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Why Do Hospitals Hate Sleep So Much?

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Re: Why Do Hospitals Hate Sleep So Much?

#141

Post by brokenmachine »

nuguy wrote: post #16

I basically lived in a hospital room for the past week, though I’m not sick. The machine that pumps and monitors your iv fluids constantly emits screaming alarm tones. An alarm can be triggered if you bend your arm the wrong way, obstructing the iv. But most often the alarm is triggered because of air in the line. You can silence the alarm. But if a patient is not accompanied by someone, they will probably have to si…

>It’s very annoying and leaves everyone except the nurses very hagard in the morning.

Nurses work hard. Believe me, they are haggard in the morning.

Re: Why Do Hospitals Hate Sleep So Much?

#142

Post by mcv »

legostormtroopr wrote: post #15

The article quotes a doctor speaking about nursing care. This is as accurate as asking an automotive engineer about automobile repair. Same field, different skill sets. Nurses are trained to identify trends across many (sometimes too many) patients. Sure its inconvenient if a nurse monitors your blood pressure or oxygen levels every 2 hours after surgery, especially when you are sleeping, and especially if you recove…

  > Same with audio on machines, that constant beep is annoying to you,
  > but it means the machines are operating and you are getting your
  > prescribed fluids - silence on a night ward is a sign something is
  > wrong, and quickly precedes an emergency alarm.
Sure, but that stuff should be monitored from the nurses' station, not by patients who are trying to get some sleep.

Re: Why Do Hospitals Hate Sleep So Much?

#143

Post by ddeck »

DINKDINK wrote: post #140
doppel wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We had our first child ~3 months ago. We had a room to ourselves and nurses/midwifes would only come in once or twice a day unless they were paged (which we did, they were a godsend). This made the stay as comfortable as could be, and we could get all the quiet time alone we wanted, although sleep was in short supply for other reasons. This was in Copenhagen, Denmark, so the entire stay was free. Sadly, the central h…

>Copenhagen, Denmark, so the entire stay was ~~free~~ subsidized.

Is it free to walk down the sidewalk in your country? Under your definition it's not, since ultimately taxes likely paid for that sidewalk, but I think most people would describe it as free.

Re: Why Do Hospitals Hate Sleep So Much?

#144

Post by drited »

Doubly true in a neurorehabilitation facility given sleep is critical to brain repair. Stayed in with someone in that situation before and was blown away by the frequent interruptions of sleep of the patients by staff checking stuff that could have been done without waking the patent.

Re: Why Do Hospitals Hate Sleep So Much?

#145

Post by michaelt »

andai wrote: post #100
dingaling wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interestingly that reflects Airbus vs Boeing cockpit philosophies. In the early 1980s Airbus adopted Dark Cockpit where the default state of all annunciator lights is off. If one illuminates then it indicates something worthy of attention. The colour of illumination indicates functional state; blue is good, amber is malfunctional.

When would something illuminated blue? When it's both working smoothly and worthy of attention?

According to [1] for the wing anti-ice system, Blue = Turned on, Unlit = Turned off, Amber = Malfunction

Of course, one might very well argue that 'turned on' is not 'worthy of attention'

[1] http://www.smartcockpit.com/docs/A330-A340_Overhead_Pushbutt...

Re: Why Do Hospitals Hate Sleep So Much?

#147

Post by gambiting »

Xcelerate wrote: post #42
legostormtroopr wrote: post #15

The article quotes a doctor speaking about nursing care. This is as accurate as asking an automotive engineer about automobile repair. Same field, different skill sets. Nurses are trained to identify trends across many (sometimes too many) patients. Sure its inconvenient if a nurse monitors your blood pressure or oxygen levels every 2 hours after surgery, especially when you are sleeping, and especially if you recove…

Seems like it’s backward to me. The machine should be silent if everything is ok and start beeping if things are going wrong.

I disagree. If the monitor crashes, then its failure state is the same as "everything ok" state.

Re: Why Do Hospitals Hate Sleep So Much?

#148

Post by mcv »

dazc wrote: post #61
amluto wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ask them to stop, perhaps?

Maybe he felt awkward doing that? There is also a possibility that their reaction would not favourable. Sure, they may shut up but, afterwards, the relationship between his wife and the carers could become frosty? Rude people tend not to like their shortcomings being challenged.

The birth of our first child was a very good lesson in assertiveness for me. I learned that as the spouse, you're basically the only one with a full overview of the whole process. In the hospital, shifts change, they're taking care of multiple births simultaneously, and I'm the only one who knows how my wife feels.

That gives you a powerful mandate to do whatever is necessary to take care of your partner. So absolutely to tell them to please go somewhere else because people are trying to sleep here.

Some things I had to do:

* My wife's (artificially induced) contractions were coming so fast that she had no time to recover. I noticed she was crying, which she absolutely never does. I warned the nurses, and they lowered her oxytocin (or whatever it was) and gave her some morphine.

* Later, after enthusiastically encouraging her to push and saying that the baby was coming, for two hours, I asked if the baby was actually coming. They didn't know. "Could you check?" Turns out the baby was stuck and had to be pulled out. I really wonder when they would have noticed this if I hadn't asked.

And this was at a Dutch hospital that's known for their good childbirth and maternity care. I was quite surprised about our experience (though it was a very complicated pregnancy).

The birth of our second child was a breeze. I was all ready to do my job again, but the baby was already born.

Re: Why Do Hospitals Hate Sleep So Much?

#149

Post by trashtester »

People die or suffer serious harm in hospitals all the time. This often happens during sleep, and in many cases it could have been prevented if the patient had been checked on more frequently.

It is much easier to confirm that the patient is ok if they are awake. When the nurse softly asks "do you feel ok?" when drawing blood in the night, it is not just meant as soothing, but just as much to check if further treatment is required.

It's a bit like the soldier checking if there is a bullet in the chamber when picking up a gun. Even if you experience a gun that goes off by acciden only once, it becomes really easy to understand the thousands of times the soldier will do this when he knows there is no bullet there.

Re: Why Do Hospitals Hate Sleep So Much?

#150

Post by helloindia »

quwert95 wrote: post #25
craftyguy wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think all hospital patients meet all (or even any) of the three points you listed. Hospitals should wake up folks that actually need it (e.g. folks like you in your past situation), and leave those who don't need it alone to sleep.

I mostly agree. The author of the piece didn't go into much detail about their medical needs at the time - perhaps they were a high-attention patient and didn't know it? Hence my call to educate oneself about their own situation. When you're in a foreign bed/room, in some amount of discomfort, on (likely) new medicine, you probably aren't the best judge of neediness and intent. The best you can do is ask and see what…

The author makes it pretty clear, hospital staffs should wake up patients if absolutely necessary.

"If a patient is at low risk and can go six or eight hours without a vitals check, for example, perhaps don’t do that check once every four hours." ..

"..I made a sort of handshake deal with my nurses to leave me alone between 11 and 7. This mostly worked (and was reasonable in my case since I was only there waiting for the first round of chemo to start). I also refused to allow the night nurse to draw blood at 4 am, and that was that. She never came back, and that was fine: after all, there are lots of cases where they really don’t need your counts on a daily basis. And they certainly don’t need them at 4 am. That’s merely for the convenience of doctors, who want the results back by 8 am." ...

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