To think night staff could be a bit quieter

[Mammyloveswine]

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!!

I've had to stay in for a week twice, in the respiratory ward so it was 5 little old ladies and me, a 20something woman.
The night nurses seemed to decide that the woman next to me who yelled NURSE! NURSE! every half an hour had become annoying and could therefore be ignored, along with the lady who had rung for the toilet an hour ago.

Me, being now ambulatory as I was waiting to be discharged unlike the other tottery old ladies on IVs and catheters, eventually walked over to the desk that was in sight of the beds where the nurses had been having a good old chat about their holidays for the last 45 minutes, and told them there were two people on the ward that needed them.
The shock on their faces was quite a sight, especially when they claimed they hadn't heard anyone calling or ringing to the clearly audible backdrop of NURSE! NURSE! from about 30 feet away...

I'm glad to say 1 of my local hospitals which is new has a room for every single patient. Great for privacy. And in the children's ward there is a pull out bed for a parent to stay with them.

I'm not convinced, anyway. I've experienced the kind of loud chatter and crashing around some people describe on this thread, but it's the exception, not the rule. Plenty of medical professionals on night shift don't do it.

If you really can't manage a night shift without making unnecessary noise to keep yourself awake, it would be fairer to patients not to take on these shifts.

Really depends if the person is mobile. If they like you are very poorly they might not be able to get to the toilet at the moment. I have EDS and I don’t react well to certain medications especially after surgery. And for my safety (I have heart issues due to EDS) if I stand up after ops I will drop like a sack of potatoes, my blood pressure will drop or rise dramatically especially after surgery. Make my heart go wild and I have to sit in bed with heart monitor on. And if take an about a week till I start to feel stable on my feet. Iv had 3 surgeries and due to my heart they will not allow me to get out of bed. Not ideal but what can I or they do. Iv had 3 kids most likely shit myself during that so really.. are we not past the embarrassment of poo. Especially in a hospital with very poorly people. I think ur getting a little cranky due to lack of sleep. Unfortunately when you sleep things like heart rate and blood pressure can drop or raise dramatically when you are ill. so they have to monitor you incase you like die in their care you know. I think ur being unreasonable and unrealistic when ur in a open ward others may not be managing as well as you are with toileting. And you need to just suck it up and get on with it.

Oh god yes, you are so no being unreasonable. Impossible to get any rest in hospital. I don't know how all these medical professionals are apparently so oblivious to the healing benefits of sleep.

Last time I was an inpatient on night 1 they moved about six patients, myself included, from a medical admission ward at 2.30 am , night 2 , one of the staff ran through the ward shouting at gone midnight looking for a patient who had done a runner, night 3 they admitted a very ill patient who had been transferred from another hospital about 2 hours away at about midnight, then proceeded to tell her that she may not survive her operation and to phone her family to say goodbye there was only the obligatory curtain between us, by this time I got up and and told the staff I had to go for a walk. Thankfully I was discharged the next day.

You’re not being unreasonable. It’s out of order, I genuinely can’t get my head around how no one seems to understand how important rest and sleep are, I can’t even be bothered to go into the behaviour I’ve experienced and witnessed from staff on the night shift… sane in care homes. I have a friend who inspects care homes who’s at their wits end with staff who just slam lights on, laugh at the top of their voices, stick radios on for themselves, hoover, yup hoover…. It’s insane!

I’m a nurse of many years. Recently been a patient due to cancer. ( doing ok atm)
night time noise keeps me out of hospital. I literally refuse to be admitted. Feel dreadful through lack of sleep. Even in a side room it was terrible. Grateful for the care but the noise issue should be addressed.

Omg I know and what’s even worse is when you are in with a poorly baby and it’s taken hours to lull them to sleep so that you can actually rest yourself for all of 5 mins and they come bounding in talking loudly and banging around 😵‍💫

Yes, not restful places you would expect. Next time I'm going to make sure earplugs, headphones to listen to relaxing music and a fan as so hot! X

I spent 72 hours in the maternity HDU with my curtains open the entire time while an endless stream of excited new parents and their (thankfully) alert babies were wheeled in and out (I was the only who had to stay for that long while I was there which was awful in itself) while trying to establish breastfeeding with a sleepy newborn and hooked up to what felt like 10000 wires, not allowed to drink/eat properly in that time because everything had to be carefully monitored, I had a lot of people come and visit me and the baby despite me not wanting them there and the staff didn't do anything to get them to leave either (I do understand this should have been my job but I was in an awful position), one midwife who seemed to take pleasure in berating me for not being prepared (I'd been brought in by ambulance on blue lights, I didn't think to ask them if they'd stop by my house to grab the hospital bag 😒) and telling me off for trying to pick up my crying baby after I'd had a c-section even though nobody else would do it for me..........hospitals are horrific places and the lack of sleep is torture.

They tried telling me I was showing signs of PND when I burst into tears after a 5 days of no sleep and an extremely traumatic birth. I have a lot of respect for all NHS staff and nobody does that job if they don't care - but as a patient, yes it's awful being in hospital!

I have a bag in which I keep things I might need for a hospital visit, living alone I thought it would be helpful just in case! I’ve got all sorts of things, some essential and some items to help me pass the time. After reading this thread, I just added a face mask and ear plugs! If I’m not careful, the bag will get too heavy to carry!

Ahh I hear you and 100% agree. I was in hospital for 4 months, it was awful. After having major surgery all I wanted was sleep but never got it until I got home. I now unfortunately have some complications and have to go back for more surgery in a couple of weeks, I'm dreading it!!

I hope you feel better and get home soon xx

Hi they cannot turn the lights if too early as the nurse has to be able to see in order to check wounds ,do medications and toilet and give pressure area care to patients.Get your relatives to bring in an eye mask and ear plugs .

Perhaps you need to take out a private medical plan.....

Ha was waiting fir this!!! 🙃🙃🙃

Just to update I am home to further aid my recovery.., managed a full nights sleep last night and was honestly heaven!!!

Yes, me too! Do private nurses have training on not blaring out their private lives on quiet wards for all to hear that the NHS don’t buy into?!

Glad you got some sleep last night.

Anyone who’s worked nights on a busy ward knows that patient care is 24 hours. I’m not condoning loud raucous behaviour - sadly it does happen and in my experience other staff do mostly call it out- but there is always going to be some noise on a ward. Whether it be alarms sounding on bipap machines and infusion pumps or staff communicating with elderly poor of hearing or confused patients, it’s simply unavoidable. Most wards get admissions day and night. It’s impossible to deal with these speaking in a whispering voice, to put a central line in without the light on, administering IV meds in the dark. I suspect most posters really don’t have a clue how sick the vast majority of patients are on wards nowadays, the frequency of observations, the necessity for medical/nursing interventions overnight.

NHS does supply ear plugs and masks. We provide them and patients use them regularly. Ask the docs for night sedation. Listen to soothing music on your phone via earphones to muffle out disturbance. The only thing that will truly work are single rooms or small bays where the door can be closed but even then if you’re ill enough to be in hospital you’ll need monitoring overnight.
Most of the HCPs on this thread have apologised and made suggestions but as usual these threads turn into nurse bashing just for the sake of it. And note that the complaints are almost never about doctors who in my experience can be equally oblivious to the noise they are making in a ward environment.

In a private hospital you can choose to have a single room and they have time and resources to adapt to personal requests, that's what you pay for. Probably the best solution if someone doesn't like the basic services that the hard pressed NHS can provide. It would also free up a bed for someone else who needs it - Win Win .....

I totally agree with you. It’s a nightmare and for the 1 hour it might be quiet some fucker starts snoring.

I hear what you’re saying and nightshift must be awful when you are tired yourself, but there are 10 pages now of awful experiences with nighttime staff in hospital. Do you really think we are all just nurse bashing or whinging for the sake of it? No-one is complaining of necessary noise, or expects resus in silence or the dark but I’ve experienced staff yelling, shrieking with laughter, banging lights on, singing, being snarky or unnecessarily rough with patients. I’ve heard the loud gossiping about other patients and their own private lives. It may be from the stress or tiredness from their job, but being in hospital can be scary, you may be in pain or very ill and you just don’t want the situation being wilfully made worse.

Before it’s mentioned, I know some patients, their families and their visitors are nightmares (there are many posts on this too) but two wrongs don’t make a right and I’m sure you and your family would hate it too if you were a patient feeling I’ll and vulnerable. Wards were NOT like that in the past, they were kept quiet with individual patient lights for obs. Many posters have said that other countries hospitals and private facilities are not like it, so why should our wards be?

When I was in having my last baby, I ended up losing my temper on night 5 after the cleaners were having a loud conversation about how many steps they'd done! I understand they're just at work so it's normal routine for them, but night staff should try and remember that everyone else is trying to rest!

Or night staff could he a bit bloody considerate of people trying to rest and keep the volume down a bit?

This! It’s not like anyone on here is complaining about staff doing essential care, it’s the loud discussions by nurses about their own personal lives at 3am when patients are trying to sleep that’s the problem; it’s just so unprofessional.