Dear Crystal, Bonnie and other lactnetters,
Hi! I'm  a "lactnet lurker" and student midwife, and I think your term
Cognitive Vacation is great! I have recently been collating statistics from
a qualitative research project I am conducting for Day Surgery clients at
our hospital, and my preliminary findings suggest that post-operative
information retention is very poor. This is not just isolated to the clients
undergoing general anaesthesia, but also those receiving sedation (twilight
anaesthetic) and/or local anaesthetic - maybe medication is only part of the
problem? The causal factors that you list are highly applicable to my Day
Surgery clients too, and I have taken on board the numerous suggestions for
improving information delivery. What I'd really like to know, is if the home
birth  and birthing centre midwives out there are experiencing similar
difficulties with information retention in their clients. Nikki Lee raised
the issue of artificial environs causing stress, and the lack of privacy in
hospitals. Do women in single rooms do better/worse than those in multibed
rooms? Anyway, thanks for listening to the ramblings of a midwifery
novitiate...who also suffers from Cognitive Vacation more often than is good
for her!

Regards
Wendy Bergin
tiny country town, Western Australia!

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