Why do people drag there small children into the hospital to visit a sick pt?

Why on earth would you want your small child to come to visit a relative when they are sick in the hospital? So many people bring there screaming babies and toddlers into visit. What is the point. Do you look at the hospital as a social event? Do you understand we take care of people with very infectious disease such as TB, hepatitis, Pneumonia, and these people poop and urinate on the floor, the same floor you let your kids crawl around on. Do you know most nurses would like for you to take your screaming kids home and sick pts are not interested in your kids?

Do people realized the likelihood of leaving with a hospital aquired infection is life threatening. Hospitals are colonized with germs. You can get a germ just by being a patient in the hospital. Hospitals look sterile, but looks are decieving.

Boy you must work at a dumpy hospital to not have a cleaned and sterile enviroment. At the one i worked it was spotless 24/7. and the kids were not screaming and causing problmes in most cases they bought delight to those they visited. Exspecially the ones who have to stay a long time. You are a caluse b*tch and i hope to never have you halp anyone of my hundreds of relatives theere is over 300 living in my family.

a hospital isnt that dirty or have alot of germs .. Geeeeze. they even change sheets EVERY DAY... when was the last time you changed yours. 2 or 3 weeks ago ? WAKE UP !!! They clean their bathrooms 3 times a day. you probably clean yours once a week.. YUK . BY!

First of all maybe their relative is dying and they want everyone to say their goodbyes secondly some people can't find a sitter so have to bring them with. Who r u to judge people when it maybe their family members last few days on this earth. Think about that before u judge people. By the way most hospitals have a visitation rule about bringing small children to visit if it's not family (immediate family) they r not allowed in!!!!

A lot of times they may not have a babysitter, not intentional, I've had to do that before but I made my visit short.But I do agree with you that it's a place where people are trying to get well and not everyone's children are welcome.Yes, you are exposing them to different diseases and this is not only a place for sick patients it's also someone's workplace(doctor's,nurses,etc.) and I would think that in a crisis if you had to get to a patient's room fast, I wouldn't want to trip over kids.Most hospitals have a visit room (mine does)where if the patient is able they can go to the room and visit with children and if this is the case it should be strongly enforced.

I really donot know. I guess they donot realise the implications of allowing little kids run around in a hospital. I work in a hospital and I cannot believe the number of people who will bring in babies and toddlers into the unit where I work. On my unit, we deal with people who have just left ICU and are still too sick to be on a regular floor. It is called an intermediate floor and we deal with paitents who are sometimes on isolation. But over and over again I see family members who ignore isolation procedure and take little kids into such rooms without wearing the required gowns, gloves and masks. I try to understand that sometimes families miss their relation who is sick and want to come see them. but why expose children to such bugs?? I agree that hospitals undergo much more cleaning then regular homes but regular homes donot have to deal with the amount of sick people and bugs that exist in the hospital. I have seen cases where patients come to the hospital and develop new infections which they didnot have before they came. Just a couple of days ago my whole unit had to go to occupational health to collect perscriptions because a DOCTOR who worked on the unit had just been diagnosed with WHOOPING COUGH. I also have seen a scenario where a whole unit had to be tested for TUBERCULOSIS because they had admitted a patient who had been on the unit for a couple of days before they discovered the patient had TB. These are scenarios that are few and far in between but they do happen. Please for the sake of the health of your innocent children, leave the kids at home.

I know what you mean. It pisses me off. I work in a hospital and I see families insist on taking their babies and small children to visit their sick relatives who have infectious diseases. It is so stupid. Down right ignorance. Eventhough we warn them, they still go ahead and take the children in.

I'm an RN and I worked at a community hospital. The general rule there was if you're under twelve, then you shouldn't really visit the hospital.

I now work at a very large hospital in Orange County, CA. It's a teaching facility, which means we have every available resource. Everything is about arguing and debating a current rule.

This whole thing about kids...well, ....Do you know there is no actually study that says a child > 2 years old will contract something more than a regular adult. My first reply was, "NO, a child can not visit". Our nursing educator asked, why not? After hearing this whole thing. I have now changed my stand on this. Family dynamics is important, maybe important enough than enforcing this rule.

If you are an RN, and are going for higher education...don't be so quick to enforce these rules. Ask why. What will happen if "I" don't enforce this rule? Will a terrible consequence occur?

I do agree that a newborn should not be in a hospital, but once they hit 1 year old, there immune system is essentially established.

i think your so right
I'm not going to right a long post because you have sead it all and i agree