WASHINGTON — Nurses get a firsthand look at conditions in our hospitals: they work there everyday amidst the dramas and miracles of modern medicine. And one of the things they have learned is when hospitals are at their best, and when they’re not.
“Try not to get sick in July,” says Alexandra Robbins, the author of “The Nurses: A Year of Secrets, Drama and Miracles with the Heroes of the Hospital.”
Robbins followed four nurses at four very different big city hospitals. Along the way, she learned many things that patients should know, including the worst time to end up in the hospital.
“Try to avoid teaching hospitals where death rates in July spike between eight and 34 percent,” she says, noting that that is the month when new doctors fresh out of medical school come on staff.
She says the nurses she followed told her they have to be extra vigilant when the less experienced physicians came on board “so the nurses are working overtime to try to catch the mistakes.”
Robbins says the nurses believe a vigilant network of family and friends around a patient can help too, any time of year.
“If you are in a hospital, if your loved one is in the hospital, have someone with you at least 16 hours a day — it helps to have an extra set of eyes.”
The nurses she interviewed also stressed the importance of hand washing in hospitals to keep germs and infection away.
“Whenever anybody comes into your room, make them wash their hands,” Robbins says, noting sometimes even nurses and doctors forget.
