Monday 11 May 2015

What you need to do is rest - In a hospital?

Many people will tell you that when you are ill what you need to do is rest, and above all get plenty of sleep.
However in a hospital this can be virtually impossible.
First you have a drug round at about 10pm, then depending on how much you need monitoring you will need your blood pressure etc. taking at about 2am and if like me you are a trachi patient you trachi will need checking and cleaning during the night. Depending on your feed regime you may need a new bag of feed at around about 4am and then there is the drug round again at 6am. Consultant do ward rounds between 8 and 9 and then it is time to get up.
As you can see sleep is broken at best and this assumes you can get back to sleep quickly.
Rotary Ward at William Harvey Hospital were very good at trying not to wake you up. I have woken a couple of time to find my feed bag had been changed without me having woken and the lights are turned out and for routine checks the nurses come round with little torches to ensure you are disturbed as little as possible.
Guy's hospital did things a little differently. Even thought I was in a side room the door was never fully closed so I always had the light from the corridor shining into my room. But what they do is they give you a welcome pack when you are first admitted and the two most important things in that welcome pack are a pair of ear plugs and a sleep mask. These are invaluable at ensuring a good nights sleep.
Considering how cash conscience Guy's were in everything else they did (more on this in later posts) this one little thing did make all the difference.
Sorry Rotary but this round goes to Guy's 1-1 for now.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Cover campaign