It should be the requirement for every medical student and nursing student to spend 2 weeks in the hospital, on the other side of a call light in a hospital bed. It's kind of like putting on a 'fat suit' to see how the obese feel, or living on skid row to feel what it's like to be homeless. It's the only way to really understand and comprehend---'how it feels'. I really think pediatricians and pediatric nurses are better providers after they have had kids, and surgeon is better after having is own gallbladder removed. When you tell your patient, "I know how it feels" you really do.
A 2 week stay in the hospital for a 'lay person' is like navigating the open seas without any instruments, it's almost impossible. There should be some kind of manual you get when you are admitted. So until that manual is written, I have few thoughts of my own that may help the next person.
1. Bring An Advocate- Always, always, always have an advocate with you at all times. Be it your spouse, sister, mother, best friend or neighbor, make sure someone stays with you, preferably someone knowledgeable about health care. If not just another set of eyeballs and ears will do. Please don't get me wrong, it's not because some dangerous beast will attack you in your sleep, it's because when you are ill, that last thing you need to do is to worry about your care. It's akin to a 'Wedding Planner'. Let the Bride and Groom relax and enjoy the day and the let the wedding planner deal with all the headaches and catastrophes.
As a patient, you need to relax and heal, watch silly movies or just sleep all day if you are allowed. Your job is to heal, you don't need to worry about absorbing all the jargon and mumbo jumbo that gets thrown at you on an hourly basis.
2. The Hospital Is Not a Babysitting Service- Pack a bag and stay with your loved one. Mind you it may be in a hospital chair, but hospitals are busy, it is what it is so just suck it up. People heal better and do better with a support system around them at all times. They feel protected and comfortable, nobody loves your loved one like you do and more importantly nobody likes to sit alone in a hospital bed.
3. Never Be Afraid To Ask "Name, Rank and Serial Number"- Never be afraid to ask questions of your medical provider. Never worry if someone is a 'real nurse' or a real doctor' for goodness sakes, just ask them who they are and what they do! You will be surprised who you just told that you haven't had a bowel movement for 3 days, could have been the hospital chaplain for all you know, most anyone in a hospital will listen to your story.
In a teaching hospital they work in 'teams'. There is the medical student, intern, resident, fellow, attending of the medical team, and the gastrointestinal team, and the hepatology team, and the list goes on and on.
Same with your nurse or other care provider, there are charge nurses, registered nurses, care partners, case managers that are nurses, nurses that just put in your IV lines. There are dietitians, pharmacists, pharmacy techs--it goes on forever. You are not expected to know everyone's role, you will need to ask.
4. You Have A Choice- hospitals are not prisons, and you are not a prisoner. You have choices within the realm of safe and quality medical care. There is not always just 'one way' in medicine. We are so technologically advanced, there are probably hundreds of ways to fix, diagnose or medicate an illness. You can discuss your lab results, your medications with your medical provider. The operative word is 'discuss' because obviously you won't know as much as your provider, but at least you and your advocate can make informed decisions.
5. Use The Hospital's Resources- hospitals really do want you to receive quality care so they have oodles and oodles of resources you can use. There is the patient liason, case manager, charge nurse, floor director, chaplain, dietician, pharmacist, you name it. Use them! That is what they are there for.
6. Read Your Hospital's Patient's Bill of Rights- there is a Patient's Bill of Rights plastered on every wall in every hallway in a hospital. READ THEM! Number One you will blow away all the staff if you do, and number two, you have rights, that's why this document was established and that's why they are there for you to read.
These are just a few things I learned in our last hospital stay. Maybe someday I will write the manual, but for now I'm just the 'Wedding Planner'.