nurses put in for a room sitter

After Marie's surgery to repair the spinal fluid leak, she had a big bandage on her head. She was kept slightly elevated to keep the area dry of spinal fluid, so that the stitches had the best chance to heal. Marie's confusion and poor memory were still the same.

The hospital didn't want Marie to get out of bed on her own, and risk getting hurt, so they set an alarm on her bed. If she tried to get off the bed the an alarm would sound and the nurse would come to investigate.
As many times as the nurses would tell Marie to press the button if she need to get up, and as many times as Marie would say okay, she would never remember to call for the nurse. She would never remember that there was any conversation at all.

That was a big frustration for me, and one of the biggest differences that I found between the oncology floor and the neurological floor. Marie's poor memory wasn't her fault. On the oncology floor she was treated with respect and consideration for what she was going through. On the neurological floor she was just another patient with a brain problem. At times Marie was so fast that she could get out of bed before the nurse could react to the bed alarm. As long as she wasn't in danger she wasn't a problem. So the nurses put in for a room sitter. Their responsibility was to keep Marie in bed and call for help if she got up.