Hospital Stay

I wrote most of this post while still in the hospital getting my heart rhythm back in sync. What an experience! I was new to this. I’d never been in a hospital overnight before let alone a few days and this was a surprise for me.

Coupled with deep and devoted medical concern from so many nurses, doctors and staff there are a few individuals with focused detachments of seeming disinterest. Some personnel who are attending to another patient walk by an occupied bed, as close as two feet, and ignore the person in it, neither a nod nor a glance. I finally started to say hello to anyone who walked by. That worked.

I believe smiles are healing, kind words are comforting, and in the proximity of shared auras or even clinical space it is imperative to acknowledge the duality of our oneness. All it takes is a simple action toward another carried by a smile or a nod. I would recommend this policy to all care-giving practitioners everywhere.

Other observations are noise, accommodations and common courtesy. There should be a small hooded bedside lamp for those who want to stay up late and read and not the large bright overheads that disturb roommates.

All televisions in shared rooms should be equipped with bedside earphones. The little speakers hooked to the bed rails are useless for private listening and are an annoyance for those who choose to read, have a quiet rest or sleep. All televisions should be off at eleven at night or earphones must be used.

There should be a placard in each room for all patients to read detailing common courtesy to your roommate. It is obviously needed for my first roommate was foul mouthed, complaining, loud, inconsiderate and rude. His family and friends showed up late for visiting hours and stayed an hour past posted hours and intruded into my private space behind the curtain.

My second roommate was quiet, but had his television speaker on 24 hours a day even though he was sleeping, plus his bathroom etiquette was atrocious. I finally had to walk down two hallways to find a public facility before someone came to clean the room toilet, that person, by the way, smiled, nodded and asked, “How are you?”

If a patient wanted to call the nurse, they would push a red button on a call apparatus and a very loud response would broadcast in the entire room waking everyone. There has got to be a better way.

I do appreciate the fact that most nurses are over worked and bogged down with paperwork and most hospitals are under staffed. I also think patients need to be as considerate as possible to the health care professional most of whom are there because they care, not because it’s a job.

Patients also must take some responsibility for their own healing.

Thank you to those who sent healing wishes via blog comments or my Gmail account.

More on the morrow.