Hospital Sitters are New Members of the Hospital Team
03 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment
Sitters are New Members of the Hospital Team!
Albuquerque, New Mexico., June 28 2010 – A hospital is no place to be left alone. Even with nurses and monitoring equipment all around, it only takes an instant for a dangerous accident to happen. Just the loneliness of a hospital stay can slow recovery and even increase the pain a patient suffers.
The solution is a hospital sitter, a specialized caregiver who provides round-the-clock companionship and monitoring for a patient. Sitters help by keeping watch, running errands, waiting for unconscious patients to wake up, reading aloud or just keeping the patient company.
In-hospital falls are especially common for elderly patients. Ten percent of fatal falls for seniors occur in hospitals. Disoriented or medicated patients can accidentally injure themselves by falling or removing IVs. With only one or two nurses working long shifts and handling many patients, they can’t provide continuous individual monitoring. It often seems like ages from the time you push the nurse call button until anyone responds. While safety is critical, hospital sitters do more than help prevent falls and alert nurses. “Companionship makes great medicine,” says Dr. Jim Johnson of Home Care Assistance, www.HomeCareAssistance.com, a leading provider of hospital sitters and other caregivers. “Knowing another person is in the room watching over them makes a hospital more human.”
Hospital sitters cannot assist in any patient care or physical contact and must stay out of the way of hospital staff. They are under the direction of the nurse. If the patient has an urgent need or a medical emergency, the sitter will immediately summon the nurse in charge.
Hospital sitters help lower accident risks, so some hospital administrators hire sitters to watch over their patients who are at risk for falling out of bed. Physicians sometimes order a continuous, one-to-one sitter for patients who have an impaired ability to understand or follow directions or who don’t realize they could harm themselves.
Some sitters even keep a journal for the patient’s family members, to record every doctor visit and describe any procedures done and the expected and actual outcomes. Sitters can also hold onto a copy of the patient’s Advanced Directives.
Hospital sitters provide peace of mind. Their vigilance ensures safety. Their companionship reduces boredom and depression. Families can go home and rest, knowing the patient will never be alone. For more information about hospital sitters, contact Home Care Assistance at 1-866-454-8346, or visit http://www.HomeCareAssistance.com.
