My mom was hospitalized (for about 2 months) up until her death. She was in ICU until they felt she was stable, then moved to a "getting ready to move someplace else when patient and family figure out where" ward. Her nursing care in ICU was wonderful. In the other ward, it was horrible. This wasn't the nurses' fault - they were incredibly understaffed, and didn't have time to much that wasn't scheduled or didn't involve an emergency. There was a cleaning woman there who would do little things for my mom, like re-arrange her pillows, raise and lower her bed, and take the plastic stuff off her food. This meant all the world to my mom. For one thing, she hardly had an appetite, and if she didn't eat when the "gourmet" hospital meals were still hot, she didn't eat. The day my mom died, I went and found that woman, and told her what my mother had said about her - that she had done more to help than all the doctors and nurses on that ward.

I know the nurses' were doing their best, and they wouldn't have put up with the pay and the understaffing if they didn't truly care. The difference between good and bad care from many patients' perspectives is compassion. It's a shame that often compassion is cast aside in the interest of "efficiency."