convenience

A pet-peeve:

The way hospitals, slowly but surely, train those who work in them to think less about the people it was built to serve, and more about their own convenience for the evening. We all enter with the intent of helping people. But slowly, men and women, boys and girls, are all turned to patients. As street clothes are removed and gowns are dawned, the people that we want to help transform into people that we work for - and who we expect to work for us.

Last night I was told to ask two separate supportive families (wives, daughters, sons, friends) to leave two sad, hurt, scared patients when it was HS (the hour of sleep). One man wanted desperately to have his wife stay... "but who will help me go to the bathroom?" he asked, worring, when it was suggested that she leave. We have no explicate rules on our floor regarding guests, or visiting hours. However, it was argued that the women were not allowed to be in a room whose beds were filled with men, and that the rooms were too small for the nurses to reach the equipment if there were other family members sleeping in the room. Since I was the nurse who would need to navigate to the IV poles and monitors, and was more than willing to do so, I thought I should make the decision regarding my patients. "No," came the answers from above. "They need to leave." No reason. Just fear of being bothered. Desire to keep the floor quiet and controlled. In exchange, more worrying, perhaps more pain, and less comfort for our patients.

It is this attitude that bothers me.