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 discharged myself twice due to this, during my last stay I informed staff that I didn’t consent to any monitoring or medical treatment at night, it worked. It was still noisy, but it at least meant I wasn’t being woken every 60 minutes to have my blood pressure taken.

I can really feel your frustration and really hope you got some sleep.

Speak to the doc this morning during rounds and they can hopefully add something to help you sleep to your meds list.

I remember being on a really big ward about 30 years ago. At night the lights would be properly dimmed and it was silent, woe betide a patient who called out instead of pressing their buzzer. The nurses were silent and if you had to be seen in the night there was a diffused light they could switch on next to your bed and both the Patient and the nurse/doctor were as quiet as possible. The whole atmosphere was calm, even in the daytime. I’m not sure why it’s so different now but the nurses definitely need to use indoor voices especially when talking to each other, it’s nightshift with ill people, not a hen do!

I’m a very light sleeper, it pretty much needs to be silent for me to sleep - when I gave birth I had to stay in for 5 nights. I don’t think I slept for 5 nights and I hadn’t slept for 3 nights before that because of the labour/induction. Was such a terrible start to motherhood and I was going out my mind. I understand babies crying on the ward but I couldn’t believe how so many nurses just acted completely normal, talking loudly and laughing. I was also on 3 hourly observations which were on a different schedule to my babies needed feeding so if I did drop off, I was getting woken up! Absolute torture and I still feel so angry about it 12 years later.

YANBU
Lack of sleep is torture and doesn’t aid recovery. I remember my last stay in hospital the nurses would congregate around the desk laughing and talking loudly. No consideration at all.
Get well soon 💐

YANBU

This happened to me in the private hospital too. Hospitals are terrible for recovering. I had a hip replacement and it was a relief to get out within 48 hours despite it being so major.

This did not happen to me when I had overnight treatment in Germany.

Oh YA definitely NBU
ds was in hospital as a baby and his cot ended up being right next to the nurses station. I was quite shocked by the noise they made, crunching crisps whilst having full volume discussions about things they'd seen on TV even breaking into song a couple of times...it was bizarre and I kept wondering how children were expected to get better when they couldn't sleep.
I think we did just learn to sleep through it in the end though.

Record it and send it to the complaints place. It's a bit like having a group behaviour where if you were to say 'Shhhh' to your fellow nurses you would be ostracised for not being as selfish as them. How bad staff get away with stuff. .. . . .......

The high temp is probably why your obs are every two hours

I was in overnight with fractured ankle, four of us in ward, great, all quiet. The nurses then moved in a dementia patient, who had been in a side room, as 'the company would do her good '. Poor woman called out every half an hour ALL NIGHT. Nurses came in to settle her, then she was off again. Just why? Was supposed to stay another night but discharged myself.

Hospitals are the worst place for rest, I remember it well, ask for ear plugs, if hospitals can’t supply ask friend or relative to bring some to you. Good luck.

Hi OP I had a two week stay in hospital and it was horrendous, the noise!!!!! At night, I really think the nurses just don’t get it, they treat night like day.

But yes earplugs and eye mask, can a family member bring them in? Also nap during the day too.

Hospitals are awful at night. There was a puddle of wee next to my bed but the nurses wouldnt clean it. They said the cleaner would do it in the morning.

Things must have changed since I did my nurse training in 1995 because I remember being told to change my shoes as they made too much of a clipping noise when I walked around the wards at night. We also sat at the nurses station and whispered and were very conscious of letting our patients try and sleep. Of course it is necessary to carry out obs especially on post op wards but I agree it must be torture. I would be asking a relative to bring in some wax earplugs as I have to have complete silence to be able to sleep.

I had preeclampsia and a kidney infection and was in hospital a week before I had DD. They put me in an empty bay of four and I couldn't believe my luck, except they then used that bay for all their gossip - including coming during the middle of the night to switch the lights on and have a good cackle. I was so exhausted I was hallucinating. DH was at home looking after our other DC so I didn't have anyone to speak up for me. I've never felt so disoriented and confused in my life. The kidney infection played a part, but the ward staff played a bigger role

I’m a midwife on a labour ward, they are noisy places unfortunately day and night. But second time I stayed on the PN ward in a side room opposite the midwives station and oh my god! The radio was noisy, constant laughing plus call bells which are insanely loud. I didn’t sleep at all and didn’t quite self discharge but persuaded my consultant I was leaving the next morning. I did tell them and still do how noisy it is, not sure anything has changed. They do turn lights off in the corridors however, and in the bay probably around 10/11pm

YANBU, I cannot understand why hospitals do not prioritise sleep, we're always being told how fundamental it is to mental and physical recovery.

I have an elderly parent in hospital at the moment - two hospitals and three wards in and they're all the same.

Don't get me started on the nurse who refused to give my parent their usual long-term sleeping pill the first night of admission to a ward, so they just didn't sleep, at all, all night.

Just remembered (it's been a hellish few weeks) that when my parents was finally given a bed on a ward at 2am after 8 hours in A&E, I took my heeled ankle boots off at the ward door so that the sound wouldn't wake other patients up and the nurse and HCA were both totally 🤯.

I hear you.

The nights I tried to sleep next to my baby girl's bed...

One time, one toddler on her ward needed regular checks of her stats. Instead of using a handheld light to read the hourly data, they turned all the lights on in the ward. I kid you not. 6 babies/toddlers waking up every hour on the hour and all needing to get back to sleep.

Hell. On. Earth.

YANBU I've had the same when being in with dd. She's an adult now I miss the children's ward where it was quieter. They can't even shut the doors. We are usually in a bay with a couple of elderly. They usually just call out when they need something instead of pressing the button. Doesn't help I'm lucky if I get a recliner chair to sleep on. But I get told well you don't have to stay. My daughter is severely disabled and vulnerable, non verbal. They put her on a mixed ward anyone can walk into. She can also get confused after a seizure and go wandering. She needs someone with her to see to her needs 24/7.

It’s a known thing in hospitals and some places are taking measures to deal with it, but obviously not this one! Speak to the ward manager and follow up with an email to PALS if it doesn’t improve. It will take ages though for the culture to change. Get a mask, ear plugs and white noise too. Hope you feel better soon

Honestly OP, I’d speak to PALS as soon as possible. You’re not getting the care you need, and they’re not just for last treatment complaints. If you don’t feel up for advocating for yourself have a family member do it.

Yanbu. Sleep is so important to recovery. I hate this aspect of hospitals. It's surely possible to work quietly most of the time at night

It does seem astonishing there is no protocol to keep noise down at nights. Please complain.

Oh god, I’m with you op. I was in hospital for 10 days, I should have been in longer except I insisted I went home, faked how well I was. They’d come in in the night and flick the lights up bright, loud chatty voices while they changed the 81 yo womans bed opposite . I don’t expect them to be silent a slowly tiptoe but there’s an in between.