Other Thoughts on Hospitals
My post on a new hospital being built-in my neighbourhood got me in contact with some of you my precious blogger friends. Molly, a nurse from Maine has a blog called “Shallow Reflections” and she wrote:
This sounds like an intriguing design and I hope you do a follow-up on how things are going after it is open for a while. I have become very negative about hospitals in my career as a nurse, having seen basic care deteriorate over the years and prices soar. No other industry could get away with this. I have a hard time even visiting someone in the hospital and I worked in one for over 25 years. Guess I got my fill ofthe place!
Reading her comment I suddenly saw my past hospital experiences passing as a film in my mind. I am a nurse myself but after a few years, I realised that I couldn’t continue working in the wards. It became too stressful to meet the many needs of the patients while acute situations would appear suddenly day or night. This year it’s forty years ago that I made the change and prepared to study to become a health visitor. I loved that for many years until even that became too mentally hard for me and I retired.
The film in small glimpses
- Before I even trained to become a nurse I worked in a nursing home as a cleaner in my holiday. I witnessed helpless and stiff people being shuffled around in their beds and similar helpless people being spoon fed in a far too fast manner.
- At the children’s hospital where I had spent my first two months, I also trained as a nurse and worked before taking the education as a health visitor I witnessed that the infants got their bottles on their own drinking their milk held up by a rolled up blanket. The helpers could manage many babies at the same time and keep the pace of the feedings and have plenty of time for themselves in between eating, smoking and be drinking coffee.
- Training as a nurse the head nurse would be angry at me if I spent too much time talking to the patients.
- At the hospital near my home as a child, my dying father was treated well but many patients around him were in great needs. They seemed to lack family members to speak up for them.
I believe that a high standard of service for the patients depend on so many things. The ethics of the staff and a good leadership. Some staff members will always try to do the best for their patients but others will seek their own comfort. A good leader should see this and get rid of the bad employees.
A review from the old hospital where I trained to become a nurse in 1970s
From one Heart to Another 
I think the careless attitude of our towards others is coming from the complicated social structure that we have created. we have become mean and selfish…. all the time busy and thinking new ways to make money so that our life is easier…. we have failed to understand the meaning of life and happiness…..
I have loved your post on hospital they are eye opener for all of us…..
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Thank you so much dear Sudhir
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You are never more helpless than in hospital. It is a tragic misconception that all hospitals are born equal and that all health providers have the same attitude. I deeply respect anyone who trains as a nurse … I know it is not something that I could do. It should be an expectation that a hospital gives the environment to its staff to be able to give the best of care both practical and emotional to patients. The world over I know this is not always the case. I really enjoyed this article and the honesty you share.
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Thank you dear. I really believe we ought to reinstall moral values into every thing we do
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I have had a ‘conversation’ with a lady in England today on the very same subject. Perhaps the ether is stirring up for a quiet revolution in moral decency and simply kindness. I do hope so.
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I think we are able to quickly share thoughts and experiences via the social medias to create awareness on quality of health care. It shouldn’t be used to destroy staff though. Maybe I am off on your subject
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Not at all ‘off’ … you are absolutely right. Social Media has a place but it is extremely easy for that place to become inappropriate and it absolutely should never be used to beat a person, whoever that person is. Abuse is the word and staff abuse is intolerable.
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Thank you so much for using my quote, Maria, and linking to my blog. There is so much focus now on technology (which I realize is a boon) and medications that I think the tasks of administering these things have overtaken the basics of care in hospitals. On a positive note, lengths of hospital stays are shorter, giving people less exposure to the risks involved. I am so grateful there are multiple choices in the nursing field, so hospital work is not the only option. It sounds like home health was a terrific option for you and I am glad for that.
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Yes, it was. I felt I was free to comfort and help new mothers with their new-born babies and no one interfered until the last years where our leadership made things close to impossible to do a good job anymore. I agree with you that the ultra-short stays at hospitals help patients to be in charge of their own lives for quicker recovery. my husband was home again after 10 hours and a new hip! Everything was fine and he trained via his app at his iPad!
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That is awesome, Maria!
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I am not in health care, but I have often thought that hospitals do save lives and I am so very thankful for them-but they sure do not always promote healing. My dear cousin studied to become a nurse, but could not bear harsh environment- so many professions chosen by the heart, often are disappointing as the actual climate is so binding. I wish this hospital the best and am grateful for the lives that and suffering, it will save.
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So true. If your heart truely reaches out for people there is not always room for you at hospital wards or as in my case in the workplace. Goodness can be looked upon as evil
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a sad story I hear repeated often. My cousin became a champlain at a hospital and that has been a good thing for her. Her own daughter died of leukemia in youth-and my cousin works at the hospital that her daughter was in.
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Another good one, Maria – which I would have missed but for dear Bernadette’s hosting of the Senior Salon. I believe that hospitals “follow the leader” — and by that I mean that when strong and caring leadership is lacking, even the best health care professionals on site will struggle.
If the heads of hospitals don’t INSIST on excellent standards of patient care (accent on CARE), they leave things too much in the hands of those who have may well have different expectations Far too many ward supervisors are allowed to push their nursing staff into doing far too much far too quickly – and everybody loses.
xx,
mgh
(Madelyn Griffith-Haynie – ADDandSoMuchMORE dot com)
ADD/EFD Coach Training Field founder; ADD Coaching co-founder
“It takes a village to transform a world!”
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It’s so true what you write here Madelyn. The leaders give the example to follow and need to be engaged the both the patients’ needs and their staff and to see to that the staff are updated on the best ways of performing their tasks. So glad to keep in touch with you too ❤️
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