Patient? To be or not to be (Reactions to Hospital Situations)

Being hospitalized in a facility that employs highly educated people, you might think they have answers to every situation that arises.

Let me say that things aren’t always what they seem.


During my last hospital stay, my roommate was restricted from eating anything after midnight due to a procedure he was having the following day.

The morning of his procedure, he was told by his doctor that the procedure was cancelled, so he could go ahead and eat.


He was happy because he could eat, then another doctor cam in and told him they were ready to take him to his procedure. A few minutes after explaining what the first doctor said resulted in a nurse telling him to just wait till the doctor put something in the computer.


You see, at the VA hospital the nurses do not do anything (even if it is the right thing to do) if it is not in the computer.


Sometimes I think I could have a gushing head wound and the nurse would have to check the computer before covering it with something.


When these types of situations arise, I personally feel like it’s perfectly okay to be impatient., though I refrain from displaying my angst.


Another situation I encountered during this past hospitalization had to do with my other roommate who wasn’t eating much.


I became hospitalized on Tuesday. My other roommate was there already, and he didn’t have much functional movement, although he was able to speak.


The first night the man’s food was brought to him and the CAN helped him eat. The next 3 days, each meal was brought, but the guy didn’t get any help eating.


Each of those 3 days the food service guy would come back to get the tray, he’d ask, “Did you have enough?” to which the man would say yes.

 Why A nurse  didn’t come in and help him eat is unclear to me.  That said, this is another instance when being patient was a stretch for me.


Another situation when being patient was difficult was when the nursing assistan  would not listen to me concerning morning weight checks. The doctor ordered them to track my diuresis accurately. That said, the beds the VA has have built-in scales that are seldom correct.


I told the CAN I had to have accurate weight measurments, that the bed scares were inaccurate, and I would be more comfortable with the portable scale I had to stand on. She actually argued with me, and requested that I lay on the bed anyway. I did as she asked, then told her, “That weight is not right. Get the stand-up scale”. She eventually retrieved it, and there was a 6 pound difference.


As you can see from my examples, sometimes there is plenty of reason not to be patient, but it’s of no use to allow these issues to overshadow the help the hospital provides.


In my case, the hospital staff did meet the goal of my fluid loss, and I went home feeling much better.


The guy who was going to have that procedure eventually got to feeling better and he was discharged the same day as me.


The guy who wasn’t helped with his meals was finally taken care of after I mentioned the situation to a nurse.


When each of the issues are addressed with compassion and a genuine desire to provide good care, being patient is much easier.