Hospital bed curtains

[CurtainsAllowed]

Is it frowned upon to keep them shut?

Just had surgery, was in a LOT of pain (thankfully being managed now) and I am constantly being asked if I want my curtains around my bed opened.

I feel and look horrendous and am absolutely not ready to be having a chat with anyone else on the ward.
I just want to be left alone

The lack of dignity and privacy really frighten me about being hospitalised for any reason.

In my opinion, everyone should have a private room, so as too also conceal sounds, but I guess these would have been too expensive to build unfortunately.

If I were you, I would definitely keep my curtains closed. I did this after the birth of my first child, when I was moved from my own room onto a ward. I only stayed for half a day, but I couldn’t stand other people’s visitors looking at me as they walked past, and don’t even get me started on the noise of other patients and their visitors! No amount of curtain could conceal it.

I feel for that constipated woman, it's not something I would be able to laugh off if it were me or a family member.

The highlight of my recent hospital stay was a constipated woman a few beds down from me attempting to have a poo into a bedpan, assisted by the house doctor and the ward sister. The sounds coming from her were the type one would associate with someone giving birth. The other patients around her were shouting encouragement and one said loudly, "We'd better see a baby after all this.

Really? That's fucking grim. That poor woman. I would probably complain to be quite honest, if I was made to go to the bathroom in front of an entire ward of patients cheering me on.

Being ill shouldn't mean you lose your dignity and your right to privacy. Of course it's important to be cared for and for the nurses to be able to see you, but surely there's a line to be drawn somewhere?

YANBU at all OP. I've not been in hospital since I was a child but even then I hated the complete lack of privacy.

I've left early due to hot, noisy, crowded wards with no privacy or dignity - visitors stinking out the patient toilet, next to no sleep due to lights and noise even with earplugs, not exactly a good place to recover from illness.

Having my own room is what stops me discharging myself.
I can curl up/watch TV/go online and use a clean bathroom of my own in peace and quiet.
The hospital also has open visiting from 12.30-9 so easy for me to have visitors.
It makes the world of difference when I'm ill.
Wards are absolute hell.

If the rest of the patients and their visitors kept to themselves it wouldn't be so bad, but it feels like they're either staring or trying to engage me in conversation.
God knows why they'd want to from looking at me!

Lack of sleep is seriously not good for your health with you're ill.

Just keep your curtains closed, Curtain, you're not there for their entertainment.

And visiting is 9-9.

My tolerance for listening to inane chatter about how late the bus was or what they're having for dinner tonight is incredibly low.

Oh yeah opening visiting only works with private rooms, I assumed that's why the hospital here has it, it would be bloody awful on a ward.

Thank you all xxx

Close your curtains and get yourself some earplugs, or use an iPod or noise-cancelling headphones. You have no obligation to talk to them and you certainly don't need your curtains open to "make life easier for the nurses".

Their job is to care for you, and any decent HCP should know that rest/sleep/relaxation is vital when you're unwell. How anyone can be expected to relax with strangers staring at you all day is beyond me!

It's horrendous, patients are treated like cattle, I am sure the lack of dignity and privacy make people a lot worst.

Unless you are in intensive care, or in A&E, and the staff does need to keep an eye on you at all time, there's no need for communal wards in a so-called civilised country. How we accepted that hospitals are built that way, I have no idea. Other countries manage to offer private or semi-private rooms (that's with 2 patients), and the survival rate are not falling! (if you look at statistics, we are doing terribly).

When you are unable to close your own curtains because you cannot get out of your bed, it's a disgrace. Communal wards, communal toilets, our country is a shame.

TVs should also be banned on communal wards, unless you have headphones! People are there for a reason, they are unwell, they need to rest!

Lots of new hospitals are being built with single-occupancy rooms. If nurses being able to see their patients easily is so important, how is this allowed?

It really does all depend on the type of patients the ward is housing. Infectious patients, immunocompromised, dying patients and certain diseases such as CF, all warrant a room. But individual rooms take up more space than bays. They're more expensive to build, take longer to clean and increase the amount of time it takes for nurses to get around their patients. And yes, patients in rooms are far less visible. Doing a round of obs on 6 patients is far quicker if they're in a bay or two than it is if you're going room to room. And actually, having worked with many long term patients confined to a room, they say the isolation can be crippling.

I will do, thank you xx
Just waiting on a visitor of my own then I'll try and get some rest xx
Thanks all xx

Hope you can get some sleep and get out of there asap.

The thing I've seen before in hospital, when I spent 10 days in with DS's birth, is the amount to which decisions are made for the convenience of the staff. The curtain thing is a prime example.

Keep them closed OP. As a visitor to bring a bloody great bulldog clip in with them to hold them closed and staff might take the hint. They'll have to actively come and monitor you rather than just glance along a row of patients.

If it's so much easier for nurses why are private hospitals all single rooms? If it's genuinely for a health reason then they wouldn't do it in private hospitals as it would be a safety issue (I'm not talking about hdu or icu).

We have had it so much over the years that this is how hospital is but it shouldn't be like this in a civilised society. You are in hospital as you are too ill to be at home how they expect you to get better with no rest is beyond me. The noise at night in hospital is just ridiculous. I managed about 2 hours a night on and off. How do they expect that to be healing?

The priority in hospitals should be the care and comfort of the patients!
Yes, the staff should be able do to their job, and there should be enough of them, but allowing communal wards because of extreme medical emergencies when they are not needed is a shame.

Why should we give up privacy and humanity once we step in a hospital? We are not animals. Would anyone find it appropriate to see the Queen on her hospital bed? Of course not, so why should visitors and other patients be able to gape at others?

At least the OP is being asked, that's nice, usually the curtains are violently opened without any warning or asking.

When I was on the post-natal ward at my local hospital they had an ‘open curtain policy’ unless you were feeding or changing. I remember on day three in there I was really struggling, baby wouldn’t be sleep unless held so i had literally not slept all night, was exhausted. DP arrived during visiting hours, meaning I could get some sleep while he’s held baby. As it was visiting hours the ward was packed so I closed the curtains. DP was with me/baby so really didn’t feel there wasn’t much to worry about. I got properly told off by one of the nurses, and they wouldn’t give in. That was a low point.

*UNLESS extreme medical emergencies

If it's so much easier for nurses why are private hospitals all single rooms?

To offer a better customer experience. Sadly the NHS doesn't have the budget or the staffing to put that as high a priority as it should be.

In many NHS hospitals, it's not really fair to phrase it that bays make things easier for the nurses. They do, don't get me wrong, but they just make the nurse more efficient so that she gets more done in the shift, which benefits her patients, not her.

We were openly banned from closing curtains when I was in post-natal hell after having DD2. They gave us a condescending speech about how we were meant to all bond and the experienced mothers were meant to be imparting motherly wisdom to the new mothers and shite like that.

We bonded... over a shared wish to be allowed to close the bloody bedcurtains - which I may have ring-led (since I was the only non-first timer on the ward as well they were kind of fucked on the motherly wisdom dispensation front really) and was rapidly found a side room where I couldn't cause any more patient mini-mutinies.

Oh, i was disscharged last night after been in a week. Im a private person. Im a nurse. I compromised and had the front part open and i was lucky i never had a neighbour so didnt feel like i was shutting someone out. It is for observations, although i dont know how much observing really goes on tbh. The old dear opp managed to pull her cannullas out twice a shift. I do think if the student wasnt filling so many forms in and doing more observing it couldve been prevented.

Anf dont get me started on 6am wake up calls.......

I had an operation last year and it annoyed me so much that they kept opening the curtains. I am quite a private person and don't want strangers to see me lying in bed any more than I want to see them!