Things Not To Do When Visiting An NHS Establishment.
Created | Updated Apr 5, 2006
Someone ages ago wrote a very good 'things not to do' list for evil overlords. The idea has also been used in other genres (LJ users should check out Atalanta Pendragonne's '50 Things Not To Do At Hogwarts'..excellent stuff!). So I wondered if I could start such a list for those visiting patients in hospitals, based on my 22 years experience as a Registered Nurse (add on to that time served as a student nurse and health care assistant waaaaay back when, then ya got about 27 years in total!) who is currently still in practice. Feel free to add, comment etc.
General Note - This part for visitors of Patients, and some of their next of kin as well.
The building you are entering is a HOSPITAL, that has ILL or INJURED PERSONS in it. They do not want to be there and would like to recover as quickly as possible. If this sounds patronising, it's not meant to be so. But you would not believe how many people forget this! So the following may be of some use to you when planning such a visit.
1) Don't just turn up any time night or day, expecting to be let in. The hospital has a phone number and can put you through to the ward if you know where the person is. It's best practice to first find out what the visiting hours are and also as to whether the patient is actually up to a visit. Most wards have portable or bedside phones, so you may be able to talk to the patient directly, do ask about that. It would also make more sense to contact a family member/significant contact first and find out what's going on.
2) There are visiting hours for a reason. Usually so that the patient (that sick person we have to remember from time to time) can rest before being beseiged by a bunch of people wishing them well. Mealtimes doubly so, as it can be bloody annoying trying to eat when someone is staring at you or insisting on having a conversation when you should be eating. Also, there is that slight thing called work that has to be attended to, and this is best done without having to fall over hoardes of people coming in at all hours of the day.
3) Please try to remember that there is only so much room around the bed side and in the ward area, so visiting parties numbering more than two persons at any one time, can and do often disturb the other patients in that area as well as be a drain upon the energies of the patient being visited. It can also hinder traffic and a terse "Get out of the way!" from a health care worker trying to get life saving equiptment to a patient, or getting a patient desperate for the loo to the said facility, (and who has probably already had to ask you politely to give some room, four times already) will be sure to offend.
4) Please avoid the habit of using your rank/position in life/job description/ego to 'get around the nurses' so that you can pretend you can come or go anytime you like. Again a polite but firm 'No' will offend. Plus I don't care who you are related to or which NHS/Political bigwig you have slept with, my first concern is for the patient under my care. And I couldn't give a monkeys if you can get me fired from my job, the answer will still be the same.
5) If you *really* cannot attend during visiting hours, it's usually polite to phone first and check that it would be ok to pop in out of hours. And the reason had better be a *damned* good one as well i.e. you have to travel miles, really cannot get there within the times stated, the person you're visiting is very ill or is asking for you. Having to accomodate a hair appointment, picking the kids up from school or a baby sitter, or because you 'just happen to be in the vicinity' is not a good or acceptable reason for ignoring visiting hours. We're supposed to work to the patient's care plan, not to your social calendar.
6) If you see a note or are aware of any restrictions on visiting. That is also there for a reason. Recently, my place of work had to stop visiting as part of an attempt to halt the spread of a community induced bout of diarrhoea and vomiting (brought *in* to the hospital btw). Yet loads of people *demanded* a visit and tried wangling their way in. These will be the very same people who will be happily outraged with dreadful tales of the NHS superbugs and how they spread. And they can often be the cause of such outbreaks, insisting on their own right to visit over the safety of patients and their own families. One visitor even insisted bringing in a 10 day old baby to see a patient suffering with severe diarrhoea and vomiting! Again, these restrictions are in place for a reason.
7) What ever you might read in the Daily Rag or on BadNewsForAll.Com, we *do* care in the NHS, and have *actually* been known to save lives and have people go home fully recovered. The Sun, Daily Mirror, Star, Times and even the xenophobic Daily Mail are not experts in health care. The headlines they push are there to sell papers, not out of concern for your safety.
8) When you phone the ward/treatment area. Please be prepared to identify yourself and the person you are enquiring about. Also be *very* aware that detailed clinical and personal information about the patient will *not* be given over the phone. This has been the rule for the last sixty gozillion years, and cannot, will not and should not be broken!!!!! There's a slight something called 'patient confidentiality' and it's also there for an excellent reason, because there are those *nasty* so and so's who are not who they say they are, who are not entitled to such information and who can and will use it to the patient's detriment. So get over it. Now!
Now that can be annoying I grant you, if you are related to the patient and you are anxious, but we *cannot* and *should not* give out detailed information to *anyone* via the phone. We can tell you how the person is, but it's up to you to either come to the hospital or contact their significant other, if you are not the primary contact we have been trying to reach for the last four days because you have had your mobile phone off..... We will do our best to re-assure you, but can only do and say so much.
9) This one is for relatives. It's gonna hurt and is a painful fact, but being a blood relative does *not* automatically make you next of kin or the significant contact. The first contact/next of kin is who the patient *says* it is and I think y'all had better get to grips with this fast. Whilst I sympathise, I don't want a hear a two hour rant down the phone from you (usually from distant sons) on why *you* should be noted as the next of kin, and you should have the right to etc, etc. Family Dynamics should be sorted out by the family, not bawled at to an overworked member of the ward team. If Granny, Mum, Dad, Brother, Sister, Wife, Lover etc do not want you down as their next of kin in the records or even want you to know they have been admitted, then they don't have to! Deal with it. Now!
10) Visiting is a *courtesty* given by the hospital to non-users. It is not a God given right to the general public. Hospitals are private buildings and should be regarded as such with respect. We'll do all we can to accomodate, re-assure and inform you within our limits, but do not make the mistake of assuming you have the right to come and go as you please.
Think things through, plan and put the needs of those who are unwell and who have to stay in hospital first. And if you feel put out because you cannot come and go as you wish, then you should ask yourself who is it you are most concerned about in the first place.
Right, I have to stop for now as my other half wants to go out. If this sounds a tad angry, it is. A lot of my time is spent having to deal with the public who think they have rights above the patient, and who use that as a battering ram. The NHS is *not* perfect by any means, but we do try our best, despite quangos, impossible to reach Govt. targets and 'initiatives'. Just try being sick in some countries where if you don't have the money, you can still die of a simple throat infection, despite the fact there could be a space-aged medical centre around the corner, if your insurance is not up to the cost or is non existant. Or if you live in a part of the world where the nearest clinic is 400 miles away by foot, and you have to bring your own food and bedding.
Nurse Hagrid will be back with some more advice soon.
General Note - This part for visitors of Patients, and some of their next of kin as well.
The building you are entering is a HOSPITAL, that has ILL or INJURED PERSONS in it. They do not want to be there and would like to recover as quickly as possible. If this sounds patronising, it's not meant to be so. But you would not believe how many people forget this! So the following may be of some use to you when planning such a visit.
1) Don't just turn up any time night or day, expecting to be let in. The hospital has a phone number and can put you through to the ward if you know where the person is. It's best practice to first find out what the visiting hours are and also as to whether the patient is actually up to a visit. Most wards have portable or bedside phones, so you may be able to talk to the patient directly, do ask about that. It would also make more sense to contact a family member/significant contact first and find out what's going on.
2) There are visiting hours for a reason. Usually so that the patient (that sick person we have to remember from time to time) can rest before being beseiged by a bunch of people wishing them well. Mealtimes doubly so, as it can be bloody annoying trying to eat when someone is staring at you or insisting on having a conversation when you should be eating. Also, there is that slight thing called work that has to be attended to, and this is best done without having to fall over hoardes of people coming in at all hours of the day.
3) Please try to remember that there is only so much room around the bed side and in the ward area, so visiting parties numbering more than two persons at any one time, can and do often disturb the other patients in that area as well as be a drain upon the energies of the patient being visited. It can also hinder traffic and a terse "Get out of the way!" from a health care worker trying to get life saving equiptment to a patient, or getting a patient desperate for the loo to the said facility, (and who has probably already had to ask you politely to give some room, four times already) will be sure to offend.
4) Please avoid the habit of using your rank/position in life/job description/ego to 'get around the nurses' so that you can pretend you can come or go anytime you like. Again a polite but firm 'No' will offend. Plus I don't care who you are related to or which NHS/Political bigwig you have slept with, my first concern is for the patient under my care. And I couldn't give a monkeys if you can get me fired from my job, the answer will still be the same.
5) If you *really* cannot attend during visiting hours, it's usually polite to phone first and check that it would be ok to pop in out of hours. And the reason had better be a *damned* good one as well i.e. you have to travel miles, really cannot get there within the times stated, the person you're visiting is very ill or is asking for you. Having to accomodate a hair appointment, picking the kids up from school or a baby sitter, or because you 'just happen to be in the vicinity' is not a good or acceptable reason for ignoring visiting hours. We're supposed to work to the patient's care plan, not to your social calendar.
6) If you see a note or are aware of any restrictions on visiting. That is also there for a reason. Recently, my place of work had to stop visiting as part of an attempt to halt the spread of a community induced bout of diarrhoea and vomiting (brought *in* to the hospital btw). Yet loads of people *demanded* a visit and tried wangling their way in. These will be the very same people who will be happily outraged with dreadful tales of the NHS superbugs and how they spread. And they can often be the cause of such outbreaks, insisting on their own right to visit over the safety of patients and their own families. One visitor even insisted bringing in a 10 day old baby to see a patient suffering with severe diarrhoea and vomiting! Again, these restrictions are in place for a reason.
7) What ever you might read in the Daily Rag or on BadNewsForAll.Com, we *do* care in the NHS, and have *actually* been known to save lives and have people go home fully recovered. The Sun, Daily Mirror, Star, Times and even the xenophobic Daily Mail are not experts in health care. The headlines they push are there to sell papers, not out of concern for your safety.
8) When you phone the ward/treatment area. Please be prepared to identify yourself and the person you are enquiring about. Also be *very* aware that detailed clinical and personal information about the patient will *not* be given over the phone. This has been the rule for the last sixty gozillion years, and cannot, will not and should not be broken!!!!! There's a slight something called 'patient confidentiality' and it's also there for an excellent reason, because there are those *nasty* so and so's who are not who they say they are, who are not entitled to such information and who can and will use it to the patient's detriment. So get over it. Now!
Now that can be annoying I grant you, if you are related to the patient and you are anxious, but we *cannot* and *should not* give out detailed information to *anyone* via the phone. We can tell you how the person is, but it's up to you to either come to the hospital or contact their significant other, if you are not the primary contact we have been trying to reach for the last four days because you have had your mobile phone off..... We will do our best to re-assure you, but can only do and say so much.
9) This one is for relatives. It's gonna hurt and is a painful fact, but being a blood relative does *not* automatically make you next of kin or the significant contact. The first contact/next of kin is who the patient *says* it is and I think y'all had better get to grips with this fast. Whilst I sympathise, I don't want a hear a two hour rant down the phone from you (usually from distant sons) on why *you* should be noted as the next of kin, and you should have the right to etc, etc. Family Dynamics should be sorted out by the family, not bawled at to an overworked member of the ward team. If Granny, Mum, Dad, Brother, Sister, Wife, Lover etc do not want you down as their next of kin in the records or even want you to know they have been admitted, then they don't have to! Deal with it. Now!
10) Visiting is a *courtesty* given by the hospital to non-users. It is not a God given right to the general public. Hospitals are private buildings and should be regarded as such with respect. We'll do all we can to accomodate, re-assure and inform you within our limits, but do not make the mistake of assuming you have the right to come and go as you please.
Think things through, plan and put the needs of those who are unwell and who have to stay in hospital first. And if you feel put out because you cannot come and go as you wish, then you should ask yourself who is it you are most concerned about in the first place.
Right, I have to stop for now as my other half wants to go out. If this sounds a tad angry, it is. A lot of my time is spent having to deal with the public who think they have rights above the patient, and who use that as a battering ram. The NHS is *not* perfect by any means, but we do try our best, despite quangos, impossible to reach Govt. targets and 'initiatives'. Just try being sick in some countries where if you don't have the money, you can still die of a simple throat infection, despite the fact there could be a space-aged medical centre around the corner, if your insurance is not up to the cost or is non existant. Or if you live in a part of the world where the nearest clinic is 400 miles away by foot, and you have to bring your own food and bedding.
Nurse Hagrid will be back with some more advice soon.
