Tips from Nurses for Your Next Hospital Visit

A few years ago, I contracted pneumonia and landed in the hospital for a few days. My nurse and I became fast friends as I asked her a thousand questions about her job. During her nightly rounds, she slipped me extra Jell-O, and we watched “Jeopardy!” together, both of us shouting the answers.

Around 34 million Americans visited a hospital in 2023, according to the American Hospital Association. While your stint in a medical center is never going to be a joy, nurses have intel that can help it go more smoothly.

So I asked nurses who work in hospitals for tips to make your stay safer, easier and more comfortable.

Call, don’t fall.

Falls are “a serious and common risk in hospitals,” said Chantal Howard, chief nursing officer at Duke University Hospital. They occur most frequently near the bedside or in the bathroom, according to one study.

Ian Saludares, a nurse administrator at Mount Sinai Hospital, said that patients can fall out of bed when reaching for their phone or glasses on a table. Often, he added, the patient either feels too self-conscious to ask for help, or ignores feelings of dizziness or weakness. “They’ll say, ‘I’m fine, I can do it myself,’” he said.

Instead, don’t hesitate to use your call button, said Brian Fasolka, a clinical assistant professor at the N.Y.U. Rory Meyers College of Nursing. “We want to assist you,” he added. “Falls are a nurse’s worst nightmare.”

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