Hospital has a new TV patient channel
Feb 22, 2013 12:00 am
Hospital has a new TV patient channel
Photo:
Photo: Some of the staff members, who helped set up the Patient Channel at Rumford Hospital, watch a program on the Newborn Channel, from left, are ICU Nurse Janice Durland, Birthing Center Nurse Amanda Dalton, Inpatient Clinical Coordinator Dale Gaudreau and Environmental Services Coordinator Tracey Milledge.
RUMFORD -- Patient Channel provides education on topics from congestive heart failure to irregular heart beat, from diabetes to living wills, from smoking cessation to managing cholesterol.
Patients and their families at Rumford Hospital can watch these educational programs as many times as they want until they have absorbed all the information.
"I'm very excited about the education the Patient Channel provides," says Inpatient Nurse Manager Joette Carlton. "It reinforces the education that nurses provide."
There is also a Newborn Channel that runs the gamut from breast feeding to baby's oral health, from newborn care to coping with post partum depression.
Each patient folder contains a program guide as well as the information that is usually in the packet. A new packet is placed on each over-the-bed table when a room is cleaned in anticipation of a new admission. With a special password, patients can continue to watch the channel at home on personal computing devices.
With TVs in every patient room the two new education channels are easy to access in addition to the regular programming. Nurses help patients to find the channels and the programs they want to watch. "Patients love it," adds Carlton.