30 Secrets And Confessions From People Who Work In Hospitals About What's Really Going On Behind The Scenes
Recently, u/singliketinaturner asked hospital workers to share what's going on behind the scenes that most of us don't know about, and the thread is full of fascinating (and frightening) things I never would have imagined. Here are some of the top responses:
1."Surgeon here. We listen to music in the operating room. Most people seem surprised when they hear that."
"I’ll never forget my time as a student tech hearing 'Shots' by LMFAO during a spinal surgery."
"I work with a cardiac surgeon who prefers electronic music during his cases. He says the bass makes the heart beat better."
2."Not hidden, per se, but for the love of all that is holy, if you insist on bringing your kid into the hospital, do NOT let them crawl or play on the floor. The amount of literal blood, urine, poop, and vomit that has been on it and hastily (not thoroughly) cleaned up is, well, a lot. The hospital, especially the floors, is NOT a clean environment."
"Added to that, think of all the rooms nurses, doctors, housekeeping staff, etc. have walked into. Rooms that have COVID or Norovirus or group A Strep. We walked into those rooms and those same shoes walked into other rooms."
3."When your doctor says, 'I’m just gonna check your chart,' leaves then comes back, we are almost certainly checking Uptodate (expensive paywalled gold standard Google for doctors)."
4."If you sit there on your phone the whole time the mother of your child is in labor such that a nurse has to step in and fulfill the supportive role instead, yeah everyone knows and you’re getting judged by the whole unit."
"I'm the bitchy nurse that would tell the partner what to do or invite them to leave.
If your partner is in pain, asking for your help and attention, and is about to pop out a baby and you can't be arsed to help, I don't wanna look at you. GTFO."
5."There is sex and drama, but not in a Grey’s Anatomy way, more of an overgrown high schoolers shoved together in really stressful situations way. And not as much sex as Grey’s, though maybe I’m just ugly and not in on the scene."
"I work for a hospital as the guy who does the discipline and terminations. Outside of people just straight up not coming to work any more, these are most of my cases. Employee X sleeps with employee Y, new employee shows up and starts sleeping with employee Y, and now employee X is fighting the new person in the hallway at 6 a.m.
Also, a lot more nurses and doctors show up to work under the influence of drugs and alcohol than you can imagine."
6."There is an army of pharmacists in the basement that approve every medication entered by every doctor, frequently catching errors that need a change in therapy (For example, a patient on dialysis can’t have X med due to toxicity risk. Why is this patient on two nitrate-containing meds? This guy just got that antibiotic in surgery two hours ago so I’ll reschedule it to tomorrow. Why is this patient not on blood thinners when they are at high risk for a clotting event? Etc.)."
"Lots of people would die if the pharmacists weren't there. They do so much in hospitals that no one even realizes they do."
7."I work in the lab. I legit get attached to some of my patients through their charts, especially the ones with longer or frequent visits. I remember their names after seeing their specimens come through the lab day after day and get familiar with their history and hospital course. I get sad when they die and happy when they get better and are able to be discharged. I have no idea what any of them look like and most of them will never even know I exist."
8."When nurses and doctors are laughing and joking with each other, it is a coping mechanism. We aren't trying to be rude; we are compartmentalizing the trauma that we see all day every day. If we didn't lighten the load, we would cry all day and never come back to work. It's literally the only way to watch a baby die and then deal with screaming Karen next door with out punching them in the face."
9."When the nurses are sitting at the computer 'doing nothing,' they're documenting. In health care, if it wasn't documented it didn't happen. That means every single patient interaction needs to be documented, as well as interactions with the doctors, pharmacy, etc."
"They are expected to be a walking transcript of every medical interaction, on top of delivering meds, catching and reporting doctors mistakes, communicating patients preferences to doctors, dietary aides, performing life saving interventions, and arranging pillows just so.
On top of being expected to work mandatory overtime. We're talking 16 hour shifts for however long. If you see one laughing, or eating, or sitting, it doesn't mean they don't care. They're just not robots. So VOTE for safe patient ratios, and everything that comes with educational encouragement to staff our failing healthcare system."
10."Wheelchair jousting with towel wrapped crutches does happen on some nights."
11."Most of us don’t judge as much as you you may think. As for myself, a (former) medical professional, I don’t care what drugs you take or how much you drink — I just want the truth so I can provide the best plan of care for you. For example, if you’re an alcoholic or addicted to benzos, I need to know to prepare for possible withdrawals that can become deadly."
12."Nurses very often don’t get 30 minute lunch breaks. Or 15 minute breaks. Or bathroom breaks. Or water breaks. There have been many 12-14 hour shifts I have worked in the ICU where I went to the bathroom one time and didn’t drink any water. Oh, and I inhaled my cold lunch in under five minutes — IF I was afforded that opportunity."
13."Just because the person seeing you is professional in the room about your weird issue doesn't mean they aren't walking out of there and telling other staff members all about that person that slipped on a bottle and it went in their ass. No names are used to avoid HIPAA violations, but chances are, within an hour the entire floor will know about it."
14."As an x-ray tech, I can’t tell you what’s wrong if you ask me if I see anything on your x-rays because it’s not in our scope of practice, but yeah… we definitely know. And if it’s particularly gruesome, we like to show off how pretty our images came out to other techs, LOL."
15."You can refuse treatment. If you don't want to take a medication, have a surgery, or any other type of medical treatment, YOU CAN REFUSE. I will never forget talking to a 90-year-old lady who didn't want a procedure, but didn't realize she didn't HAVE to do what the doctor told her to. She was mentally competent and just didn't know she could refuse. Your body, your choice."
16."I deliver blood to hospitals. Most people don’t realize the blood supply in the US is at critical levels. There have been a couple nights recently where a hospital calls for more blood of certain types and I’ve had to tell them we can’t fill the order. We just don’t have the product. It’s the holiday season and people don’t have the extra time to donate. I work in a rural area where the next hospital might be an hour or more away."
"Think about that before trying something risky. Even if you are a trauma patient, there might not be enough blood at the hospital to keep you alive."
17."The bathrooms by the admin offices, across from HR, are the cleanest and they’re also open to the public. It’s worth the trek across, especially at night."
18."Check your bills meticulously. I've seen lots of random equipment stickers on peoples charts that made no sense and were clearly mistakes."
19."Often times in hospitals the morgue and the cafeteria are next to each other as they both require massive refrigeration units."
20."Depending on how nice you are to staff will impact how quickly they respond to your needs. If family or patients are mean, we hesitate to go into the room because we don’t want to be yelled at. Also, don’t film us doing our jobs unless you’d like us to come to your work and film you."
21."Sometimes when people die, we just put an oxygen mask on them and wheel them through the corridors. Less distressing for other patients and visitors to think they are asleep rather than see a body with a sheet over it."
22."Physicians spend over five times more time discussing your care and speaking with specialists than the time we spend in the room. Just because we only see you for about five minutes every day does not mean that’s all the work we are doing for you."
23."Hospital lab worker here. Not particularly scandalous, but most people don't realize their lab tests are just very accurate guesses, and have an error range. When we say your 'X' is 10 grams per liter, we might actually mean it's 10 grams per liter plus or minus10-20%."
"I see too many people get extremely worked up about small fluctuations in blood test values that aren't actually in excess of the reference change value, and so technically aren't genuinely different from a previous value."
24."July at a teaching hospital is the worst month to be a patient. New residents usually start in July and it's mayhem."
25."Doctors are judged as good for wrong reasons most of the time. Patients love a doctor who is like a salesman, someone who says everything is fine. And other health workers, including doctors from other areas, don't necessarily understand enough about that specific area to decide which doctor is good. This means sometimes only a cardiologist knows which cardiologist is good and other people, including other doctors, don't. The worst advice about which doctor is good comes from other patients."
26."If you are insured and have high out of pocket deductibles/copays/coinsurance and are low or lowish income, ask for the financial assistance forms and send those in. In nonprofits at least (not sure about others), there may be a good chance you can get your out-of-pocket portion reduced or even forgiven. Just because you have insurance doesn’t mean you don’t qualify for financial assistance from the hospital. Either way, it costs nothing to request it and the worst that can happen is they say no. Then ask again."
27."I’ve been working on the facilities side of hospitals as an outside contractor for 10ish years. You would be amazed how many people I find hiding from their work in unlikely places that they think people won't look. I've walked in on nurses sleeping in mechanical closets, facilities guys hiding in mechanical rooms, doctors playing Game Boys behind equipment, LOL. I like to hide from work too, but I kid you not, today I’ve walked in on two people hiding in separate mop sink closets."
28."I work in Health Information Management at a small hospital so I’m not really anyone important. I hate that the process to obtain your medical records can be tedious. But oh my goodness you would not believe the amount of people that try to find out about other people's detailed medical records. Random family members, friends of the patient, etc. I even had a guy call saying he started dating this woman and wanted to find out if she had ever had any major medical problems he should know about — then screamed at me because I wouldn’t tell him anything."
29."In every lab or pathology area, there is a cabinet or closet that contains items that were removed from someone. Be it a pacemaker, hip joint, light bulbs, dildos, and very large zucchinis that broke in half and got stuck. We need to keep some objects for safety reasons (lawsuits, recalls, etc.), then we keep the more interesting things for the newbies to the lab!"
30.And finally, "We actually really care about you. You aren’t a number to us and when you have an unexpected outcome, we grieve and have to support each other and have care conferences to process our feelings. Sometimes we even need some time off of work to emotionally recover. I never knew how much doctors and nurses really cared until I became one."
Is there anything you would add? Tell us your hospital secrets and stories in the comments!
