As I discussed in my last entry, there’s just something about hospitals, some kind of bad karma attached to most of them. I guess that you can’t expect many good vibes from a place where most people are sick and suffering. But still, there seems to be some sort of “feng shui” problem, some type of institutional coldness, some brand of bad thinking that everyone brings to the place on top of all the problems of the patients. It seems to go all the way back to the people who designed and built the hospital. I’ve heard that modern hospitals are becoming aware of this and are trying to overcome it. (The British NHS even hired a feng shui expert to help their hospitals.)
Unfortunately, my mother’s hospital is stuck with the old look and the old feel. Here’s a shot that I took from the outside. Even from this distance, you can just feel the hospital vibes. You know that this is a hospital; and even if they get all the medicine and therapy right, both patients and family members are in for a rough ride. Also, from what I heard, the folks who work there aren’t exactly crazy about the place either (but most of them still do their best out of sympathy for the patients).
Thank goodness that my mother is now out of there, and let’s hope that she doesn’t need to go back again. I now understand why my brother was so frantic to have someone there with her at all times; you have to bring your own healing atmosphere. Medicare doesn’t pay for it, so the hospital doesn’t provide it.
Jim,
You certainly are right that one has to bring his/her own healing atmosphere to a hospital as no amount of money can pay for the healing atmosphere patients need. Hopefully, Britain may be on to something if they are checking into the feng shui of their hospitals. Maybe that will help a little.
Then there is the hospital staff. Have you ever noticed? When one is really very ill, the presence of some nurses, CNAs, techs, etc., can immediately make the patient feel better; the presence of others make one want to say, get out of here immediately; you are making me feel worse. I have noticed this every single time I’ve been in the hospital over my lifetime–and I’ve been in the hospital for more or less serious problems on and off over the years.
I was in the hospital last year and realized something about the “vibes” one gets off the nursing staff: I realized that one of the nurses who was assigned to me seemed to want “something” from me. Was it approval? Was it compliments about the wonderful job she did? (Actually in reality I thought she didn’t have any common sense at all.) Did she want some kind of “socializing conviviality from me? At one point I thought that might have been it. But when one is ill, one is not in a position to be socially gracious.
I did notice that the last time I was in the hospital those of the nursing staff who managed to make me feel better just by their “vibes” seemed non-existent. Perhaps the problem is that the nursing staff is so overworked and given such a pittance in pay that they have no “vibes” left for anything except getting their “job” done.
Feng shui may help somewhat, but I also think that the nursing staff needs to be paid according to the responsibility they have–and for certain of the staff their responsibilities are H-U-G-E. Though admittedly, there are some of the nursing staff who are nothing much other than “pill pushers”–getting the meds to the patients. Yes, that is a responsibility that requires careful attention–right meds, right times, etc. However, pushing pills is much less a responsibility than that of ER nurses or OR nurses, critical care nurses, etc.
I have also noticed over the years that some of the most famous of hospitals (my mother went to one and died in one and my sister still goes to the same one when she has required hospitalization. I, however, have never stepped into this nationally renowned teaching hospital without feeling as if it were a factory–and I have thought about that word long and hard and “factory” is the only word that seems appropriate to me. It’s “fix” this one, next! Assembly line comes to mind. Could feng shui fix that problem?
MCS
Comment by MCS — March 1, 2009 @ 6:36 pm
Jim,
You certainly are right that one has to bring his/her own healing atmosphere to a hospital as no amount of money can pay for the healing atmosphere patients need. Hopefully, Britain may be on to something if they are checking into the feng shui of their hospitals. Maybe that will help a little.
Then there is the hospital staff. Have you ever noticed? When one is really very ill, the presence of some nurses, CNAs, techs, etc., can immediately make the patient feel better; the presence of others make one want to say, get out of here immediately; you are making me feel worse. I have noticed this every single time I’ve been in the hospital over my lifetime–and I’ve been in the hospital for more or less serious problems on and off over the years.
I was in the hospital last year and realized something about the “vibes” one gets off the nursing staff: I realized that one of the nurses who was assigned to me seemed to want “something” from me. Was it approval? Was it compliments about the wonderful job she did? (Actually in reality I thought she didn’t have any common sense at all.) Did she want some kind of “socializing conviviality from me? At one point I thought that might have been it. But when one is ill, one is not in a position to be socially gracious.
I did notice that the last time I was in the hospital those of the nursing staff who managed to make me feel better just by their “vibes” seemed non-existent. Perhaps the problem is that the nursing staff is so overworked and given such a pittance in pay that they have no “vibes” left for anything except getting their “job” done.
Feng shui may help somewhat, but I also think that the nursing staff needs to be paid according to the responsibility they have–and for certain of the staff their responsibilities are H-U-G-E. Though admittedly, there are some of the nursing staff who are nothing much other than “pill pushers”–getting the meds to the patients. Yes, that is a responsibility that requires careful attention–right meds, right times, etc. However, pushing pills is much less a responsibility than that of ER nurses or OR nurses, critical care nurses, etc.
I have also noticed over the years that some of the most famous of hospitals (my mother went to one and died in one and my sister still goes to the same one when she has required hospitalization. I, however, have never stepped into this nationally renowned teaching hospital without feeling as if it were a factory–and I have thought about that word long and hard and “factory” is the only word that seems appropriate to me. It’s “fix” this one, next! Assembly line comes to mind. Could feng shui fix that problem?
MCS
Comment by MCS — March 1, 2009 @ 6:36 pm