used to phone the telly people as soon as we got DD settled.
If it was a really nice person on the end of the line they would unlock the tv for me so we could have it on passed 9pm and make it so it could be watched without headphones so we could watch together.

YANBU!

My mum died in hospital last year, after a short and very unpleasant illness. The last time I visited her the lady in the next bed had her TV on really loud without headphones, watching one soap after another, and mum was really irritated by it.

With all the pain and other stuff mum was dealing with she didn't need that too. She collapsed and died a couple of days later, I hope she didn't spend her final evening seething over the volume of someone's TV. Hospital patients need conditions they can rest in.

So you work in a hospital lunar?
Ever had to live in one?

Yanbu. I find loud TV stressful and intrusive at the best of times, let alone when ill. If you're in hospital that's a time for rest.

For TV lovers there's headphones or the day room. We got one hour free a day which didn't need headphones, that was quite enough.

YANBU unremitting background noise would do my head in at the best of times - trying to deal with it while I was unwell would be torture

No never lived in one, longest stay was 3 weeks with my first husband. That was mort than enough of other peoples tv noise.

Shouldn't

Yes I think we will be appalled in twenty years time although I doubt there will be a NHS any more if we have many more Tory years.

I remember when a unit I worked on introduced en suite bathrooms and toilets for every MH patient. Luxury but it actually is pretty fundamental.

When you spend your life in hospital it is very hard to manage without some sort of distraction. It was hard enough being cut off from RL without being further isolated. DD was often far to ill to read. Watching tv was often the only thing we could do together.
Being up for days on end would have been even worse if I had to rely on Take a Break and crosswords to keep me sane.
Those personal tvs are designed in such a way as to cut out the issue of disturbing others. If they are not set to headphones only its a matter for the ward to take up.

Once they were installed there was never an issue with background noise.
We only had ours off headphone because we were always in a side room.

The rest of the ward was not noisy due to tvs.

I think, on the balance of things, people generally in a hospital environment would prefer to have the TV on rather than off due to boredom factor. I might be wrong about that.

I think I'd rather have it on and give people earplugs (realise not everyone gets along with these) than have people bored to distraction. Certainly if I worked in a hospital.

In a small ward I suppose a vote could be done? I don't really know the answer to this. I think for this reason the individual TV's are good, though they cost, I suppose they have to recoup their cost?

Its just one of life's shit conundrums.

I know it was only 3 weeks for us but we didn't get any quiet together, by the time we got a side room dh was to ill to have any meaningful time together. what we really need is for anyone that ill to have space and privacy. but lets face it that will never happen.