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Wed, 6 Dec 2006 11:34:34 -0500 |
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The reality of the hospital environment is that everything is all about customer
satisfaction. Sure, visiting hours are limited in ICU because PEOPLE ARE SICK!
Visiting hours are usually limited on other floors as well.
But maternity is a totally different kettle of fish. It's all about family and what
the mother wants......................and in general, the mother wants the
visitors and with this huge push on "customer satisfaction," there isn't a whole
lot you can do about it but take every opportunity that you can to find your
patient and S.O. alone and do the teaching then.
I always ask my families what their wishes are as far as visitors goes, and I
am happy to be the one to kick the onlookers out of then room is need be.
In this day and age, no one wants pain and everyone wants immediate
gratification. No one wants to be bothered. Look at Gonneke's most recent
post about the mother of the 5 day old breastfeeding infant whom she decides
to wean because "it is just too much work." Our society has given everyone
the idea that we should all take the easy way out and it is my personal
opinion that a large number of new parents do just that.
Granted, there are interruptions in a hospital: some avoidable and some not.
But until the general birthing public (aka: the "consumer") gets a clue and
begans to demand differently, open visitation policies will remain.
On a very quiet night several years ago, I called every hospital with a birthing
unit here in the state of Connecticut and posed the question to each
regarding their visitation policies. With only 2 or 3 exceptions (big inner city
facilities with great security problems), all of them had the "open visitation"
policy. They may have been locked units as far as a locked front door, but the
visiting hours were open.
I am on another listserve (much like Lactnet) that is made up of maternity
nurses (labor/delivery, post-partum, nursery) from all over the country. The
issues and frustrations that I am presenting to you all here are the same ones
voiced by pretty much everyone everywhere. The trends will only change
when the consumers change and personally, I don't see that happening
anytime soon. Most nurses don't like things the way they are, either.
That's why I am always talking here about taking each mother/baby where
they are and going from there.
Betsy Riedel RNC, IBCLC
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