Hospital Wards Should be Quiet at Night?

[GemmaWella81]

Third night into a stay at hospital and I feel like killing people. There's no urgency or care given to keeping the noise down, whether it's nurses talking amongst themselves, machines buzzing, or patients having zero concept of anyone but themselves.

I think there should be a reasonable expectation placed on staff to quash as much noise as possible, within reason as I appreciate a hospital is a working environment. By 4am and no more than 10 min unbroken sleep last night I was thermonuclear with rage, and to pass time began measured the average volume and it was around 55 Db peaking at 68! How is that good for patient health and recovery?

I swear id'd be out of here and recovering quicker if I was able to get some proper shut eye. I've had no choice to listen in on a patient arguing with a nurse about getting iv pain relief vs pill form a minute ago. Nurse was saying preference was a pill as it's cheaper but the patient was begging for iv. In the ensuing back and forth myself and people in beds near me were either woken up or were clearly getting agitated by it. There'll be a consequence now as most of us are in need of pain relief (surgical ward) at some point and that can momentarily knock you out...so when three people now ask for pain relief is it really cost effective then just giving the original patient iv pain relief in the first place?

It's been my first stay in hospital for a long time but I think I remember the ward nurses shussing the hell out of anyone talking or making undue noise. Now it just seems like a free for all and fuck everyone else's comfort.

Resentment is the surest way to stay awake.

Hope you get better soon Gemma or get so tired you konk out and wouldnt wake even if an express screamed through the ward

I've spent weeks at a time over the last few years in different wards in different hospitals and I don't go anywhere near them without earplugs, an eye mask a and an iPod. After crying from tiredness on the first occasion I think they are essential.
Some wards are better than others, some night staff are better than others. It does depend on how acute the ward is, more obs through the night and bloody monitors or pumps that get dislodged and bleep for instance. The mix of patients is key though, when you have a confused elderly patient each side of you and a bloke the other side of the corridor shrieking through the night then just ask for a sleeping pill, earplugs don't keep it out. I couldn't complain about the shrieking man, he was dying and I felt awful being annoyed by him. Don't be afraid to ask staff to turn lights out or keep it down, sometimes they just forget.
Hope you escape soon.

My last overnight in hospital was a psych ward. There was a woman who started singing gospel songs at 2 am on the dot every night, through to 6 am.

The combination of that and sedatives was kind of fairy tale like. I spent most nights feeling like I had my own soundtrack.

Sorry to all those in noisy wards. Can you ask for sleeping pills or something?

Tbf though, if a bleeping IV had woken me, I found the nurse who were whispering intensely irritating, in fact more so than just talking in normal voices as I can't stand whispering so the poor buggers couldn't win.

Still could have happily slapped the hca who bashed the blood pressure moniter on my bed half a dozen times and then laughed about the fact that she kept waking me up she was weird anyway but I'm sure she was doing it deliberatly.

I do feel your pain and I've only had very short stays in hospital, thankfully!

With Ds1, I had to be induced - the 4bed ward I was put on initially only had 1 other person in it but overnight, another patient was brought in who appeared to be Polish or similar and talked a lot; and then a diabetic whose blood sugars were off, so her monitor kept on beeping. A LOT.
Not much sleep that night then.
Next night, I actually had DS at 2am, so not much sleep then - got taken down to the 4 bed ward about 6am, just in time for them to start the morning routine.
Midway through the following day, I had a raging headache from overheat and sleep deprivation and tried to leave the hospital - the talked me down, gave me drugs and I got a private room (ex-staff) - which made ALL the difference!

Similar story with Ds2, actually - needed inducing, was on a women's geriatric ward for some reason (not enough space?) with one poor woman who was in a terrible state, another who couldn't walk and needed a bed pan (they came too late and she soiled herself) - fucking nightmare. :(
Had Ds2 middle of the day this time though, but although I was supposed to have a private room, one wasn't available (needs came above money, which is exactly how it should be) so 4 bed ward again. Wasn't quite homicidal when I came out but close!

I agree that sleep deprivation is definitely not conducive to getting better!

Heavily pregnant on an ante-natal ward for 2 months. Every night women in labour or mothers with crying newborns from post-natal when there were no beds in post-natal. Then major surgery and a newborn to look after after the birth, no wonder I got PND, sleep deprivation is a form of torture. My sympathies.

Where I work we try to be as quiet as possible, but if patients are unwell then nurses and HCAs will be doing regular obs, giving meds, setting up IVs plus taking patients to the toilet. If a dementia patient has a medical condition that needs treatment under our specialism then it is separate to their dementia and they need to be seen by the specialist team and receive care from nurses trained to best treat that condition. Our dementia ward may not offer that. That is why they will be in a medical or surgical bed. We try the best we can, but with reduced staffing at night and the increasing levels of confusion for dementia patients at night it is not always possible to keep their volume down.

It gives me the rage when I am in hospital, not snoring from other patients as that can't be helped. The nurses talked loudly during the night and seemed to think that shouting from one end of the ward to the other is fine. One nurse had shoes that went squeak squeak every time she walked down the ward. They also seemed to take great pleasure in slamming the bins down every two minutes.
The second night their was a patient with the telly on at midnight and when I asked for it to be turned off I was told by the nurses that that patient has a right to watch telly. What about my right to bloody sleep and get better. I also discharged myself

The ward I was last in, most of us including me were woken up for obs and treatment, all at the same intervals. I felt sorry for those few patients who did not need this, as they must have been woken up. And the first night the nurses called the Dr to see me as they were worried, and that must have disturbed people. But that is unavoidable.
Nurses talking loudly is avoidable. It really annoyed me. My mum who is often in hospital says it is always like that. But I remember being in hospital years ago and the nurses trying to talk quietly.
Last hospital stay my mum told the Dr on the ward round that she was going home that day as she needed to sleep.

Weirdly, I sleep like a baby in hospital

I'm generally an insomniac. I think for me it's knowing that I'm in safe hands or something. That and the general noise I guess! Though I'd love if they lulled me off to sleep with their noise and then just kept very quiet until I woke up myself.

I might employ a nurse to watch over me at night so that I can SLEEP! They could hoover the house until I nodded off.....

Years ago I went visit my DB on his second day in hospital. He didn't ask me to, but I brought a pack of Boots' Muffles, because I guessed how it would be. He was so grateful; the non-stop racket was unbearable.

The visitors come from the UK, I always ask for packs of Muffles.

Mil says she never sleeps in hospital-she's there a lot, bless her. I was ignored, unable to walk, needed a bedpan, screamed the place down til they arrived with a bedpan. Eventually, I got a catheter.

Next hospital, they never came to the button, so it flashed (not me) constantly. Neighbour's air bed squeaked all night cos it needed re-setting. I called the nurse every night to do it. They were clueless. There was a fluorescent emergency light on above my bed that I had to ask them to turn off. The anaesthetist woke me at 3am (had just come out of surgery) to ask if I was allergic to anything and to take bloods. 2 weeks of joy. It totally screwed my sleeping patterns, hence I'm up now posting on here!

Hospitals are nightmare- I always ask for sleeping pills. Even when you only need basic obs twice a day they insist on waking you at 5-50am to do temp and BP!!! Then quite happily not check it for another 18 hours. I have been known to refuse and tell them to take it later. You are of course already asks but still it's the point. If it needs doing twice a day and no urgent check do it at 8am!

The one I loathe though is 'you like some breakfast?'

Eh no, I'd like to have been left asleep!

I remember one lovely nurse (she was a school-gate Mum who I didn't know was a nurse until I was admitted on her ward) and she came in one night to take obs and just whispered to me, 'no don't open your eyes, I'm just taking your blood pressure, go back and sleep'.

Maybe I'm suffering from exhaustion or something, because now that I think of it, the last time I was in hospital (3 weeks ago), the nurse told my husband to go because I needed to sleep! (middle of the day). I wouldn't mind but he was falling out of his standing with tiredness too so there wasn't a word out of him lol.

I agree. I'm staying nights with an ill relative atm in a geriatric ward and it's horrible. The rare day there isn't a man screaming "to be taken away", the nurses are chatting and slamming bins or pulling curtains so hard it scares the poops out of everyone. Right now there's a group of nurses at their station discussing their shifts loudly. I guess it's normal for them to be loud at this time and they have to keep motivated somehow at night. They're all a brilliant bunch of people. Very hardworking and kind.

My last three night stay in hospital made me nocturnal, I don't think I had any sleep at all during the night but the constant noise during the day seemed to lull me off - there were no sudden noises such as the elderly lady arguing with and then biting the nurse, the nurse screaming and then the lady shouting and hitting her with her walking stick. (the poor nurse had to go to A&E to be treated) The nurses and other staff were wonderful and did what they could, and illnesses like dementia are bloody cruel but flimsy curtains round beds do very little to deaden the noise and promote sleep.

The only stays in hospital have been post natal. I stayed in almost a week after DS1 (he was in SCBU and I had worryingly high blood pressure not responding to treatment). The first night I was in an overcrowded ward with less than 5 foot between my bed and the bed of a woman who snored like a bull elephant. After that I was moved to a private room (without my baby) but still never managed more than an hours consecutive sleep with regular monitoring waking me up, being woken every few hours to trek to SCBU to breastfeed, being woken for drug rounds I wasn't on, 6am breakfasts and generally noisy nights. The last night DS was in my room and we were both on 2 hourly obs - but could they co-ordinate these, of course not.

Yes funnily I've never been disturbed by a crying baby during my post natal stays. It's always been nurses checking obs, snoring women, talking women, Bounty women and being asked if I want breakfast at 7am (wtf?!). My last baby I was in a private room with an ensuite and even the Bounty lady didn't disturb me and left the pack on my bed

I am profoundly deaf. There aren't many occasions I'm grateful for that but this would be one of them.

When I was in last month I found it easier and quieter to sleep in the day!! The HCA did find me earplugs but they didn't do much. Have to admit to being the person keeping everyone up the first night though as we couldn't get the pain under control!

YANBU Last couple of times I was in I had the rage because I needed rest (apparently) but getting woken before 6am was okay (having had loud staff and people being taken in and out of ward overnight). I closed my curtains and they kept opening them until I exploded (politely) and said they'd better give me peace with the curtains shut for a nap or I was bloody well going home as I had the damned tablets and would take my chances.

I recall another time where myself and another lady shared a room/ward (just the two of us). She snored all night and kept waking me up, but I was coughing all night and kept waking her up. We'd be huffing and puffing to ourselves at night, then come morning, we'd apologise to each other about our respective snores/coughs. That lady cried the day I was discharged! We had only been in the same room for 3 nights I think!
It's such a shitty place for anyone to be in.

I find the weaker you are, the less fucks you give.
It's a good sign you're fit to go home when you're being kept awake at night.

I've just got out if hosp. In since Mon. Combination of steroids, heat and general illness meant I hardly slept. Loving my own bed.

Out new hospital has all single rooms. 😄 amazing. After many hospital stays it's bliss

So far (thank god), my only residential stay in hospital was 6 nights after having DD1. It was a real eye-opener in every sense. The noise, the lights, the heat, the dirty bathrooms. DD2 was a home birth (peace, cleanliness,open windows). I now have health insurance, not because I think the treatment will be any better, but just to be sure of the relative air and space of my own room.

Completely agree op, I've been back and forth a few times for hosp stays now so I expect no sleep as its basically impossible but was genuinely upset and surprised the first time- lights don't get Switched off until stupidly o'clock, the communal tv was on past 1am even though some wanted it off, the nurses chatting (so fecking loud), people on their mobiles or watching their iPads.
How you're supposed to rest and recover on little to no sleep is beyond me- I wish people would be more considerate of each other.

Oh dear ...im on night duty now....being as quiet as poss....but if i have to wake you up to do your obs its because its a hospital and im checking that you are ok after your surgery...im not doing it for my benefit....and if im worried about you i will do more obs.... guidelines say i have to give you a score and if you score high i will do the obs every 5 minutes if i have to and i will also find a cause and get you seen by a doctor.....and if the confused deaf lady is climbing out of bed and i have to speak loudly to her ..im sorry....no point in whispering to a deaf person....being a nurse can be very rewarding....but if patients are well enough to moan then they are the ones that are nearly ready for home....and ive done my job!