"Privacy and dignity for patients"

The hospital can be a very frustrating experience for people, but for me, as a very private person, I found that some staff completely forgot about what privacy and dignity actually mean. 

I needed to share a room with 5 other bed mates, so any modicum of privacy I could get, I would take. The curtains are one of the few things patients have to protect their privacy and dignity.

During my stay, I was woken at 6:30am to discover all of my curtains had been pulled open while I was sleeping. I was adjacent to the hallway too, so everyone walking up and down, had full view of me. This made me really upset. I did voice this to a member of staff and the person who opened my curtain came to apologise, but the following morning, a different member of staff started opening up my curtains, i was barely awake but at least able to tell them to stop and leave them. I believe staff should need to ask permission before opening your curtains, as opposed to simply opening them all because it's morning.

As a species, we are wary of wide open spaces, that's why we have bedrooms, even when camping, we have tents. It makes us feel safe. To wake up and feel like you are in the middle of some unknown place full of strangers is not a nice feeling. The curtains provide that feeling of safety, of being enclosed. Imagine you were back in high school. You wake up in the middle of the assembly hall and everyone is just casually going about their business around you, occasionally looking at you with a smile. Would you not feel violated? The idea that anyone can just look at you while you could be rolling around in compromising positions, drooling, dazed. Those who have it worse than me, struggling with diarrhea or other messy issues, lying there with mess on them as they roll over in their sleep, then in full view of strangers. 

When you are also stuck in hospital all day, the last thing I wanted was to be uncomfortable about being awake. When sharing a room with so many and having no curtains, I felt watched. I felt like I didn't know where to look and so found myself staring at my phone just so I didn't have to catch the eyes of strangers. With the curtains closed, I could fully relax. Put my earphones in and pretend I was not in an invasive place. These strangers already get to hear every detail of my "private" consultations with my doctors. Due to being in the early stages of pregnancy, i have also not been able to have any visitors other than my husband because I cannot guarantee that some stranger or a well meaning member of staff will mention my pregnancy around my family of friends when its too early to be telling anyone.  

There are also bed mates here who make me uncomfortable. Strangers who loudly argue and complain or their general mannerisms make me uncomfortable. These people can't strike up an unwilling conversation from me if they can't see or hear me and it's very difficult to end an uncomfortable conversation with a stranger if you have nowhere to else to go.

I think staff should be trained that curtains should always be left as you found them unless a patient asks or you offer and are given permission.