Medical Staff Share Things People Don’t Know About Hospitals

This article was originally published on Diynhacks.com

Some of us spend our lives coming and going in and out of hospitals, while others make it through with barely a visit or two. Yet, for all of us, the hospital is an important institution that we want to know is there when we need it and functioning the way it should be. But do we really know how a hospital is supposed to work? Every day, our hospitals are witness to hundreds of occurrences of which the public remains completely unaware. We’ve heard from a bunch of medical professionals, and today, we expose some of those secrets only known to people who’ve spent time behind the scenes.

#1: Treat Nurses With Respect

It’s no secret that nurses are one of the most underpaid and undervalued populations in the workforce. People are only ever interested in doctors despite the fact that nurses are responsible for a great deal of the care and the treatment that we receive while in the hospital bed.

It’s, therefore, equally unsurprising that nurses receive a lot of abuse. People in hospitals are often stressed, scared, and angry, and I guess nurses are just the most readily available punching bag. Yet it is really appalling that when such abuse gets reported, no action is taken against the perpetrators. Shame!

#2: The More You Know

This discovery is equally shocking and comforting… This seems like a really sensitive and sensible choice on the hospital’s part. While I’m staggered to find out that I may have been unwittingly witness to many recently deceased cadavers on wheels, I’m encouraged that the hospital was kind enough to deceive me about it.

I suppose it wouldn’t be so wise for the hospital to be constantly adding to its load a stream of psychiatric patients in need of care. After all, the hospital is traumatic enough a place for most people as it is, without adding unnecessary exposure to various difficult or unappealing sights.

#3: Unacceptable Behavior

I’m sorry for taking things so seriously here, but at the end of the day, we are talking about hospitals. So, on that serious note, I think we have a little bit of a death problem in Western culture. Cultures all over the world have different ways of coping with death, and only in ours are we so obsessed with avoiding it.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m as scared of death as the next guy or girl, and it’s really fine to keep trying to live longer healthier lives. But when it comes to keeping our loved ones alive even when it’s clearly detrimental to them, I think that’s crossing a line.

#4: Not a One-Way Ticket to the ER

I had thought it was common knowledge that ambulances are basically just glorified, way more expensive versions of taxis. Well, glorified taxis with medical professionals on board. Well, glorified taxis with medical professionals on board can beat traffic by employing their sirens and get you very quickly to the ER.

Okay, so they’re not exactly glorified taxis, but that still doesn’t change the fact that their primary advantage has to do with getting you to the hospital and not what happens once you’re there. I’m the last person to discourage ambulance use; if you need it, you need it. But just know what you’re getting for it and what you’re not…