What I hate about you

[CW]

Hospital ....AKA 13 things I hate about being in the hospital

1. NPO - If I cant eat ok I can deal with that, but at least give me some sort  of estimate of when I can. I get "well interventional radiology has to schedule emergency cases and we cant guarantee what time you will get in" well I cant guarantee  to you I wont eat! 

2. Foley catheters - Who the hell is Foley and why does he hate me so much! 

3. Being alone at night - I tell people I am ok so they wont worry but I hate the hospital at night it is lonely. 

4. No real sleep - Do you really have to wake me up every two hours ? really... do you? 

5. Too cheery nurses - i know you are happy but do you have to rub it in? Your life might be all unicorns, rainbows and jujyfruit but I'm stuck here.

6. Too serious nurses - I know stoic is supposed to be cool but cheer the hell up! You're depressing me. 

7. Hospital food - I actually do not mind regular hospital food its the damn renal diet I hate! 

8. Hospital bathrooms - never as clean as your own.

9. The door - it was closed when you walked in close it when you leave! 

10. Lazy staff - Do not leave the sheets on the chair because I am watching TV change the damn sheets! you bother me for everything else! Do not leave a problem for the next shift please... I have to suffer until then. Clean the bathroom ( see number 8 ).

11. Nurses  who cannot find a vein - Did they not cover this at your nursing school, because everyone else's did.

12. Being connected to too many things - Hmm.. lets see bag of pee.. check, machine infusing medication..check, pole with blood pressure monitor..check, my sanity... seemed to have misplaced that!

13. Lack of dignity - I know I am a patient and I appreciate the great care but do you really have to invite all of your friends when you grease up that glove to insert it into some unnameable part of my anatomy. 

So what do you hate about the hospital ?

[willieandwinnie]

Well CW, you just about covered it all, except 

1. Televisions that don't work. 

2. Nurses that talk and yell at the nurses station all night long. 

3. Turning on all the lights and leaving them on when they leave. 

4. Constant phone ringing for the previous patient. 

5. Doctors, interins and residents that barge in and interrupt another doctor. 

6. Having to push the call button numerous times to get somebody to answer. 

7. Those lovely gowns that let your butt hang out. 

8. Being left in the hallway waiting for transporter to take you back to your room. 

9. Being asked the same questions by everyone that walks in the room (read the damn record). 

10. Being told your going for test or procedure and 6 hours later still waiting (hospital time). 

11. Telling family members that someone will come keep them posted on how operation/procedures are going. They never do, you have to rag on the receptionist to get someone to come talk to you. 

12. Fire alarm testing. Constantly. 

13. Trauma response loudspeaker announcements. (I do mean loud, 24 hours a day). 

14. Telling family members that visiting hours are over and the patience's need their rest (isn't that a crock). I just tell them I'm not leaving. 

15. Bringing food to roommate when you can't eat. 

16. Rude and loud roommates and their visitors.   

As you can tell, I could probably keep adding to this list. I HATE HOSPITALS.

[kitkatz]

The noisy cart races up and down the hallway all hours of the day!

Banging the room door open when I just closed it. Leaving the room door open after they are done.

Not feeding me appropriate food on my tray. One meal they brought me a baked potato and no meat entree.

Bringing me a container of ice water when I just asked for ice.

The noise at the nurse's station all hours of the night.  Some people are really trying to rest here!

The lab tech who cannot find a vein and reports you to the nurses because you throw them out of the room after they have stuck you three times.

The nurse who come in and asks: "What is your problem?" Makes me want to give them a problem!

Being forgotten about by transportation.

Having my lunch taken out of my room before I have gotten back from whatever test I was sent to take. Do you know how long meals are apart?

Hospital food. Need I say more!

[CW]

3. Turning on all the lights and leaving them on when they leave. 
8. Being left in the hallway waiting for transporter to take you back to your room. 

I emphatically agree with all of the reasons you hate the hospital but these two hold a special place in my heart of hate 

Bringing me a container of ice water when I just asked for ice.

I do not understand why people can not follow simple instructions ...ICE not ice water 

[okarol]

Emptying the trash - don't come in to empty the trash at 5 am. The patient needs sleep!

Weighing the patient - Yes, it's important for dialysis patients - but not at 3 am because you forgot to do it the evening before. I am sure the doctors orders did NOT say to drag a giant scale into the room and weigh a sleeping patient. Shall we page him to find out??

Listen to the patient about the IV - don't wait until the patients hand swells to 3 times normal - if they say it hurts, fix it!

Night shift, shut the hell up! Again, the patient NEEDS sleep!

Doctors - try to let a family member know when you'll come by with important updates - the patient is on pain meds and doesn't even remember you stopped by, let alone retain the lab results and diagnosis info!

Yes, it's a fistula, it needs to be protected. Stop trying to put the BP cuff on that arm!!

 

[Chris]

Crap, I need to type my long list in a Word file to post it. As a professional hospital patient, I have developed a long list of pet peeves of being in the hospital.

[mysty]

You know the one about missing constantly with the needle is major to me.. I'm tested regularly for my own set of down falls.. and by that night both my arms are purple... stick me there 4-5 times.. nope can't find it ... go to the other.. nope not there either..at one hospital they actually went to my inner thigh...
The heck with the butt breeze gown.. this was with every one going back and forth while I was prepped for surgery..
The embarresment was enough to knock me out.

Nurse yapping all nite long...?  I've buzzed them.. one walks in and I told her.. will you all please keep your yapping down!

[Romona]

Not resetting your or your roomates IV pumps so it will quit beeping.
And everything else you all said!

Oh yeah, another one...huge wheelchairs built for three people. Try balancing both feet on one foot rest because you can't reach the other one.

[jbeany]

How about when they put a snoring patient in the bed next to you, on a breathing machine that wheezes in counter point to the snores, and then they insist that you "really need to get some rest, so go to sleep!"   

[okarol]

ohhh that reminds me of those squeezy air pump leg thingys that are supposed to help your circulation post op. Between the compressor noise and the alarm going off, I was ready to jump out the window! Did the genius who invented those ever try to sleep in the same room while they were plugged in???

[Chris]

ohhh that reminds me of those squeezy air pump leg thingys that are supposed to help your circulation post op. Between the compressor noise and the alarm going off, I was ready to jump out the window! Did the genius who invented those ever try to sleep in the same room while they were plugged in???

When I had my transplant, that was the first time I had one of those darn things! First, they had me ut on pantyhose things that were really tight and itchy and then the leg strap on part. After an hour I started to complain and told them to let me get up and walk around instead of those things. Boy did they they scramble when I took them off and the alarms went off. After the surgery I felt great and wanted to walk around and having those tight things and the noise wasn't going to help me relax. Suffice to say, they took them off and let me get up for a bit cautiously. Glad I didn't walk to far, forgot I was naked under that so called gown!

[del]

My beef with hospitals is that it is supposed to be a place to go to get well.  Should be a sanitary place but most hospitals are actually dirty.  Some washrooms there are really gross!!!  It is also a breeding ground for bugs.  I've seen nurses go from patient to patient and not wash hands.  Great way to spread germs!!!  Keep the hospitals cleaner - just don't do it in the middle of the night!!!

[willieandwinnie]

okarol, I have to agree with you on the leg things. Len got all sweaty and begged me to take them off for a little while and then they would alarm. How about the IV's, those things would constantly alarm and try to get a nurse to come (fat chance), I got so I messed around with them and got them started again (then nurse would come in, hours later and get attitude that touch it). You just can't win with some nurses. 

[Chris]

okarol, I have to agree with you on the leg things. Len got all sweaty and begged me to take them off for a little while and then they would alarm. How about the IV's, those things would constantly alarm and try to get a nurse to come (fat chance), I got so I messed around with them and got them started again (then nurse would come in, hours later and get attitude that touch it). You just can't win with some nurses. 

Since I knew I couldn't count on nurses to come, I learned how to operat the IV pumps. Even though different hospitals use different ones, the operation is the same and I can easily figure out how to do things on it. I should start making my list of what I hate.

Here's one. Hospital coffee, no matter where you go, it's terrible unless you bring it in from the Starbucks or other coffee specialty shop they have at the hospital. But you can't get that with room service. Boy that coffee is bad and on top of it, it comes to the room barely warm. Coffee is meant to be hot, not cold or iced! Ah speaking of coffee, why is it when you order sweet n low, they don't deliver it, give you sugar instead, or give you sweetner with no spoon or stir

[KT0930]

Once my book, my phone, and my meal are on that table that's supposed to roll over the bed, someone comes in to do a test of some kind. They move the table out of the way, then don't move it back when they leave...and I can't get out of bed to get it because of those stupid leg things!!

Those leg things are supposed to be for when you're not able to get out of bed and walk around...so how come once I get out of bed after surgery and walk around a bit, someone comes into the room right behind me and puts them back on?

[twirl]

after you have been stuck many time they inform you they have a nurse who can get any vein

so why not send her to me first

[skyedogrocks]

Being forgotten about by transportation.

Having my lunch taken out of my room before I have gotten back from whatever test I was sent to take. Do you know how long meals are apart?

These are 2 of Rob's biggest pet peeves.  They take his lunch away and never return it if he is doing dialysis in the hospital.  He's a freaking diabetic and needs to eat!  Also when they forget to pick him up, come on people!

[Stacy Without An E]

Nurses and doctors are taught to keep a distance from their patients while in medical school, which is understandable.

But I'm here against my will and I'm slumped down in a pool of vulnerability.  All I ask is that you don't refer to me as "the patient" or "patient in bed 14" or "the one on Dialysis."

My name is Stacy and it's pretty easy to pronounce.  Do you want me to start referring to you as "Annoying Nurse" or "Grouchy Doctor?"

Me thinks not.

Refer to my by name and remind me I'm a human being and not a number and I'll do the same.

[KT0930]

Calling me by the wrong name. I hyphenate my last name on official documents, and the hospital software does not accept hyphens, so it comes out all smooshed together. Casually, I prefer to be called by the LAST name, but because of the smoosh, I get called by the middle name. And I have to re-explain it every time there's a shift change.

[cherpep]

roommates.

[KICKSTART]

Getting up at 5am to do PD before i go for a clinic appt , then getting there on time ,only to have to sit around for 2 hours waiting for the doctor !
Seeing the doctor about once a month and having to go through all my tablets because no one can remember what i take
Argueing with doctors about side effects ..its MY body , i know what its doing
Nurses for some reason talking to me like im a 5 year old ??
Being used as a pin cushion !
I know we cant do without hospitals but gawd do i hate them!!!

[thegrammalady]

just being there in general, and i actually use a very good hospital. for those in the medical field the hospital i go to is known as " the hotel "
as for the food, they actually have a menu you can order from and every time i'm there i convince the doctor to but me on a regular diet, because after all i know how to eat and don't need to be told what i can't/shouldn't have. works for me. i do however get tired of explaining why they can't use my right arm for anything. NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS, just accept the brightly colored wrist band that shows you can't use the arm and stop asking why.

[twirl]

the grammalady

and then using the wrong arm anyway, because you are asleep and the room is dark
and you waking up during it
crying and upset
and they make no big deal out of it
and you tell your doctor when he is on rounds
and he is mad as hell at them, oh, no wait that would be the good part

true story a couple of months before I started dialysis

[Katonsdad]

On top of what everyone else has put in.....

Dirty Windows ,,,, I would love to look out the window overlooking the river but the windows are so
   dirty .  How hard does a bird hit the window to leave poop piles that big ....

and the Doctor is on rounds and will see you and your spouse when he comes in .....Is it  Rounds of Golf ?
   They must be playing 36 holes    or is rounds at the bar because you cant find them in the hospital !!!!

Katonsdad

[Chris]

and the Doctor is on rounds and will see you and your spouse when he comes in .....Is it  Rounds of Golf ?
   They must be playing 36 holes    or is rounds at the bar because you cant find them in the hospital !!!!

Katonsdad