Why don't nhs night staff want you to sleep?

[ICaughtTonsillitisFromAFriendsKid]

Sleep is a great healer.
So why is everything done to keep ward patients awake all night? (Well it feels that way)

In the day the wonderful staff are very kind, but overnight, why no whispering, at all? Not even stage whispering? I've just staggered out of bed trying not to rip out my cathetera and canula to pull the bible sheet curtain round a bit, but everyone else is left with curtains pushed back to the walls.

Everyone is so kind and happy to help, I don't even want to say anything, but I'm just exhausted, as are all of these very poorly ladies.

It seems the doctors are not too bad at whispering, I must concede.

It's really NOT a free service. Why do people spout this nonsense all the time on any thread about the NHS? Do you think people in council houses get them 'for free' too?

I was in hospital post surgery, still very groggy from the anaesthetic. As the ward got quieter, I could hear the unmistakable tones of a CTG (fetal heart rate monitor) coming through the wall behind me. Turned out the ward backed onto labour ward. Then I could hear the beep slowing initially into a deceleration, and then prolonging into a bradycardia. Cue me desperately trying to get out of bed to do something about it, getting tangled in the sheet, and falling over. Such a relief to overhear the crash section call going out, and know someone had reacted.

I have been in hospital quite a few times with Crohns disease. I'm constantly begging to be discharged after surgery because of the noise. Hope you get relief soon.

Oh goodness, what a relief!

Obs are one thing. Staff at the desk very loudly nattering about their holidays and boyfriends is quite another. Has happened every time I've been in hospital. It's inconsiderate and unhelpful.

All this 'it's a free service' and 'be thankful for getting a bed' pisses me off. It's not, I pay 50 percent of my wage in tax - I'm not grateful to get a bed. Things should be better than they are. It's not a race to the bottom.

Anyway sorry to hear this OP! Maybe some earplugs will help hopefully.

Oof yes, when I was hospitalised a couple of years ago the noise overnight was astonishing. I was lucky enough to get my own room, but the nurses station was right outside my door (which I had to keep open so they could keep an eye on me).

They had a radio on, and I kept expecting them to turn it off (or at least down) as it got later and later into the night. They didn’t. When someone came in to do something with my drip at around 3am I tearfully asked if they could turn it down, and they seemed genuinely surprised. They did turn it off then though.

I couldn’t get my head round the idea of a radio being left on all night in a place where poorly people are trying to sleep!

It might help if they could time the obs at the same time though. I had twins and had pre-eclampsia and they were literally in and out every forty minutes, plus the thre e hourly feeds on top, which with two of them were taking over an hour just to get the bare minimum amount of colostrum into them. Five days of utter hell. We were then readmitted for another four days and I was by this point so exhausted that the nurses agreed to do a midnight and 3am feed for me, and that I would have my blood pressure checked once overnight without fully waking me (with my prior permission, obviously). After two nights of that my blood pressure was all but back to normal. Turns out actually being allowed to sleep really does help you get better - so god knows why they don't try to let everyone in hospital get a bit more of it! While they're at it, they could let you finish a full meal without coming to do obs etc as well!

Isn’t what the bands are for to double check details?

I totally understand that it is their daytime. I am incredibly grateful to people who would twizzle their days around like this. But yes, radios?

As I said, patients too. Lady opposite me just made a phone call!

Other patients can be very inconsiderate as well.
Had one that would set her alarm to go off at 5am then loudly turn on the radio.
luckily she was only there for 2 nights and during that time had loads of complaints. She just didn’t care though as it was her routine.

Why should patients have to wait til midnight to sleep?

I work in the NHS, but I can still see it's a non optimal situation - we know sleep aids healing and the fact that hospitals don't facilitate that is a really difficult thing.

The differentiation between ward and other hospital staff isn't really relevant to a patient. It makes no difference to them if it's a porter or a cleaner or a nurse or the chief executive who wakes them up... They're still awake. Sometimes it might be unavoidable but sometimes it clearly isn't, like in the weekend plans post above.

Trust me it’s not easy staying awake and alert at night to keep patients safe, and they don’t have it any better when trying to sleep the next day to the sound of traffic, lawnmowers, music, roadworks etc.

Can’t have a 24/7 service without some 24/7 noise while it’s ensured that patients are safe and observed appropriately and given their medication correctly.

A few of these examples are pretty bad but don’t assume all NHS staff are noisy and uncaring.

Because sleep is for wimps!

Seriously I feel your pain. I've only fainted twice in my life, once at a rock concert when I was about 16, and once in the middle of the night in a children's ward with DS. The lack of sleep, the heat and worry about DS.
We eventually made it home about 3 days later I wanted to chill / nap on the couch and LO suffering cabin fever was moaning buggy, bugggggyyyyy, BUUUGGGYYY! Yes he made me get up and take him for a walk in the buggy!

YANBU OP.

The last 2 times I was in hospital I was nearly in tears through lack of sleep.

I was near the nurses station and they chatted loudly, laughed and even argued throughout the night.

It.Is.Fucking.Awful.

I’ve been unlucky enough recently to spend 3 nights in A&E (no bed on a ward ha what a luxury) no sleep more than a few minutes long at any point I thought I would go absolutely full on mental and in fact I did.

Second recent stay (I want the NHS version of Nectar points pls) I was in an actual bed in side room but every time I got to sleep someone would crash into my room for obs or change my IV at a batshit time.

I too was awoken in the early hours to ask what I wanted for lunch yes fucking lunch the next day.

and then shortly after that they woke me up again as wanted to use my room for something else fuck knows but wanted to wheel me out of there. I’d had enough & told them I was trying to sleep, so NO & got told off for being “selfish”. Did I care? Nope I was too fucking tired.

My every sympathy OP. Yes earplugs plus headphones if you can drift off to a podcast or white noise and ask for a sleeping pill. But PP is right it takes hours to get that signed off by a dr in the middle of the night.

and no the NHS is not fucking free. It’s funded by us, the taxpayers.

Oh yeah, my dh came in at visiting time and informed me that the dc both slept through. 😑

@Badgirlriri - no it's just nurses. Don't complain about a teacher or school on MN or your arse will be handed to you, but nurses all model themselves of nurse ratchet, and are deliberately only in the job to be ignorant, uneducated, and uncaring....if you ever expect any other group of MN, you'll never get it.........

I recently spent some time in hospital and this was a lifesaver.

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Blocked out noise and light and I only woke when I was in too much pain or when my own obs were done. I listened to white noise or calming music. Worked when I wanted a nap during the day too!

I work exclusively nightshift and cluster care to prioritise sleep and keep quiet. Thankfully we have mostly single rooms. Agree no excuse for loud chat and often encourage colleagues to STFU.

However....there is a reason you are in hospital and I cannot tell you the amount of times people who have been perfectly fine at 2200 obs are critically unwell at 0200 and 0600 obs. I won't risk not checking in the middle of the night. Then if someone is unwell I'm loudly shouting their name to get a response, getting o2 on, switching lights on, getting doctors, pulling emergency buzzers, slamming in fluids on the noisiest damn pumps in the entire world. Healthcare is noisy.

Also please keep in mind that a major part of nightshift in acute medicine is dealing with delirious and sundowning patients. Often its wee Doris I have at the desk with me chatting to stop her hitting me with her zimmer frame or falling to the floor every 30 seconds. Plus these poor wee old dears all need their skin cared for and when they are acutely confused no one wants a pad changed so it's a 15 minute loud discussion at 2am before that happens.

I've just spent a number of days in hospital. I'm astonished that the ward staff don't ask the other patients to behave with consideration! I had a woman opposite me making calls at midnight and 7am with the speaker on! I mean come on. Also patients talking absolute crap really loudly with no consideration for the really poorly people around them. It was a real eye opener. Do people just not know how to show consideration or do they just not care? I get it isn't the ward staffs job to teach people how to behave but wow... it's put me right off people.

If you are awake you are not dead. That's the level of care in the NHS.

Thank you for the good suggestions 😊

It's very hard to get a night's rest in a hospital.

An eye-mask and eye pulls would help.

I'd request a sleeping pill if possible without interfering with your recovery.

Typo , earplugs 🤔