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

I'm really glad we had more caring and concerned professionals whilst DD1 was in with cancer, Freak, even when she was life-threateningly ill (she ended up dying) she was always treated with regard for her privacy and dignity. It can be done.

expat My condolences on the loss of your daughter.

Because when you are fighting for your life, you realise that someone else seeing your foof or hearing you fart isn't the end of the world.

can you not try to understand that for some people it IS the end of the world? Can you not begin to understand that it could be religious reasons, educational reasons, mental issues, or just plain preferences, but that for some people it is a very big deal?

It's like that stupid idea that women in labour don't care about a public. Complete bollocks, I have been in labour several times, once in a nasty traumatic situation and I was fully aware of people around when being wheeled to an emergency room.

I hope you are not a medical member of staff if you dismiss the feelings of patients like that. You might not care, it doesn't mean other patients are as casual as you are.

You might as well dismiss their pain whilst you are it.

I have to say, I've always been glad about the long visiting hours. Being able to have my husband by my side for most of the day kept me sane. He could only do that at the weekend, as he had to work during the week, so on weekdays, I watched the clock until he arrived.

I do think that visitors should be kept to only 2 at a time though, as any more becomes too noisy and there's not enough space around the beds.

I was fighting for my life and I still did care, I am allowed to care when I'm being treated like a piece of meat with no consideration for my dignity at all.

Freaklikemee

Your posts are bordering on the insulting. They are certainly crass. I assure you that it is possible to be life threateningly ill and to still be very concerned and adversely affected by a lack of privacy and dignity.

I could discuss publicly the circumstances of my 87 year old father's hospitalisation in an NHS ward prior to his death to demonstrate this point but frankly it is too upsetting to do so.

Thank heavens he ultimately died in a hospice where patients were treated as individuals with feelings.

A friend of mine is a Dr and had a heart attack. He was taken to the local A&E and was taken straight to theatre.
When I went to visit, he was on an open ward, the traditional 12 beds down either side.
He had been offered a side room and refused it saying he'd rather be In Full sight of the nurses station should he be taken ill again.

And why people assuming if we care we can't be that ill?
I have brittle asthma, if I can't breathe, I die, doesn't get much more serious.
That said, I can often, and do update FB from hospital, even HDU.

'A friend of mine is a Dr and had a heart attack. He was taken to the local A&E and was taken straight to theatre.
When I went to visit, he was on an open ward, the traditional 12 beds down either side.
He had been offered a side room and refused it saying he'd rather be In Full sight of the nurses station should he be taken ill again.'

And yet, there are hospitals now with all private rooms, and people manage not to die.

Onestepsideways and Borntobeamum

I understand the point about nurses needing to be aware if someone slips quietly in to unconsciousness or has another heart attack, but nurses across most of Europe seem to manage just fine nursing patients in one or two-bed rooms (with rather better mortality figures it might be argued).

The reason that this rule applies in the NHS is that there are not enough nurses and doctors, and staff are over-stretched and under-resourced.

NB I am blaming the system here; not the nurses themselves!

Surely it's not rocket science to understand that a system that is focused on a patient's well being, where they can enjoy privacy, quiet, a feeling of calm and security, adequate sleep etc is one that is going to get better results overall.

and yet in my local hospitals the private rooms are always going to Dr and their families first - if they are available, I don't think they chuck patients out just when a doctor comes in.

x-post with xpat!

Meant to add that "as long as a patient doesn't deteriorate silently behind a curtain on my watch nothing else matters" is a pretty low aspirational baseline frankly.

How can a nurse tell at a glance, while looking down the ward, the difference between someone slipping into unconsciousness, and someone falling asleep?

12 beds down either side?
Was he taken to a hospital in the 50's?

I've been in one of those too btw, and no, it wasn't nice, or kind, it was with other patients who were in no place to be helpful, more puke on the floor and shit everywhere, whilst I was stuck in my bed trying to breathe, but since I was quiet I got no attention at all.

How does this work in private hospitals then. I had a hysterectomy in a private hospital, I was very poorly after the op and was on my own in a room.

I didn't have a nurse with me all the time, but they were in and out a lot.

I can't imagine anyone gawping at me when I was so poorly, so I get why you want the curtains closed. Surely you can insist on it in the daytime.

Hope you're feeling a little better

I understand that this is annoying, but I would just buzz the nurses over and get them to shut the curtain, every time.

I had minor day surgery in March, and had to experience this. It didn’t help that the woman opposite me was a massive starer, and was directly watching me the entire time my curtain was open (I was reading a book, eating, trying to get some rest yet whenever I looked up she was staring at me). She was also laughing at what my consultant was saying to me as if she was a part of the conversation. It was a gynae procedure so I didn’t paticularly appreciate her listening in. So yes, every time my curtain was left open I made that they closed it

Made sure*

'Surely it's not rocket science to understand that a system that is focused on a patient's well being, where they can enjoy privacy, quiet, a feeling of calm and security, adequate sleep etc is one that is going to get better results overall.'

EXACTLY! YY to sleep! And adequate pain meds, which seem to be sadly lacking particularly in postnatal units. I can remember after one major knee surgery being reluctant to use pain meds and was soundly told off by my surgeon and the nurses. You don't heal as well when you are in pain and sleep-deprived. Pain and sleep deprivation are used as forms of torture for a reason.

I am kind of hoping this is read by people out of the UK, some of them I know threw a massive fit for being made to share a bedroom with one other patient and being utterly disgusted by their system

Here, we are on 12 to 16 (not more I hope) communal wards!

Sometimes you have to laugh, it's too painful to cry.

OMG Expat My number one hospital tip is take your own pain meds.
I also take two days of all my other meds.
Hospital are notoriously shit at meds for some reason, just this time 16yr old Dd had to bring up my nortriptyline on the 3rd day as they couldn't get it.

Number two tip, make absolutely sure you have a phone/tablet and chargers, never be out of reach of people who can help if you get bad HCP's.

Brillo I'm not an hcp but I suspect it's a very bad idea to take your own pain killers in to hospital - unless declared - in case they interact with the hospital meds.

With regards to extended visiting hours, we recently had a trial of changing ours from 2-7 to 8-8.

Feedback from staff was resoundly negative; patients can’t rest with all those people around, they don’t eat as much if they’re chatting (or their visitors eat their food), they don’t want to get out of bed and mobilise with the physios with other people around, the families get in the way of the ward being properly cleaned, the list goes on and on.

However the feedback from patients was almost entirely positive, so unfortunately for the staff (and for patients safety and dignity), extended visiting hours will be staying.

Oh, absolutely, Brillo. I bring all my own stuff, food, meds, etc. Too many buzzers unanswered entirely. 'That's not safe!' Oh, okay, well, sorry, but I'm not going to writhe around in pain and hungry because the shit's not together. Fuck that.

'Brillo I'm not an hcp but I suspect it's a very bad idea to take your own pain killers in to hospital - unless declared - in case they interact with the hospital meds.'

So what are you supposed to do if they're not treating the pain and not answering the buzzers? I've been unable to sleep next to women who had CS's sobbing with pain and the paracetamol isn't cutting it, but they don't answer buzzers. That's barbaric.

I've had hella afterbirth pains, again, no response to buzzers or they answer it, I tell them I'm in pain and they disappear.

Been left without food or water because I was unable to get to the food trolley, staggered to a toilet on legs that still had pins and needles as no one answered to help me to the toilet and I didn't want to wet the bed.