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1. 🇳🇴 Thor — backup account (thorthenorseman@octodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 26-Feb-2019 07:02:11 EST 🇳🇴 Thor — backup account

   I don't know what the situation is in other countries, but in Norway, hospitals really don't give a shit about the next of kin.

   They have this very neatly divided system where the nurses carry out all the direct care and deal with the next of kin, and the next of kin must leave the room when it's time for the doctor to see the patient.

   What I have learned about nurses in the past couple of weeks is that they don't really know anything, despite their college education.

   1. 🇳🇴 Thor — backup account (thorthenorseman@octodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 26-Feb-2019 07:07:05 EST 🇳🇴 Thor — backup account

      in reply to

      What nurses can tell you is what they've seen and heard, and details pertaining to the day-to-day care of the patient, for example blood pressure and medications. What they can't tell you is anything about medical procedures, anatomy or prognoses, which is exactly the sort of information you want as the next of kin. You want to talk to the doctor, basically. I had perhaps expected more out of nurses in 2019, but they're not more competent than their 1950s counterparts in the ways that matter.

      1. 🇳🇴 Thor — backup account (thorthenorseman@octodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 26-Feb-2019 07:10:32 EST 🇳🇴 Thor — backup account

         in reply to

         There seems to be a strong attitude embedded in the system that nothing must come between the doctor and the patient. This sounds like a positive statement, but what it actually means is that doctors don't feel obligated to give information to the next of kin, because they take that as "getting between" them and the patient. The only sense in which that is true is in terms of time slots. I don't have a right to interfere anyway. All I want is information.

         1. 🇳🇴 Thor — backup account (thorthenorseman@octodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 26-Feb-2019 07:13:49 EST 🇳🇴 Thor — backup account

            in reply to

            To take a ridiculous example of how little they tell the next of kin: They told us they'd move my mother to a facility up north in the days ahead, but couldn't say when, because they needed to wait for air transport first. Fine. However, they then went ahead and transported her yesterday without notifying us. We only learned it a day later when dad called them. To me, it seems like madness that the next of kin doesn't even know where the patient is.