Wednesday 9 June 2021

Curtains

I left hospital on Friday. It was an ok place to be. The food was delivered regularly and nurses were the push of a buzzer away. I could push myself around the corridors and if I went to the right window there was just a glimpse of the harbour.
At home I need to think ahead to make sure I can access what I need if I'm alone and I can't go very far in the house.
The great advantage of home is that I'm not trapped behind a curtain.
In the 20 years since I was last in hospital, curtain etiquette seems to have changed. In those long ago days, the curtains were only drawn around beds if there was a specific need: for medical procedures or toileting. 
These days the curtains are almost constantly drawn. For this hospitalisation I knew most of my room mates by voice alone. The curtains were an omnipresent sign that they might not want to interact and without the cues of body language I wasn't keen to try.
Those blue curtains didn't just give me privacy, they shut me away, I couldn't see the window just one bed over, I couldn't see the sky or get a hint of the weather. I couldn't see a visitor walking down the hall and greet them until they were right in front of my face.
I know not everyone would want the curtain open but I wonder why standard procedure has changed. Has our modern tendency to sit behind a screen and avoid people influenced our expectations of hospital? I wonder how much therapeutic value has been lost to us by shutting patients away in curtained booths. 
I was happy in hospital but if I never see a blue curtain again, it will be too soon.

28 comments:

  1. I am glad you are home. Here there are very few semi private rooms so you have the space to yourself, which is nice, but equally isolating because the nurses tend to close the door behind them .
    I hope things are easy for you to access with your current limited mobility.

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    1. I've had private rooms before and found it miserable. I'd probably do better these days but I'm still happier around people

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  2. I am very glad that you are home.
    Last time himself was in hospital (a few years ago) the curtains were only drawn when privacy was required. In the ward he was in, one gentleman ALWAYS required privacy which meant that no one else in that ward could look out the window.
    There has to be a better way.

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    1. I don't really understand that some people need constant privacy and it irritates me that what could be a lovely light filled room turns into dark caverns.
      I can't expect everyone to be like me, though

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    2. I thought at the time that if someone really did require constant privacy that a shared ward was not the right place for him. For his well being, and for the well being of other patients. IF they had moved him to a bed by the door for example he could have kept his curtains drawn and the rest of the room could have had the light.

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    3. You're right, it wasn't great for anyone. I feel like a sense of community should be helpful to most people

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  3. I jave only once in my life had a shared room and it was a nightmare. I like not having to share a bathroom an not be in control o light and tv volume and selection. I have never felt deprived in a single room at all. If I have to go to the bathroom, dragging a pole with iv, I don't want to have to clean pee off the commode from a husband or child. I do not want to parade in front of the other woman's husband and company and try to keep the gown shut.

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    1. Strictly speaking, visitors shouldn't use the patient bathroom but of course they do.
      Your point about keeping a gown closed is a very good one!

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  4. That's something I've never heard of before. Curtains only offer visual privacy anyway which is important at times. It always amuses me (and irritates me in equal measure) when curtains are drawn to tell someone something 'private' because everyone hears it anyway. As when a junior doctor drew my curtains 24 years ago and gave me bad news about my cancer for the rest of the world to hear.

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    1. Hospital is such a strange world, deeply real but also disconnected from everything we think of as normal. Where else would we even imagine a curtain sufficient for news like that?

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  5. Might have been a Covid thing - screens everywhere these days! When I last visited a hospital the curtains were only used for privacy.
    Glad you're home.
    Sx

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    1. I didn't think of covid, you might be right!

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  6. Design flaws everywhere Kylie, I would like the option of private or open at my whim and energy level.

    And automating screens with a button should be a given for that. I would be very depressed if I couldn't see outside.

    I am glad you're home and recovering!

    XO
    WWW

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  7. Like Ms Scarlet, I'm thinking the drawn curtains might have been on account of Covid. A very meagre measure, but perhaps the new protocol anyhow. The time would be very long for me, too, if I had been in that position. Even though I'm an introvert and like some relief from being visible to everyone all the time, it would still be very isolating to be behind a drawn curtain all the time.

    I'm glad to hear you are home! Your own bed, your own pillow, your own people around you. Did Harry miss you??

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    1. Hi Jenny,
      I'm an extrovert which makes the whole experience easier,I think.
      Harry has followed me everywhere since I got home. The whole surgery thing happened in the middle of household crack down on dogs (Lucy needed some craziness addressed) poor old fella didn't know what hit him with all the change!

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  8. In spite of my concern for your recovery I had to smile at your last line:
    *If I never see a blue curtain again, it will be too soon.*
    You paint a vivid picture of the hospital, like a story by Helen Garner.
    Hidden away. Voices and footsteps. No sky or weather.

    Privacy is everyone's right and need, but this is a stage too far.
    Neo-liberal economics privatised our public services.
    Now, they have privatised the individual, as though they hate the idea of society.
    Rant over, Kylie !
    Get well soon. Hope you gain mobility in your home again.
    Jack H
    P.S. I loved that window with a view of iconic Sidney Harbour.
    There was an episode of Inspector Morse, set in Australia, which ended with John Thaw walking up the steps of the Opera House. Alone. Poor Morse.
    You can hear the Morse theme tune, written by the late Barrington Pheloung, on YouTube.

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    1. I think I might have seen an episode of inspector Morse. It's well known here but I've somehow mostly missed out

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    2. Jack, I'm not sure I really communicated what I wanted in this post. It's about curtain and weather but it's about this change in the way people behave in public, where we'd rather not speak to the people nearby.
      Maybe you're right that actual society is hated

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  9. I am unable to relate but, can understand why the curtains are needed. While you may not have wanted, others may want their privacy during convalescence.

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    1. Yes, there were a number of very sick people who needed all the rest they could get. Those people need curtains

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  10. Maybe it's a spinoff from COVID? Hospitals seem like very unhealthy places to me. I'm always scared I'll catch something! Being able to see through a window is very therapeutic though.

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    1. It's possible it's a covid thing, I didn't think of covid. I assumed it was modern culture.
      About 12-15 years ago now I noticed that my younger colleagues preferred to spend break times texting than interact with the people around them and I remembered the people who were like workplace parents to me. Devoting all their time to their phones seemed such a loss and I assumed the curtain situation to be similar.

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  11. I wonder if any thought or study has gone into the practice of sealing patients in curtained boxes. For people who are less well-balanced than you are, the psychological impact could be extremely distressing.

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    1. That's a really good point. Not being part of an actual treatment regime, my guess is nobody has thought to study it

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  12. I don't think curtains are the norm in the UK. They must be frustrating. When I was in hospital a few years back I had my own room so there was no need for curtains anyway.

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    1. Surely there must be curtains in UK hospitals? not everyone would have a single room?

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  13. I gather from a friend who was in the same hospital till yesterday that he was in a big ward with other people. Presumably those beds would have curtains to cater for privacy needs. He wouldn't have had a private room as he was under continuous observation.

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