Matron's Top Tips for your Hospital Stay

Meeting and Greeting

You will meet a lot of people during your hospital stay, not only other patients but lots of different members of your healthcare team. This is because it is a large team of people looking after you. They all have different working patterns so different people are around at different times. All these different types of people can be confusing, the secret is if you have questions - know who to ask.

Doctors teams usually come round each morning, your Consultant may or may not come to see you at this time. In the morning it is usually members of your Consultant's team who will see you, this is the best time for catching the doctors and asking questions, so have your list of questions ready. Your Consultant tends to visit at anytime, usually when they have some spare time, before or after surgery.

There is usually a Sister in charge for most shifts. Sisters wear a light blue top, but have dark blue piping on the sleeves and collar. It's the Sister who usually have a better idea about the whens, hows and whats as they usually coordinate what happens on the ward. The Matron is fairly easy to identify, as the uniform is dark blue with red piping, if you don't see the Matron and would like to speak to her, one of the ward staff can call her to the ward to speak to you.

Types of Accommodation

During your hospital stay you do move around to different areas. The ward, intensive care, sometimes to the high dependency unit, then back to the ward. Different areas have different telephone numbers and it is quicker to get through to the right area if you use the outside line and extension number.

Bathroom Facilities

The wards bathroom/showers are not quite as modern as we would like and they can be a little difficult to use. Therefore, it is very important to ask for help, particularly in the early days after your surgery.

Catering

Despite the chefs excellent kitchen, loss of appetite is common after surgery. However, you need extra calories to help your body recover from surgery. Therefore, if you can get relatives/friends to bring in any particular food treats, you are particularly partial too, it will not do any harm, just in these first stages of your recovery.

Ambience/Leisure Facilities

Getting better from your operation is quite an active process. To help you with this you go one step further than a personal trainer, you have a full recovery team! To help you they set lots of little milestones to ensure getting better is not too much of an uphill struggle. Getting better can be a bit of an emotional roller coaster - some very good days and some not so good days. Your personal recovery team is here to help you through each day.

The ward can be a busy and bustling place, but it is important you rest and sleep well after your surgery. A sleep after your lunch can help ensure you have enough rest.

Homeward Journey

Getting ready for going home takes a lot of planning. Therefore, planning for going home starts before you even come in to hospital. Although recovery from surgery does take a long time, your stay in hospital is usually relatively short.

You will not be allowed to go home on your own so you will need to think about having someone at home for the first few weeks after surgery or perhaps you will be able to arrange to stay with a relative or friend. Your specialist nurse will be able to talk through any problems you may have.

I hope you have found this useful! If you can think of anything else I need to add, please let me know.

Sue Langley
Matron, Cardiothoracic Medicine