Hospitals are often associated with poor health, pain, grief, and trauma. The white lights, the distinct smell, and the heavy atmosphere can be triggering for some, especially those with unpleasant experiences.
However, what is apparently more distressing are the hidden truths within these facilities. Many of those insider secrets came to light in a recent Reddit thread, thanks to medical professionals who willingly shared them with the readers online.
If you already hate hospitals to begin with, many of these stories may freak you out even more. But if you’re the least bit curious, feel free to read on.
#21
Your surgeon requested My Chemical Romance Spotify radio during your surgery. I’m not okkkkkaaayyyyyy.
needsmorecoffee:
My friend had to have a conscious procedure done. The nurse asked her what music she wanted, and she asked for 00s hard rock. The doctor comes in--a resident--and is like, hey, they never let me listen to this stuff!
needsmorecoffee:
My friend had to have a conscious procedure done. The nurse asked her what music she wanted, and she asked for 00s hard rock. The doctor comes in--a resident--and is like, hey, they never let me listen to this stuff!
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13points
#22
The lowest paid staff members are responsible for making sure your room and everything you touch while you are there is clean and disease free. Sounds silly until you consider what they are up against.
I worked EVS (environmental service) at a hospital in the ICU during covid, I dealt with MRSA & VRE, c-diff, hepatitis B & C, influenza, norovirus and candida auris. I also had to deal with a whole family who had tuberculosis.
Once you have smelt c-diff or a GI bleed, you will never forget it.
I also forgot to add some of the worst things ever...bed bugs, scabies and lice.
I worked EVS (environmental service) at a hospital in the ICU during covid, I dealt with MRSA & VRE, c-diff, hepatitis B & C, influenza, norovirus and candida auris. I also had to deal with a whole family who had tuberculosis.
Once you have smelt c-diff or a GI bleed, you will never forget it.
I also forgot to add some of the worst things ever...bed bugs, scabies and lice.
13points
#23
RN here with 15 years of bedside under my belt.
Hospitals are just corporations doing everything they can to save a buck. Almost every meeting between health care workers and admin is about what they’re (the nurses) doing wrong and how they can be more efficient to save the hospital (ie HOSP CEO) more money. Nurses are stretched thin because the staffing is [bad] so the hospital can save money. Almost all nurses want to get out of working in the hospital because they treat the staff so poorly. Burnout is real. Which means when you’re loved one is in the hospital, the nurses taking care of them are brand new grads who lack the experience to catch life threatening issues, or burnt out experienced nurses who can’t help their apathy. I dread the day my family has to stay in the hospital because it is BLEAK. Patient’s get the bare minimum care they need, and it’s not the nurses faults. This issues needs to be talked about more.
Hospitals are just corporations doing everything they can to save a buck. Almost every meeting between health care workers and admin is about what they’re (the nurses) doing wrong and how they can be more efficient to save the hospital (ie HOSP CEO) more money. Nurses are stretched thin because the staffing is [bad] so the hospital can save money. Almost all nurses want to get out of working in the hospital because they treat the staff so poorly. Burnout is real. Which means when you’re loved one is in the hospital, the nurses taking care of them are brand new grads who lack the experience to catch life threatening issues, or burnt out experienced nurses who can’t help their apathy. I dread the day my family has to stay in the hospital because it is BLEAK. Patient’s get the bare minimum care they need, and it’s not the nurses faults. This issues needs to be talked about more.
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13points
#24
You are probably occupying the same space / room where many others have [passed away].
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12points
#25
Many more patients live in poverty than anyone would imagine. Even more seniors living not only in poverty, but in homes that should be condemned. Recent elderly patient, APS went in after he was admitted, busted up his furniture and was burning it in a pot, for heat. No running water or electricity, using the bucket method for a toilet. Discovered a rotting deer carcass he'd been eatting. Unfortunately way too common and this is in an educated upper middle class area. Very few services available to help.
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12points
#26
It is SO much more than “Doctors and Nurses” keeping the hospital running. There is an insane amount going on behind the scenes (EVS, food service, materials mgmt, pharmacy, case mgmt, lab, therapies) keeping everything together and it would collapse if one of those specialties were to fall through.
That said, your nurse is not just there to watch you and take vitals. They are effectively the one in charge of facilitating every single thing for you throughout the day, and easily the most important team member. The docs may come round on you for a total of 10 min and never see you until the next day. Be nice to the nurses. Being mean or sassy to them will just ensure that they don’t want to come into your room and you will be infinitely worse off without them directing your care.
I don’t think anyone realizes the daily [mistreatment] that nurses and nurse assistants deal with on a daily basis.
That said, your nurse is not just there to watch you and take vitals. They are effectively the one in charge of facilitating every single thing for you throughout the day, and easily the most important team member. The docs may come round on you for a total of 10 min and never see you until the next day. Be nice to the nurses. Being mean or sassy to them will just ensure that they don’t want to come into your room and you will be infinitely worse off without them directing your care.
I don’t think anyone realizes the daily [mistreatment] that nurses and nurse assistants deal with on a daily basis.
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11points
#27
You know those cubicle curtains? I’ve never seen them taken down and washed. (Retired RN.I put in years).
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11points
#28
There’s probably a freezer full of limbs in any hospital with an OR.
Most surgical specimens are put in formalin for preservation, but amputations are too large, so we just store them in a freezer until we can dispose of them.
Most surgical specimens are put in formalin for preservation, but amputations are too large, so we just store them in a freezer until we can dispose of them.
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10points
#29
How few health care professionals WASH their hands before touching patients! Retired RN here who has witnessed this during husband’s hospitalizations and just yesterday with a friend in a GI suite waiting for a procedure.
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10points
#30
Liability and profitability are the main drivers shaping your health plan, not medical research and expertise. The insurance industry is ultimately the decision maker in healthcare for the general public, and they don’t care whether it benefits you.
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10points
#31
Everyone is always concerned about who their doctor is….you better hope you have a good nurse….the doctors only see you for a few minutes and rely on a nurses assessment….I have almost 20 years of ICU experience but many of my coworkers have less than 2….they do not know what they do not know….it takes some much time to be good at this job.
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9points
#32
I work in psych and sometimes float to the psych pod in the ER.
Everything has been [urinated] on.
Everything.
Saturated in urine at some point and scrubbed mercilessly in the hopes the stench will one day go away. Every piece of furniture, every spot on the floor, every wall... Everything.
Everything has been [urinated] on.
Everything.
Saturated in urine at some point and scrubbed mercilessly in the hopes the stench will one day go away. Every piece of furniture, every spot on the floor, every wall... Everything.
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9points
#33
The nursing shortage in the ER is real. The other night in my large ER, the most senior nurse we had was 2 years into his nursing career.
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9points
#34
That roughly half of docs are using AI tools that aren’t approved by their health system or hospital administrators, and some of those tools have pharma and life science advertising baked throughout them, aka your PHI is going straight to those third party companies for reasons we don’t fully know yet.
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8points
#35
* even “nonprofit” facilities are cutting staff to a dangerous level. Like, very dangerous. The staff that you see are not the ones making those decisions- they are mad at the low staffing, long wait times, and “poor service” just like you.
* if you call an ambulance and your vitals are stable they take you to the waiting room
* you can lose a lot more blood than you think before it’s actually a problem.
* we are required by law to see every person seeking medical care (which I support). However, we are not compensated for to cost of this care so every person without insurance, every homeless person, all the people that society has failed will be treated but the hospital will pay for it
* each specialty in the hospital is funded differently - according to the money they bring in. Because of this, the emergency room is constantly losing money - hence, budget cuts, hence, unsafe staffing and care
I just want to be a nurse - with equipment that works, supplies available (instead of tying the IV bag onto the broken bed pile with a tourniquet), and a nurse-to-patient ratio that I can not only have the time give my patients outstanding care, but be able to have the time to grab them a blanket or a sandwich.
But I can’t when one room is hemorrhaging from a complicated miscarriage, I’m adjusting someone’s IV meds every 10 minutes so their heart rate doesn’t jump into the 200s again, I’m doing every 15 neuro checks on a stroke patient - - oh, but the 25 year old who’s belly pain that turns out to be constipation and was told by the doctor that they are being discharged is furious because it’s taking too long to get their discharge paperwork because “they haven’t eaten in, like, forever”
I can rant more but I’ll stop for now.
* if you call an ambulance and your vitals are stable they take you to the waiting room
* you can lose a lot more blood than you think before it’s actually a problem.
* we are required by law to see every person seeking medical care (which I support). However, we are not compensated for to cost of this care so every person without insurance, every homeless person, all the people that society has failed will be treated but the hospital will pay for it
* each specialty in the hospital is funded differently - according to the money they bring in. Because of this, the emergency room is constantly losing money - hence, budget cuts, hence, unsafe staffing and care
I just want to be a nurse - with equipment that works, supplies available (instead of tying the IV bag onto the broken bed pile with a tourniquet), and a nurse-to-patient ratio that I can not only have the time give my patients outstanding care, but be able to have the time to grab them a blanket or a sandwich.
But I can’t when one room is hemorrhaging from a complicated miscarriage, I’m adjusting someone’s IV meds every 10 minutes so their heart rate doesn’t jump into the 200s again, I’m doing every 15 neuro checks on a stroke patient - - oh, but the 25 year old who’s belly pain that turns out to be constipation and was told by the doctor that they are being discharged is furious because it’s taking too long to get their discharge paperwork because “they haven’t eaten in, like, forever”
I can rant more but I’ll stop for now.
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8points
#37
Someone is always pushing their job onto someone else - and sometimes that job they’re shrugging off is patient safety.
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7points
#38
In my nursing preceptorship, my preceptor had to watch a video of NG tube insertion right before since she only did one before that lol. Went in there and acted like a pro though.
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7points
#39
The surgeon almost never operates on you.
It is the trainee who does.
Same with all other speciality it is an infinite cycle of trainee who does all the work and the actual doctors are just observers/manager's or only join if it is a complicated case.
It is the trainee who does.
Same with all other speciality it is an infinite cycle of trainee who does all the work and the actual doctors are just observers/manager's or only join if it is a complicated case.
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7points
#40
Hospital staff can and will take pictures of injuries, accidents, surgeries on their personal phones just to share gore in the worst game of one upmanship that exists in the American workplace. It's disgusting, not policed enough, and all my friends do it.
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7points
