You’re getting ready to spend your first day or night in the hospital, but you’re likely feeling a bit on edge without knowing what you can expect from it. Whether you’re a mother preparing for the birth of your child or an individual, who is about to undergo surgery, you’d like to know as much as you can. Fortunately, a little knowledge can go a long way in making you feel more prepared for your first in-patient hospital stay.
The Room
First of all, let’s get a better idea of the place where you’ll be staying. According to Stanford Health Care, the hospital staff will assign you to a semi-private or private room. What kind of room you get will depend on the type of care you’ll need.
Entertainment
If you’re worried about time passing too slowly and getting bored often, you’ll be happy to know that hospitals equip each room with a couple of contemporary, user-friendly items that you can use at your convenience. On top of these, you’ll have access to a television and phone too.
Besides these, you’ll have total access to a closet for clothes or general storage, a bedside table for toiletries, and a bedside control that enables you to contact a nurse at any time of the day or night. It helps to know you won’t just be laying there, staring at the ceiling for hours on end, doesn’t it?
Meals
A special diet, reflecting your personal, medical needs, will be carefully created by your physician. You have a couple of options when it comes to what you eat during your hospital stay. You can take advantage of the meals that the hospital provides, or you may accept food offered by caring family members. It’s your choice!
Less Sleep
Unfortunately, people often associate a lack of sleep with prolonged stays in the hospital. Well-meaning hospital staff members awake patients throughout the night because they’re working hard to achieve specific goals during their shift. They are attempting to acquire tests, administer medicine, and check vital signs.
Also, you will notice that the lights are on most of the night. Do what you can to prepare yourself for less sleep during this time because it will make all the difference in your in-patient experience.
Morning Check-Ups
Nurses perform an early morning check-up on patients as a part of their daily nursing routine. At this time, you can expect to have a blood test done. They’ll check your vital signs too. After this, your doctor will personally come to see you and check on how you’re doing. He will, then, determine whether or not he needs to order additional tests. Expect consultants to drop by before the end of the morning, too. Most days during a hospital stay begin in this way.
Afternoon Check-Ups
Your doctor will come to check on you again in the afternoon. His visit will likely be shorter than the first one. Likewise, you can expect to see other hospital staff stopping by to see how you’re doing. As you can see, the hospital’s afternoon schedule is almost identical to the morning schedule.
Picturing your in-patient room experience and acquiring a thorough understanding of the hospital’s various schedules and procedures before you arrive there will help a great deal. Don’t forget, once you get through it, you’ll have an exciting story to tell everyone you know.