Any person checking into any hospital is vulnerable to various risks. While such a person’s expectation is getting better, they may end up getting worse. Some of the risks that such a person is vulnerable to include: medical complications like infections and bleeding and human errors like administration of the wrong dosage. Some, like human errors, are a big concern because, despite the high number of trained and hard-working personnel a hospital may have, they remain human and prone to make mistakes. Some of them can sometimes be beyond the control of the patient, which can leave a patient feeling helpless (Fukuda et al., 2015). It is, therefore, critical that patients look for a way of mitigating them.
The first main problem that the patients presented is that of medication errors. This is one of the most serious risks in hospitals because a slight miss of a decimal or fraction can lead to a life-threatening situation. This is one of the challenges that the patient with ID 007 experienced. It is important to note that this is a risk that is difficult for patients to mitigate because, in most cases, they do not know what medicine they require, the quantity, and how often the medicine should be taken. Additionally, patients may not prevent a pharmacist or a nurse from misreading a prescription written by a doctor with poor handwriting. However, they can contribute at least, although to a slight extent, towards the efforts of a hospital to ensure such a challenge is mitigated. One of the steps a patient can take is to speak up if they feel wrong.
Another challenge that the patients experienced was problems with sleeping that were caused by aspects like noise and feeling uncomfortable. This challenge was faced by patients with IDs 003 and 009. Sleep is among the essentials contributing to recovery and patients’ well-being. Nurses are, therefore, expected to provide this support to patients. In hospitals, sleep deprivation has been linked with various severe effects (Fukuda et al., 2015). The effects include homeostatic functions alteration and cellular immunity defects.
Waiting time for medication is another major problem that patients face and, in this case, was experienced by patients 001 and 002. Patient 001, for instance, had to wait for a long time to get medications that would help lower the pain. Long wait times in hospitals present various effects. It may, for instance, lead to overcrowding of important rooms in the hospital like emergency rooms. This would imply that the hospital’s means of caring for subsequent emergencies become limited. This leads to missed opportunities and lost revenue for the hospital.
Another major problem was concerning infections acquired in the hospital, also called healthcare-associated infections (HAI), a problem that patient 005 faced. HAI are acquired infections, which are typically absent at admission time in the hospital. This means that they manifest after admission since they are acquired after hospitalization. However, such infections could be incubated at the admission time. In this particular case, the patient contracted pneumonia while in the hospital. While some people consider pneumonia a minor complication, the condition can be very serious.
Another major challenge experienced in many hospitals that patient 003 faced is the bad smell in the hospital. Bad smells in hospitals could be caused by blood losses that would create a very distinctive smell. Additionally, incontinent urine patients, the elderly in most cases, often have infections that increase the urine’s smell. Patients without homes may not be able to wash often, which leaves them with an odor, contributing to the bad smell in hospitals. It is also critical to note that a large number of people seek medication in hospitals. The hospitals, therefore, become home to germs and pathogens due to the high number of sick people, becoming a contributing factor towards the bad smell in hospitals.
Missing family members is another major problem that patient 009 faced. The hospitalization period is a time that is not only stressful to patients but also for their families. This stress increases when the patients are admitted to an ICU and if the family and friends, for instance, are barred by the hospital or are unavailable to support the patients, the stress may be heightened even further (Fukuda et al., 2015). Hospitalized patients who interact with support providers easily adapt to the new and unfamiliar environment in the hospital. Such support providers include friends, spouses, siblings, parents, extended family, and children. Their presence also positively affects the patient’s fear, loneliness, and pain perception. Additionally, their presence may also improve care delivery for the patient because it allows the hospital staff to interact with the patient’s support system first-hand. Therefore, the absence of these members is a major challenge for hospitalized patients.
References
Fukuda, R., Shimizu, Y., & Seto, N. (2015). Issues experienced while administering care to patients with dementia in acute care hospitals: A study based on focus group interviews.International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-Being, 10(1).