About curtains on hospital wards

[Bubbinsmakesthree]

Currently on post-natal ward, baby in SCBU, recovering from c-section.

I don't mind leaving most of my dignity at the door, i don't mind partners and visitors on the ward.

But is it too much to ask to be allowed the bloody curtain around my bed to be closed?

Matronly midwife seems to have nothing better to do than insisting my curtains are open.

I was in for five days...

if you were feeling truly grim you simply would not care!

sadly not true for everybody, at all.

Wanking my two sections were nothing like that! Both occasions 2.5 years apart I actually had the same lady (maybe a nurse/ward assistant) who helped me out of bed after removing my catheter, she helped me to the bathroom to use the loo or freshen up, what ever I needed! If I had of wanted her to she would have helped me shower. She was kind and friendly and far from the experience you mention. I'm so sorry that you had that horrible experience after surgery
They were pro moving around but they did not force us to do anything we weren't ready for!

We had to have the curtains open too and it was nice at first as there were only three of us in the ward, once it got busier with larger families it was a bit much, sometimes I just wanted to sleep without worrying about farting in my sleep I had the worst trapped wind after my last section at least if the curtain was shut I could have pretended no one else was there

When I had my first baby the woman in the bed opposite me kept closing them for me every time I fed him. She never asked, just assumed I wanted them closed (I didn't ) or maybe she thought I should have them closed 😕
If you want them shut tell the staff to stop opening them.

Some of you had terrible experiences!
First of all YANBU to the OP!
Second of all, I hope that won't happen to me in a few weeks time!

There shouldn't be a hospital with the policy of having the curtains open at all times. Establishing breastfeeding will be a private matter, as much as I'm planning to bf in public if all goes well! To have other women's OHs there for most of the time should be seen as a breech of privacy anyway, if not allowed to draw the curtains, let alone gawping other visitors.

I used to work in a hospital myself as a physiotherapist and have once reported a nurse for leaving a patient behind with curtains partially open and sheets off her! As much as there are many good and caring nurses and midwives, many don't really think about respecting someone's privacy. Nor do they consider how difficult it is to be in hospital recovering from what is often quite a harrowing experience. Checking in by calling through the curtains is just as effective as 'overseeing'.

Well tbf if someone was at risk of bleeding to death one would hope that the nurses would do more than have a quick glance at 8 beds anyway, so the risk of litigation would still be there.

It was because i felt grim i wanted the curtains closed btw, and i think people are well aware that hospital isn't home

When I'm dozing my mouth droops open, i drool, i fart - embarassing
things that are easier to cope with when behind a shut curtain

Be glad that you are well enough to mind about this - if you were feeling truly grim you simply would not care! another one saying, this is utter bollocks.

There isn't a policy Rustler, just tell them you want the curtains shut, there isn't anything they can do

If everyone had them closed it would be impossible.

Bollocks. My hospital now has mostly private rooms with gasp doors.

How on earth do the midwives manage if curtains closed makes the job impossible?

When I had my first DS when he was one day old I was feeding him I had a seizure(no history of epilepsy) the mother in the next bed rescued DS from the edge of the bed and the mum in the opposite bed called for help, thank goodness there was an open curtain policy. It was postnatal eclampsia.

Thank you, hazey, I wish you well and lots of NED vibes .

sorry to hear your story 2old2beamum

but you could argue that sending women home so early after giving birth is madness. 4 to 6 hours after a normal delivery, 24 hours after a c-section...If we were that concerned about their well being and possible complications, we would follow other countries who insist on keeping new mums for observation for longer to prevent tragedies.

You don't abandon all humanity when you walk through the hospital doors. There's no excuse.

That was a close call 2old for sure, but i think that counts as just a very unfortunate situation, if you were feeding you may well have wanted the curtains closed.

I guess what im saying is it was lucky you had them open, but a preference for nurses having them open may not have made a difference (I know what I'm trying to say at least )

I'm one of those that likes the curtains open, I like to see people and know whats going on around me. I understand other people's need for privacy though. I was just a bit sad to find myself stuck in a corner away from any natural light when everyone else's curtains were pulled round.

OK PhotographI take your point but with high BP I would not have been allowed home but it was a long time ago. Later I did train as a midwife and closed curtains made me a bit anxious........I returned to paediatrics!
BTW I really hope I was compassionate.

Photograph

I'm not trying to make you feel ashamed. If you want privacy, fine, but I do think you were over-egging it on how bad it is having a curtain open a bit of the time.

Nobody was suggesting leaving it open 24/7 - there are times when privacy is needed, obviously. However, I do think at the very least you should leave it open when the nurses are doing their rounds to save them a bit of time.

If you want unicorns and rainbows, fine, but you'll have to go private. Sadly, the NHS is there to give you the basic care that is needed. It's not there to pamper you or spare your feelings - it can't afford to.

When the NHS is literally having to deny people cancer treatment, and there is a bed shortage epidemic, I think helping the nurses in saving some time would be a good thing to do. Frankly, the NHS is on its knees and it shouldn't have to be focusing its resources on sisters going round throwing curtains open to check someone's OK, which they wouldn't have had to do if the curtains were already open.

Maybe that's just me, but I'm just glad we live in a country that provides an excellent standard of care, and that women aren't giving birth in a shack. Sure, we don't get the bells and whistles but so what?

This is the issue the country has - people expect the NHS to do everything, all the time, and be as good as a private hospital, which it simply can't afford to do. I'd love it if we could all have a nice private room with our own nurse too, but unfortunately that would cost us all thousands of pounds.

To people who are asking how staff manage when there are private rooms: the recommended staffing ratios are different precisely because it is more Labour-intensive to look after and check on people in separate rooms (rather than glance down a row of beds) and answer buzzers - for instance, you can't acknowledge the patient in the next bed while you finish off with someone else if there are walls between you. Those ratios apply in NHS hospitals too, btw, not just private care.

The debate above has slightly missed the point for me: curtains open or closed isn't about who has more power/right etc. It's about achieving the objectives of being on the ward, and I think the dynamics are slightly different on a post-natal ward compared to other wards.

Firstly, all patients are required to look after a newborn as well as recovering. In particular a lot will be trying to get to grips with breastfeeding. That can be a very stressful and emotional experience and people's differing views on privacy need to be taken into account. Some people might not care but if others do not want strangers to be a witness to their struggles they simply must have privacy - or you have to expect breastfeeding to fail sometimes. Not what the NHS advocates. So if privacy is important to that person it must be provided.

Secondly, most wards do not have such permissive visiting hours as post-natal wards (nor attract crowds of visitors quite so much). So for most of the time that you have your curtains open Lots of non/clinical people will have a view of you and your baby. You might be watching tv or napping but you will probably spend a fair bit of time struggling with your boobs. Very different to a normal medical /surgical ward where you'd mostly be covered, except for washing /ward rounds /dressing changes (when nurses will close your curtains without you havibg to get up).

I had a terrible struggle with breastfeeding with my first child and my fear and dread of the same is haunting me now I am expecting again. It certainly wasn't a happy experience on the ward (even with the theoretical help from midwives). My local hospital has also changed its rules since I had DC1 and they now allow partners to stay overnight on open wards. I am frankly dreading it....

I had huge problems getting dc 1 to feed and was lucky enough to be in a unit where lots of help was on offer for which I am very grateful. However, every single time a mid wife or health care assistant left me they would leave the curtains open. Often this was just as my baby had finally latched on and was feeding so there was no way I was going to move and risk disturbing her to draw the curtains. But, I meant I was left sitting in bed, basically stripped to the waist on full view. Is there any other type of ward where being half naked word not be considered adequate reason to want privacy?

To be honest, had it simple been midwives and other mums on the ward I wouldn't have worried too much, but post natal wards allow fathers all day. other wards with open curtain policies, I'm fairly certain, have restricted visiting hours and tend to be single sex. Postnatal wards need to be treated differently.

Sorry for all the typos!

Please stop talking about wanting 'unicorn and rainbows' - stuck in a hospital, miles from home having lost a baby, scans left right and centre, a mouth full so full of ulcers even my own spit hurt, I just wanted to have some privacy.

My ds is disabled, he has had a few hospital stays, they are traumatic, he fights the oxygen mask, the noises and people terrify him. The nurses on the children's ward have all been understanding and keep the curtains closed.

Unicorns and rainbows ffs.

I do think at the very least you should leave it open when the nurses are doing their rounds to save them a bit of time.

I am not sure you realise the state some of us are. I was physically unable to sit up, let alone stand and go to open or close the curtains. It's not just about being tangled in your drip and catheter, blood running down the leg (sorry, but that's what it was) it's the fact that you just come back from major surgery, you are impossibly weak. I couldn't even change my baby's nappy, I could barely move.I don't even know how I managed to go home. Being advised to go skin to skin without privacy is not kind. I wouldn't even have asked for help to breastfeed (I did not get any anyway), just to be left alone.

but I'm just glad we live in a country that provides an excellent standard of care

having experienced other countries since, I am not glad, I am ashamed. Yes, there are worst places but differences in the standard of care are simply due to money. It's exactly the same here. Nowhere else are you made feel such a failure for not having private health care but relaying on the hospital for the poor. I am comparing with other public hospitals in similar countries. The difference in care is astonishing. Some mums are told and advised on how to take care of the cord, how to bath babies, how to breastfeed, others like us made to feel like third class citizen.

"It could be worst" is not the best way to plan medical care.

So it's 'unicorns and rainbows' to want to have your own privacy respected. Really? FFS. Great big race to the bottom.

JohnnyMcGrath
Certainly there are things all Trusts can do to improve patient privacy & dignity (& all Trusts are meant to have policies in place to protect these) but the features you were talking about are very much structure[-&-infrastructure]-dependent. The Trust that provide most of my care are generally pretty strict on staff respecting patients' privacy if curtains are closed - in some circumstances night staff might ask you to leave them [part] open overnight so they can check on you easily, but that's pretty much it.

Lots of the big London hospitals are forced to use their overflow wards all year round & some bays have more beds in than the architects allowed for. There are some assorted staffing issues as well, which combine to make trying to cover wards effectively REALLY hard, especially when there are patients needing intensive nursing care.

As I said, I'd be interested to know about the staffing on the surgical wards proper in Bristol as opposed to the day surgery unit as it's there that you'd expect there to be fewer staff/rota gaps. I'm not able to have Day Surgery but ended up in Day surgery recovery for a day the day following the removal of my appendix (after spending the day & night after the surgery in recovery Proper) because of the serious bed shortage. There was a high nurse:patient ratio even with them having parked an additional bed in there (& none of us were receiving 1:1 care from another source) but it's often 1:1 in main theatre recovery so it would make sense to be 2:1 in Day Surgery recovery. (Hopefully a theatre nurse/surgeon/anaesthetist will appear presently to talk about how things work where they are...)