Consulting the hive mind: hospital behavior
So I was sitting in the Ambulatory Surgery waiting room at Lahey Clinic yesterday, watching quite a few different patients get admitted (many of whom had checked in after I did, I note), and I noticed a range of attitudes among accompanying family/friends as to just how closely they were "accompanying."
One extreme could be described as "I want to hold his hand all the way through, even in the operating room if it were allowed"; the other extreme as "Drop him off at the front door, call me when he's ready to come home"; some took the bag of personal effects and a good book and went off to the Family Waiting Room, others made plans to be back by the time the patient would be waking up. (Presumably there's an even further extreme of "I don't want to be involved at all, I can't stand the sight of a hospital," but by definition I wouldn't have seen any of those.)
What do you think is a reasonable level of involvement? The cultural norm, if you think that's different from "reasonable"? Your own personal standard, if you think you're neither "reasonable" nor "normal"? Bear in mind that this was Ambulatory Surgery, in and out in one day; does involve stripping the patient of all personal effects and in many cases putting them out under general anaesthesia.
One extreme could be described as "I want to hold his hand all the way through, even in the operating room if it were allowed"; the other extreme as "Drop him off at the front door, call me when he's ready to come home"; some took the bag of personal effects and a good book and went off to the Family Waiting Room, others made plans to be back by the time the patient would be waking up. (Presumably there's an even further extreme of "I don't want to be involved at all, I can't stand the sight of a hospital," but by definition I wouldn't have seen any of those.)
What do you think is a reasonable level of involvement? The cultural norm, if you think that's different from "reasonable"? Your own personal standard, if you think you're neither "reasonable" nor "normal"? Bear in mind that this was Ambulatory Surgery, in and out in one day; does involve stripping the patient of all personal effects and in many cases putting them out under general anaesthesia.