Pillow Talk From impactednurse.com

In his latest post over at impactednurse.com Iain Miller talks about pillows. Here is some of what he has to say. To read the rest click on the above link.

In hospitals, pillows are like puffy chunks of white gold.

Almost every patient needs at least one pillow. And many require complicated pillow constructions to pad and support the various broken areas of their anatomy. Or to stop them tumbling out of bed. Or, when the correct amount of pressure is applied,  stop those really annoying patients altogether.

Unfortunately, the worlds pillow resources are beginning to dwindle.

We are always running out of pillows in the ED and are often forced to mount covert pillow acquisition missions to the wards.

They in turn, are forever pinching our own pillows when we transfer patients. 

Yup, pillow smuggling is big business.

Hahaha! Last year my son broke his arm and we began the great pillow shuffle! A pillow from Pambula went with us to Bega then to Canberra along with an extra one stolen from Bega. One of these disappeared into the Canberra Pillow System not to be seen again but we returned home with one small child cocooned in pillows all boldly marked with their supposed owners names. So sorry Canberra I gave your pillow (actually I believe that Royal North Shore may have staked first claim) back to Pambula Hospital as compensation for the one the Ambo’s initially stole. But while it was in my possession it racked up over 3000 kms in the car and came back to Canberra to visit regularly. Maybe I should have added my name to the list before returning it to it’s place in the Great Pillow Shuffle!
Another skill I have noticed around Hospitals is covert wheelchair theft. You park it, you lose it! I got quite good at it myself under the expert tutelage of a Paediatric Nurse who knew all the tricks. Lurking in all the right corridors, knowing who was going to give chase, it all becomes a bit of a game (until the chair goes missing and you have to find another way to get your child mobile).
So what I want to know is - What else gets stolen? And what bizarre measures do you take to get the equipment you need?




Stay Safe - Nurse Wannabe