h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

*cue 70's funky disco sound*

had some new experiences today

first i was hoisted out of bed with a hoyer lift, a big sling, and gently deposited on a shower gurney, which is all pvc mesh and piping

then i was wheeled off to a special room with enough space for gurney and attendant and handheld shower unit

since admission in feb hygiene has been a series of perfunctory bed baths by techs in a hurry to cross me off the list and get on to the next patient. this is the first time my hair hasn't had to dry with soap still in it.

bliss

no doubt this rehab facility is a better hotel than the acute care facility i've just been in. but they (acute care) do have fantastic staff, bar a few pokey techs, who moved aggressively on my wound. this place, meanwhile, misplaced my medication orders for 2 and a half days, and i had fallen into a fever before the antibiotics finally resumed.

Why can't we have both worlds, the lovely amenities of this rehab/long term care warehouse and the hard core mash unit values at my previous place? i've had some interesting conversations with nurses, particularly night staff, in both places. the nighters average 20 yrs of experience and have deliberately chosen nights because they feel more free to, well, be nurses

well, this journal has definitely gone off topic
or maybe not

When you really need it, a shower is the best thing in the world!

It's interesting that the night shift nurses choose to do so. I would have thought that it would be dull, because patients are either asleep, or are trying to be. Perhaps that means when someone is awake they actually get to care for them, and give them time. That was certainly the case with the midwives when I was in. On the day shift they always answer, nut it would take them much longer to respond.

nights at Specialty Hospital could be pretty exciting because most of the 25 patients were in unstable condition physically. So the charge nurse on nights really does have to make quick and important decisions.

here at Ladera, the emergencies are almost all gerontological and range from the yeller down the hall who tears off her clothes while screaming the name of her favorite male orderly, to the chronically ill who could stroke out at any time.

at least midwives know what sort of service they are there to offer!