How to behave in a Hospital (Long list)

[Retail's Bitch]

If you're not working you're unemployed. You're not a stay at home mom, you're not a student or a homemaker. Don't get angry if I ask, I don't know why the hospital needs to know but we do.

You're not the only government run agency to take that stance - so I don't know why people are getting so upset about it. When my Mum fills out the paperwork for income-tax - she's also a stay at home mum. She homeschooled all my sisters. On the forms for income-tax you're supposed to put unemployed. Mum always used to pencil in SLAVE.

LOL.

[Banrion]

I also do not understand why some people are so offended by the word unemployed. It doesn't mean that they do not contribute, it means that they are not an employee and do not earn an income.

Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law
Main Entry: em·ploy·ee
Variant: or em·ploye
Function: noun
: a person usually below the executive level who is hired by another to perform a service esp. for wages or salary and is under the other's control

Stay at home moms do perform a service, however, they are NOT getting paid specifically for that act, and they are not under another's control.

Students are not performing a service for anyone but themselves, and are in fact essentially the employer of the school they are attending.

[South Texan]

I also do not understand why some people are so offended by the word unemployed.

I can understand why there is some offense. I think it has to do with both ego and pride.

The term "unemployed" has a negative connotation that the person is not desirable to employers or is shiftless. A student and a homemaker both are out of the pool of those seeking employment, but look upon what they do as a full time job. Many people also see "employment" as the same as "job" and tie their identity to their job, so stating that they are "unemployed" is the same to them as stating that they have no job and are not of value.

I wish I could think of a better way to establish that the person has no formal employment. Maybe asking for an employer name instead of employment status might work.

[repsac]

Here's one from my personal experience.

First, the injury:

While working around the house with a wood chisel, I slipped and slit hand open. Nearly cut off two fingers in the process. Yes. I bled like a stuck pig. Knowing first aid, I grabbed a white rag, held it tight to the wound and went to the hospital.

Now, the behavior rules:

When you are seriously injured, please tell the nurse. Just because you have a high pain tolerance, does not mean you should sit patinetly in chairs like that. Screaming bloody murder and yelling like a banshee is acceptable at this point. If you feel the need to curse, feel free and remember that four letter words are faster to speak than longer ones. Curse in quality, and quanity.

Secondly, please, if you must bleed; do not bleed on the floor. It's hard to clean up and irritates maintenence.

Lastly, when you become light headed, walking over to show the nurse that your white rag has turned red, is not allowed. Further, opening the bandage so your blood bleeds on the desk, is just plain mean. If you must bleed to death, do it someplace else.


Yes, these are meant to be tounge in cheek.

[Dips]

Here's one from my personal experience.

First, the injury:

While working around the house with a wood chisel, I slipped and slit hand open.

<snip>

Some of us are just too darn polite, aren't we?

That reminds me of what happened after I had a c-section many, many years ago. My visitors had left me in a chair with my daughter and I couldn't stand up to move either myself or her to the bed. It was quite a few minutes time before the nurse came by on her rounds and I was having trouble staying awake and holding her. I actually recall the conversation I had with the nurse whe she came by:

Me <kinda whiny>: I needed help getting up with my daughter. I'm falling asleep and could have dropped her.

Nurse Lenora: Well. That's what the call button is for.

Me <still whiny>: I couldn't reach it.

Nurse Lenora: That's why God gave you lungs. If you need help, Duck, yell.

Her chipper matter-of-fact logic pretty much snapped me out of my hormone-induced pity-party.

I credit Nurse Lenora for teaching me that solving problems beats complaining about having to wait for other to solve them. Nurse Lenora? You rock.

[friendofjimmyk]

I don't work in a hospital, but I'd like to add to this...

Hospitals are not hotels, nor are the staff there to personally wait on you 24/7.

My ex b/f's mom decided she was going to climb a ricketdy ladder to her roof and fell through when a rung broke about 5' off the ground and landed hard on her back and neck! OUCH!

She was picked up in an ambulance and taken to the hospital where she stayed for about a week. I really felt sorry for the nurses there because she was an absolute bear!

First, she complained about the ride to the hospital because they put her on a stiff wooden board - BACK & NECK INJURY!!! - and kept her there all the way to the hospital. She thought this was "ridiculous" because the board was so uncomfortable! Nevermind that it was a required procedure for such injuries.

Second, she complained about the "service" at the hospital. The nurses never came immediately when she called them, the food was horrible - and she kept sending it back for them to "fix" it. (She liked to think she was a gourmet chef and would act as if she were no matter where she was - the hospital or a 5 star restaurant - telling anyone in earshot how great of a cook she was! NOT!)

Third, she complained, rather loudly, about the visitors in her room who were there for the other patient. They were speaking to loudly while she was trying to watch tv, read the paper, and talk on the phone.

She was THE mother of all entitlement wenches!

[Crosshair]

Several other observations.

1. Just because the person being seen before you in the ER APEARS to be fine, they may not be. I took a jolt of 240 volts in one hand and out the other in an accident at my High School theater. I was dazed, confused, and unsteady on my feet. They where worried that I had damaged my heart and took me to the ER. They saw me right away and I had a heart EEG (Something like that, that part is kinda fuzzy too.) Turns out I was fine but I remember alot of people looking at me while I was walking through the line. (Actualy being guided by a classmate.) Mabee they thought I was drunk or something.

2. If the person comming into the ER is covered in blood and clamly being supported by two people, don't get up and try to take him from the people carrying him. They came here to see the people working in the ER, not someone in line to get into the ER. If they need help, they will ask for it. My bother managed to face plant onto concrete when he tried to jump the curb on his bike. (Yes he was wearing a helmet, it didn't protect his face.) Dad and neighbor took him in. Both the neighbor and my dad knew what happened, the people waiting in line don't. Dad/neighbor can explain what happened so the nurse can take appropriate action. Brother needed several stiches to get his face back together and was all brused up. Came home on cruches.

[Meltrandi]

Don't go around asking ER employees:"How did that guy die" When you're told no, don't get angry.

"He asked me how the last guy to come into the ER died, and that's what I'll tell the goon who asks me how YOU died."

[protege]

Not as much as the damn painkiller injection.

I hear ya on that one. Back in '04, I had hernia surgery. The doctor said that the injections (yep, *multiple* shots ) would hurt. However, since I was already in pain and disoriented, I didn't feel a thing. Painkillers are goooood things--I ended up sleeping the entire weekend

[0oAmericanGirl]

Few more from today:

If your legan name has changed, tell me BEFORE I register you, not as you leave. If you don't I'll have to make you sit down and do it all over agin.

I don't know where everything in our town is, don't get pissed because I don't know where some stupid bait shop is. Do I look like a directory to you?

You're comming to a hospital, be prepaired to see sick people. Don't stop and point to the man with cancer that is missing a nose. He's not stopping and pointing to you because you don't have a brain.

You're here for a test. Don't bring your extended family into my office. I have 2 chairs. Make them wait outside, you're just signing papers.