To think there’s no need for tv’s on hospital wards

[Ketley67]

I’m currently in hospital after having major surgery. I’m on a bay with some very poorly ladies. They/we are either sleeping, vomiting or just trying to manage our pain. No one’s chatting to each other, most are bed bound. Visitors are all being very quiet and respectful often just sitting watching their loved one sleep. I’m probably the most able here but my visitors are speaking in hushed tones to respect the other patients needs.

The cleaner on our ward is so loud. Every time she’s comes into our bay she puts the radio on the TV and announces ‘let’s have some music’, the nurses agree with her. She doesn’t turn it off as she leaves. I’m fed up of asking for it to go off. I feel im being a nuisance especially when I have medical needs that I have to be asked to be met.

Most people have their own personal devices if they want to listen to music or watch TV and whilst I can appreciate that some people enjoy some music when they’re working surely this isn’t the time or the place for it.

I was in so much pain yesterday I couldn’t even bare to be touched, the additional sensory in put from the shitting music really tipped me over the edge.

Some people need the TV for a distraction. My DP had a emergency stoma/colon/bowel removal. The signal in the hospital is rubbish, so relied on the TV for the football. On another occasion, in a bed off A&E, it was tough going without a TV. Not everyone has visitors. The issue wasn't the TV.

I can cope with TV as at least I can hear all of it. What used to drive me insane in hospital was other patients spending literally hours a day on the phone to friends and relatives, talking really loudly. That felt like hell. I needed white noise or distraction when stressed in hospital so listened to podcasts almost constantly but only ever with headphones.

One of the major contributing factors to delirium, which can be life-threatening in itself, is a lack of variation in the day/night sequence. People, particularly older people, lose track of time. I don't know how old you are, but the risk factors include being over 65.

I'm not saying that putting the radio on is appropriate, but the nurses should be trying to make night time very quiet and dark, and day time more active and light. They should be offering eye masks and ear plugs routinely for delirium prevention.

the cleaner is completely out of order! How dare they decide what other people want - this would give me the absolute rage.

speak to the ward manger - and if you are feeling up to it the next time she says let’s have some music’ say very firmly no one here wants music. We are all struggling. If you want music perhaps you could use headphones so the music doesn’t upset and annoy patients.

It depends, sometimes having something like the radio on is good for those in the circumstances you describe, music can lift the mood of people. From personal experience I find pain can be coped with better with something else on my mind. Not everyone owns their own device. It’s common to have the radio on in hospitals I’ve experienced

@Lougle

well put, also unless you are incapable on medical grounds, they encourage longer stay patients to dress in the daytime for the same reason, I’ve dropped off joggers and t shirts to a lady only this week I know whose in hospital for the foreseeable future (probably discharge to nursing home if I’m honest)

I was in hospital for a week last year. The TVs weren't working and I was eternally grateful!

A communal radio or TV sounds awful in a hospital ward. Having to listen when you want quiet and other people's choices is horrible.

In my hospital trust every bed has its own tv that you pay for. They're attached to the wall and swing out.

I have watched awful videos of crap entertainment in old folks home - really awful stuff.

my dad was in hospital for two weeks. He was in a lot of pain. He hates pop music. I would have been raging if someone decided crap pop music would ‘lift his mood’. It is so patronising.

Why do people assume they know best and why when someone is sick or elderly do people assume they suddenly enjoy crappy day time TV, pop music, and child like enterainment.

i know the radio (unless it was the news and pontifical podcasts) would have made my dad’s hospital stay intolerable.

Do beds not have headphones for hospital radio or individual screens any more?

This. I had an entire week on women's surgical, bored out of my brain and in pain. Having the TV on gave me something to focus on. A distraction from pain and a break from the boredom.
I was woken every hour over night by a nurse checking my signs but couldn't be helped. The bleeps from the machines were background buzz and just faded out after a while.
We are all different.

This is hilarious 🤣☠️ Accidentally touting for business. 🤣

They do in the hospitals I've been in recently.

If a drunk in a pub picks up a chair and throws it at someone, it’s not the pub’s fault for having chairs.

The problem is the cleaner, not the TV.

“Visitors are all being very quiet and respectful often just sitting watching their loved one sleep.”

So why are they there? One of my pet peeves is visitors who just hang around, especially if you have to use a commode and there is nothing between you and them but an inadequate curtain. A lady in the next bed couldn’t stop vomiting - I really don’t think having a couple of visitors for hours did anything for her or them. It was so much better when visiting times were limited and strictly enforced (other than for children). I agree with a PP, though, that single rooms are the way forward. You really do leave your dignity at the door with the NHS.

DS1’s best friend was in hospital with a traumatic brain injury before Christmas. He was going out of his mind with boredom, once he was out of ICU and HDU so I gave him my Sky Go details so he could log into my account, on his iPad, and watch the sports that he loves. He was in his own room for the majority of the time so he didn’t disturb others.

My ds had an overnight stay in hospital the other day.

On AMU and each bed had its own TV. (At a cost!)

i took him his headphones and tablet!

some people do need the entertainment but agree it needs to be personal rather than enforced.

Chairs are for sitting on not throwing.

I'm sorry you're ill and stuck in hospital, OP. I agree with others though, the problem is not the tv; it's the cleaner turning it on when no one has asked her to do that.

How would I know? They’re not my visitors.

Sounds like you’re in a four bedded bay with communal TV which can make it tricky if all the patients have different preferences!

The cleaner is obviously trying to provide a distraction/lighten the mood, maybe patients in the past have liked this (I’ve known many that do) but everyone is different. If you’re sure the other women in your bay feel the same as you just simply tell the cleaner you would all prefer to not have the TV on, I’m sure she’ll respect your wishes.

The TV in my ward room saved my sanity when I was in hospital for 3 weeks. The problem is not TVs, the problem is them being put on when no one wants to watch - I always checked with whoever I was sharing the room with if they were ok with the TV being on, that's the way to do it.

YANBU OP…I ended up having quite a salty encounter with nurses on a ward. I went in to see my Dad when he was in. They had individual televisions that would come over the bed on these massive mechanical arms with Headphones but one persons was broke so his family insisted on having the telly on really loud he’d be asleep 90% of the time but still have his TV blaring out making it a misery for everyone else.

My Dad looked broken as he just could not get any sleep even with earplugs in. He cried (in all my years at that point had only ever seen my dad cry twice before that) begging me to get him out of there.

I turned that patients TV off (he’d be fast asleep snoring away loudly) everytime I was in and other patients would say thank you. They’d get an hour or two of sleep/downtime but as soon as the other family would come in TV was back on full blast. I did ask them if they could get him some headphones but they didn’t want to, saying he prefers the TV loud!

I spoke to the Ward Manager about the fact people including my Dad are trying to rest so they can get out of hospital not leave worse than they came in. She agreed and spoke to the family. They ended up moving the other patient into a private room. I would walk past the room when entering the ward and they would have the door open with the TV blasting and them all shouting over each other but at least it was the other end of the ward opposite toilets and the nurses station and not near other patients.

Last time I was in hospital, I was in a 4bay ward. It wasn't too bad until one of the nurses showed the other 3 patients how to use the TVs. 3 TVs all loud and all on different channels. I was ready to weep.