Is mom getting admitted to the hospital frequently? Did your grandma just have a stroke and now your life is half-home and half-hospital? Many families experience this and they are more than willing to do anything to make it easier for everyone involved – they just need to know what to do!
Below are 10 tips, straight from my personal nursey experience and that of my nursey Twitter buds (@MissCupcake77, @BougieLa, @carriebransom, @rachcarnell, @Stef_Busch, @erinwert, @ColoradoRN, @eekitschelsea, @screamingmd, @carlson_brena, @Nurse_Lindsey).
Hopefully this will make your new hospital-y life a little easier.
1. Never, ever touch the floor with anything other than the bottom of your shoes. OMG gross. Imagine the grossest thing in the world, add diarrhea to it, and smear it on the floor. Worse things than that have been there and no amount of bleach will comfort you. And if I see your kids crawling around on the floor, I run to the bathroom to dry-heave.
2. Find out when shift change is and don’t call for updates then. You’ll either talk to someone who has been awake and on their feet for 14 hours or someone who just learned your loved one’s name 3 minutes ago. Call either an hour before shift change, or 3 hours after. If you call before, you’ll talk to the nurse that’s had them all day and before the next shift comes in. If you call after, you’ll talk to the nurse that just met and assessed them and isn’t drowning in a million things to do.
3. I have no idea when the doctor will be rounding. Doctors round at random times and we have no idea when that is. If you want to insure you talk to them face to face, you either have to sit at the bedside literally all day OR ask them when they’ll be around the next day and set up a time frame. We can always page them and you can talk to them on the phone (if they’re not in surgery or something), but if you want to see them with your eyeballs, you have to tell them that.
4. Know what being a full code really means. If you or your loved one has a terminal illness, is elderly and frail, in very poor health, etc… know the difference between a full code and a do not resuscitate (DNR) order and think about whether or not you want that. A code means when your heart stops, I jump on your chest and break all of your ribs. I shove a breathing tube down your throat. I shock you with electricity. I do very traumatic things to get your heart beating again. If you or a loved one is getting admitted to the hospital and you don’t want heroic measures to save your life, tell the doctor that is admitting you.
5. Make sure your next of kin knows and respects your wishes and if they don’t, have a health care power of attorney and living will set up. I cannot tell you how many times a terrible, yet necessary, decision must be made and the next of kin can’t decide or hasn’t spoken to them in years and there’s no health care power of attorney. Only a handful of times was a health care power of attorney established, and a living will document there to reference so the responsibility of making the decision was taken out of the families hands. Please do this when you’re healthy and are able. And at bare minimum, make sure your legal next of kin knows AND RESPECTS what you would want if the options were nursing home for the rest of your life or death.
6. Put on your call light and ask to go to the bathroom before it’s an emergency, if you’re able. Emergencies happen, people forget, someone has a crisis, and we can’t get to your room immediately to take you to the bathroom. Sometimes it takes 20 minutes. Please let us know when you have to go and early! If not, we totally understand and when we see your call light we’ll try to get there ASAP because we know you mean business! But if you’re on a floor of sickies and if you can get up to go to the bathroom, you’re totally not the sickest.
7. If you feel like you never see your nurse, there’s a chance you’re the healthiest/most stable one of their patients. There may be many emergencies going on that you have no idea about and because you may be the most stable/low maintenance, you get bumped to the bottom of the totem pole. Trust me, we’d love to come hang out in your room all day if we could.
8. Ask questions! If you don’t know why you’re getting a certain medication, test, procedure, ask! And when you think of questions, write them down so you don’t forget! I love love love it when a family member has a list of questions ready for when the doctor rounds. The nurses do their best to answer your questions, but typically there are questions we can’t answer and the doctor needs to address that with you.
9. I’ll always say your test results aren’t back even if they are. It’s not within my scope of practice to interpret or tell you what they are, even if I know. If you just found out you had cancer or an aneurysm or a stroke, you would probably have 75 questions and your physician needs to answer them.
10. If you loved me, it’s totally okay to bring me food. Legally, we cannot accept non-perishable gifts. The best gifts for thanking the staff that took care of you or your loved one would be coffee or food. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve forgotten my lunch or don’t have time to get food out and OMG LOOK THE FAMILY OF MRS. SMITH BROUGHT DONUTS! (nom nom nom) BACK TO WORK! WOO-HOO! And then I go get Mrs. Smith a warm blanket because her and her family just made my morning very yummy and happy. Also, a can of Febreeze is always a good gift for a nursing unit.. just a thought 
Nurses, techs, doctors.. what other pieces of advice do you have for patients and their families?