In the Wake of Attacks: The Role of Patient Television
By Susan E. Mazer
Access and utilization of commercial television for patients and family members has become an expectation of the hospital experience. Yet in this time of unending reporting of violence, war, devastation, and profound injury and loss of life, it is worth questioning what is appropriate television exposure to support recovery for acute and critical care patients and their families.
While caring for four survivors of the Columbine High School shootings in April 1999, administrators at Craig Hospital in Englewood, Colorado, had to be extremely sensitive to the sound environment. Kenny Hosack, Director of Marketing and Public Relations at Craig Hospital, reports that these students had been "rained on" by the school sprinkler system for up to 2-3 hours; terrorized by sounds of gunshots, sirens, and helicopters; and had both seen and smelled fear and death.
Subsequently, the hospital staff intentionally became sensitive to "sound-alike" triggers that could inadvertently cause alarm, such as showers, 4th of July firecrackers, and fire drills. They controlled the media and counseled patients and families regarding the intended and unintended consequences of media exposure.
On September 11th, reports from New York graphically portrayed the devastation of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center towers, including news of wheelchair bound workers being either heroically carried down main flights of stairs, or dying trapped on the higher floors unable to negotiate an escape. In either case, for newly injured patients just beginning to take stock of being themselves paralyzed, this news being repeated over and over was inappropriate and detrimental to their own well-being and rehabilitation.
That day, Terry Chase, Director of Patient Education at Craig Hospital, went around to the nurses' stations to encourage use of the C.A.R.E. Channel to provide an alternative to round-the-clock news. On the 12th of September, it was still being used.
Patients who are victims of attacks or accidents and their family members rely on the hospital staff to guide them through the process of managing a new life characterized by injuries from which they will have limited recovery. The impact of commercial television programming and the monitoring of its use in relationship to the care of patients must not merely be according to preference. Pain management, depression, and anxiety are clinical issues that are determined subjectively.
In tending to patients, the role of television viewing as part of the environment of care requires far more sensitivity to the circumstance and impact of outside influences. In Notes on Nursing, Florence Nightingale, was very specific about protecting the patient from news that would be in conflict with recovery, as well as "chattering hopes," where patients were patronized with a denial of their condition.
This is not to imply that there should be total denial of access to the news or other programming of interest that covers important events. It does mean, however, that alternatives should be offered and attention should be paid to the impact of such exposure on patients and families and an on-going determination as to whether it places patients at risk.
In these times of continuing political strife, the environment of the hospital must emphasize health and healing and give respite from world situations,
Which patients and families cannot manage nor impact.
In looking back at the long-term impact of the Columbine incident on the community and what happened while tending to the survivors, Mr. Hosack reaffirmed that while it took a long time to return to a sense of normal, the events and the hospital staff's response to them has become part of "who we are," undoubtedly a process that is repeating itself in New York hospitals in the aftermath of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks.
