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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think night staff could be a bit quieter

278 replies

Mammyloveswine · 22/09/2023 00:26

I'm currently in hospital and am really very poorly... not helping is the complete lack of sleep due to how fucking noisy it is on a night!

I get nurses need to take obs etc through the night which is disruptive but omg they come bounding in, loudly asking my date of birth yet again and taking my blood pressure, faffing with thermometers etc!

New patient has just been brought in, the porters banged the bloody doors open, loudly chatting away whilst wheeling the bed in... nurse now in with patient and they are loudly laughing about some joke the patient made about how she got her injury.

5am the other morning the night staff all stood right outside our ward having a full briefing in loud daytime voices.. there's no whispering, no attempt at all to be quiet!!

I had to actually ask the nurse the otter night at 10:30pm if they were going to dim the bright fluorescent lights.. she laughed and said "eeeh I forget it's nighttime!".

This is a semi lighthearted rant because I am knackered and poorly and I have had wonderful care since being in.. but omg please just let me sleep a bit overnight!!

OP posts:
BuggersMuddle · 22/09/2023 00:37

YANBU I nearly lost the plot when I was in hospital a few years back stuck in a combined assessment area with all manner of disruptions overnight. Nurses insisted I had to have curtains open and be awake during the day. I pointed out I wasn't on e.g. hourly observations, hadn't been deemed to need observations overnight, was remarkably unlikely to drop dead given what I was in for, pulled the curtains back round and they left me to it. If I was back now, I'd take a sleep mask TBH.

MrsPelligrinoPetrichor · 22/09/2023 00:38

It's appalling and happens in every hospital I've been in and I've been in a lot ,many times!

I am waiting to go on for an op and in my bag I have an eye mask and ear buds for white noise.

I am old enough to remember when the nurse used to go round with her trolley and ask if you needed anything to help you sleep and everyone used to get a lovely sleeping pill and a good night's rest!

Hope you're better and home soon OP 💐

Lenny234 · 22/09/2023 00:40

I work as a doctor in the NHS and this is one thing that I absolutely hate about hospitals. How on earth can we expect patients to recover when they can't get enough sleep?!

I hope you feel better soon and manage to get some sleep x

FeigningConcern · 22/09/2023 00:42

Given that sleep is so essential for health you think they'd be a bit more on top of this one.

I've heard this complaint before. People need to complain and keep complaining until something is done. Obviously they can't be silent but you can try to keep the noise down to sick people rest.

EmmKay13 · 22/09/2023 00:42

YANBU. I spent a week in hospital a couple of years ago and had never felt so tired in my life, it was due to the racket nurses and porters made on the ward.

I was finally drifting off one night when I heard a nurse scream, followed by a booming laugh which set off the other nurses into a cackling cacophony. No idea what set them off, but it was 1am and they were so loud.

Don't get me wrong, I admire and respect our nurses and god know they need humour in their job.. But I couldn't wrap my head around why they didn't talk in hushed tones at night. Especially when a patient's sleep is constantly interrupted in the night from obs and medical equipment bleeping non-stop.

It was honestly hell on earth, I was so exhausted I kept crying.

Hope you feel better soon. You can ask for a sleeping pill, which might help a bit. Also see if you can have a side room if one becomes free.

Original poster
Mammyloveswine · 22/09/2023 00:49

So pleased but also sad that it's not just me!

Woman's machine keeps constantly fucking going off because she keeps trying to unhook it to go out for a fag... 😡😡😡

Also when the parent needs a commode can they not wheel them into the actual toilet for a bit of dignity?! Instead of having them shit behind a fucking curtain stinking out the ward?!

OP posts:
Original poster
Mammyloveswine · 22/09/2023 00:50

Patient not parent..

OP posts:
Lenny234 · 22/09/2023 00:52

It's not fair that you have to take special measures to sleep, but truthfully it's the only way you will.

Here are some tips:

  • wear an eye mask (some wards supply)
  • get some eat buds (some wards supply)
  • put on headphone and play something
  • have white noise playing next to you
  • don't have any caffeine after 5pm and have a herbal hot tea.
MrsPelligrinoPetrichor · 22/09/2023 00:54

EmmKay13 · 22/09/2023 00:42

YANBU. I spent a week in hospital a couple of years ago and had never felt so tired in my life, it was due to the racket nurses and porters made on the ward.

I was finally drifting off one night when I heard a nurse scream, followed by a booming laugh which set off the other nurses into a cackling cacophony. No idea what set them off, but it was 1am and they were so loud.

Don't get me wrong, I admire and respect our nurses and god know they need humour in their job.. But I couldn't wrap my head around why they didn't talk in hushed tones at night. Especially when a patient's sleep is constantly interrupted in the night from obs and medical equipment bleeping non-stop.

It was honestly hell on earth, I was so exhausted I kept crying.

Hope you feel better soon. You can ask for a sleeping pill, which might help a bit. Also see if you can have a side room if one becomes free.

Edited

Sounds so familiar, I had over 5 weeks in hospital and the nights were hellish for that very reason. I was beyond exhausted.

Louiseeee · 22/09/2023 00:58

Yanbu- when I was on the maternity ward after having DD I got zero sleep which is not ideal after going through labour all because the nurses were talking so loud to the people in the next bay and the lights were left on fully

melmonroe · 22/09/2023 01:02

Ask for some ear plugs and zopiclone- it will help you sleep Flowers

DiscoBeat · 22/09/2023 01:08

Clattery shoes, banging trollies, chirpy loud voices. I don't know why the NHS don't do more to tap in to the benefits of the free and extremely valuable resource that is sleep. And fresh air. It's not rocket science. My parents both had prolonged hospital stays over the last few years and neither of them got taken outside or were even near a window in any of the 4 hospitals they were in between them.

DiscoBeat · 22/09/2023 01:08

Hope you feel better and can get home to peace soon!

ReadingSoManyThreads · 22/09/2023 01:10

Oh I hear you. It is bloody impossible to get any sleep while in hospital. If it's not loud patients, it's their loud visitors and if it isn't them, it's the loud staff. Honestly, after so many times of sleepless nights in hospital, I now know the score and go in fully knowing I'll not get any sleep for however many days I'm there.

Glendaruel · 22/09/2023 01:18

Was offered extra night after c section but said I wanted to go home to get sleep! Remember talking to a retired nurse who said first night shift she was told to sort her squeaky shoes out as wards should be silent at night

DoAhhDiddy · 22/09/2023 01:21

YANBU I was on an antenatal ward next to nurses station for 3 days while being induced. No sleep due to them talking so loudly. Then took two days to give birth. No sleep for obv reasons. Then two nights in a room with side room with baby waking every 10 mins and broken fucking blinds on the windows so when the sun came up, that was it. The labour was the easy bit. It really set me up for a tough transition to motherhood!

Original poster
Mammyloveswine · 22/09/2023 01:24

It's just so exhausting...

OP posts:
CrappyBarbara · 22/09/2023 01:25

Mammyloveswine · 22/09/2023 00:49

So pleased but also sad that it's not just me!

Woman's machine keeps constantly fucking going off because she keeps trying to unhook it to go out for a fag... 😡😡😡

Also when the parent needs a commode can they not wheel them into the actual toilet for a bit of dignity?! Instead of having them shit behind a fucking curtain stinking out the ward?!

That is truly grim OP. I’m sorry.

whiteroseredrose · 22/09/2023 01:28

YANBU. I get that it's the nurses' normal working day but I'd have hoped that they'd speak a bit more quietly.

FelicityBeedle · 22/09/2023 01:31

We wheel to the loo when we can but it’s sometimes safer nearer the bed, patients who try and get up theirselves or aren’t well balanced while you’re pushing them. The loud voices is normally because we speak to so many people who are hard of hearing and forget not everyone is!
I do agree that staff often forget people need to sleep, with loud laughing and chatting to those who are awake. Occasionally I start chatting away when I’m repositioning someone and have to remind myself it’s 2am

Original poster
Mammyloveswine · 22/09/2023 01:36

FelicityBeedle · 22/09/2023 01:31

We wheel to the loo when we can but it’s sometimes safer nearer the bed, patients who try and get up theirselves or aren’t well balanced while you’re pushing them. The loud voices is normally because we speak to so many people who are hard of hearing and forget not everyone is!
I do agree that staff often forget people need to sleep, with loud laughing and chatting to those who are awake. Occasionally I start chatting away when I’m repositioning someone and have to remind myself it’s 2am

Thanks @FelicityBeedle !

Can I ask why my blood pressure is taken so often too? It's been totally stable since I've been in!

OP posts:
BananaPyjamaLlama · 22/09/2023 01:38

YANBU. It was exactly like that when I spent 5 nights on a ward in 1995.

FelicityBeedle · 22/09/2023 01:38

How long have you been in? In my trust it’s 4hrly (or maybe 6hrly, the nurses do the Obs on my ward, I’m just a HCA) for the first 72 hours. You can always refuse if you really can’t be arsed, I wouldn’t blame you! Hope you are better soon

Original poster
Mammyloveswine · 22/09/2023 01:43

FelicityBeedle · 22/09/2023 01:38

How long have you been in? In my trust it’s 4hrly (or maybe 6hrly, the nurses do the Obs on my ward, I’m just a HCA) for the first 72 hours. You can always refuse if you really can’t be arsed, I wouldn’t blame you! Hope you are better soon

Edited

3 days and it's def been 2 hourly...

OP posts:
Mamai90 · 22/09/2023 02:17

YANBU. I found this when in hospital around 10 years ago, I'm a rubbish sleeper anyway but there was just no consideration for people trying to sleep.

Though I have to say when I had my DD 2 years ago I was able to a little sleep on the maternity ward. They dimmed the lights and even took DD for me for a few hours so I could rest, thank god they did because I'd been awake for days by this point.