Hospital honours

Are you planning a visit to see a loved one in the hospital or nursing home? The right kind of visitors can be just what the doctor ordered, but the wrong kind can bring more than discomfort. Unfortunately, a patient is extremely vulnerable--often confined to a room, away from the familiar environment of home and perhaps in the grip of physical discomfort and a variety of emotions. So, it's up to the visitor to be respectful by following general guidelines when visiting a loved one.

Be Welcome

The only formal visitor rules established for hospitals are visiting Hours. Typically, visiting hours are during a 10- to 12-hour period, starting after morning rituals such as baths and treatments and ending in time for evening routines and care.
This ensures patients get adequate rest for recovery and enough privacy.

Call ahead and request permission to visit and check visiting hours. Knock or ask permission to enter.

Show up. Do not promise to visit and then not come. If you can't make it, call ahead and suggest another time.

Don't come en masse. Family visits should include no more than two people. Unless a child needs to visit a parent who is ill for psychological relief for either, please leave children out of hospital visits. They can be a nuisance and are prone to infections.

Keep your stay short. A 10- to 15-minute visit is long enough for someone whose endurance is low.

Stay home

If you have an upper respiratory tract infection, don't visit. Yes. We do mean the common cold too. You're not only putting your family member, whose resistance may already be low, at risk, but you're also putting other residents and staff at risk.

Though these aren't official visitor regulations, common courtesy is necessary.

Dealing with the challenged

Tact is the key to communication with the challenged…
When you encounter a person with a disability of any kind, think again before you voice your thoughts, because the seemingly ordinary statement may hurt feelings and sentiments.

To get the attention of a person with a hearing loss, tap the person on the shoulder or wave your hand. Look directly at the person and speak clearly and slowly. Shouting won't help, and it may lessen the person's ability to understand. Written notes are fine for short conversations.

When talking with a person in a wheelchair for more than a few minutes please sit down, in order to place yourself at the person's eye level.

When greeting a person with a severe loss of vision, always identify yourself and others who might be with you. Speak in a normal tone of voice. Indicate in advance when you will be moving from one place to another, and let it be known when the conversation is at an end.

Listen attentively when talking with a person who has a speech impairment. Keep your manner encouraging rather than correcting. Repeat what you understand.

• DON'T SAY handicap, handicapped. SAY disability or person with a disability. Emphasize the person, not the disability. In fact, people now say 'differently- abled' rather than disabled.

• DON'T SAY victim of or afflicted with a stroke, polio, muscular dystrophy, etc. SAY person who has multiple sclerosis, or person who has had a spinal cord injury.

• DON'T SAY wheelchair-bound or confined to a wheelchair. SAY person who uses a wheelchair or has a wheelchair. Most people who use a wheelchair do not regard them as confining. They are viewed as liberating.

• DON'T SAY deaf and dumb. SAY person who is deaf, hearing impaired, or hard of hearing. Most deaf individuals are capable of speech. The inability to hear or speak does not indicate lower intelligence.

• DON'T SAY the deaf, the visually impaired or the disabled. SAY person who is deaf, persons with visual disabilities, persons with disabilities, etc.

• DON'T SAY spastic, Mongoloid, deformed, defective, or crippled.

• These words are offensive and demeaning.

• Use the correct term, if you know it. If you don't, remain silent until you do.