continued…..
I have only ever stayed one night in hospital before so I am certainly no expert however it seems that this is the main way in which the pandemic has changed. I don’t really know where to start so I will try and cover all of the changes that I realised and recognised.
Visitors – I was not allowed any visitors at all when I was in the ward. This soon became very lonely as I couldn’t have any to come and see me and when you spend a long time in one place it would have been nice to have had some visitors! I understood why this was with the risk of infection and all of that but it was certainly very lonely in the hospital. It is all well and good talking to people on different screens but I would have really appreciated a hug at certain points! The other thing with this (which is something that me and my Mum discussed a lot) was that with the lack of visitors it then made it really difficult if you wanted support when speaking with Doctors and Consultants. I was being given a lot of information at point and having to understand what was going to be some major life changes and it would have been great to have had someone else to listen to the conversations just to take information in and possibly ask some questions for me as well! Finally on the visitors thing, it made getting stuff to the hospital more difficult as well. Each time I went in, I didn’t take any enough stuff for a longer stay with me (mainly because I was going to A&E and didn’t think I would be admitted). This then meant that either my Mum or Jordan had to come and drop stuff off for me but they weren’t allowed onto the ward to come and see me to drop it off. So they would have to drop it at the ward doors and the nurse would bring it to me. Usually this also then meant me giving the nurses some washing to give to my Mum to take home, all a very convoluted system really!
IBD Team – As someone that was newly diagnosed with Inflammatory Bowel Disease I was told that I should be having a number of visits from the IBD Team to explain the condition and “counsel” me on “life with IBD” I assume. The different medications that I would be taking, the side effects, what to do in a flare up, signs to look for, how IBD might affect my life. All of those sort of things. I was told that I would be visited on the ward for a counselling session as well as receiving a clinic appointment for a couple of weeks after discharge to be able to talk to the nurses then. It was then that they told me that nurses weren’t visiting the wards at the minute because of COVID. Then I was randomly sitting in my hospital bed when an IBD nurse turned up in my room to talk to me! It all seemed that people just weren’t sure what was happening.
PPE – This one is kind of obvious and totally necessary but it sometimes made things feel slightly less personal I guess is the right word. All of the people that visited my room had to wear a form of PPE. Usually this was a mask, apron and gloves which would then be discarded as soon as they left the room. I totally get why they were doing it and I am not complaining at all, but sometimes it was hard to understand what people were saying with the masks.
Movement restrictions – Due to stopping the spread of the virus, the hospital had placed on lots of different restrictions regarding the movement of people within the hospital. As with in the supermarkets you could only walk on certain sides of the corridor, and if you were from a Green Zone you definitely couldn’t enter a Yellow Zone. This was to stop contamination of areas that were clear of COVID. It did however also mean that it was a lot more difficult to go for a walk to stretch your legs and get off the ward. The first period that I was in there it took me a number of days to see the outside world and I do this is because nobody wanted to suggest going for a walk as they weren’t sure of all of the rules. When the second admission came around I informed the nurses that I was going to be going, my mental health at this point was also important and I needed to make sure what I was doing was the best for me.
Procedures – This was definitely affected by the pandemic. As I have said, they were reluctant to do an “aerosol generating procedures” because of coronavirus and for me this meant that I was told I would be having a Flexi-Sig, taken to the place for the Flexi-Sig and then didn’t end up having the Flexi-Sig the first time (though I did have it in the end). I had to have additional tests for COVID done (which were not pleasant) as well. I guess because of the need for all the additional cleaning, there was just more faff involved and everything took longer which meant that there was a reluctance to do it. This was totally understandable in the midst of a pandemic that had changed the way that our country was operating beyond belief.
As I said at the start of this, I am no expert on hospital stays having only been in overnight previously (and even then escaping as soon as possible) but it was obvious that there were a number of elements of hospital life that had been affected and that this did affect the patients as well. I can’t say that it necessarily affected patient care (because that isnt the right word) but it affected the patients experience I think. While I know hospital is not a holiday camp, I do feel that for the people that are in hospital, there could have been more support given. I was having to take on a lot of information, when not on entirely top form and it would have been really handy to be able to have either my Mum, Dad or partner on the phone to help to take in that information, process it and possibly even to ask questions of the consultants. I know I am a 26 year old woman and all of that but had anyone been able to tell me when the consultants or doctors were coming round with updates, it would have taken me seconds to have someone on the phone to be able to support me. I think that this is something that the NHS could have really looked into to support patients who are/were in hospital. Big NHS Bosses! Look! An idea!
Anyway, this was what hospital was like during a pandemic. Very boring and slow… with what seemed like quite a few changes.
Please read, like, comment and subscribe with your hospital experiences and what you think! 🙂
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