Nurses always make vital contributions, but it is during these months in these hospitals that their vigilance is particularly paramount. Experienced nurses have seen more than inexperienced doctors. They know more about the hospital’s equipment and pharmacy system than someone new to the unit. “Nurses are correcting every error and preventing major mistakes every day,” said a Maryland solid-organ transplant nurse.

The residents who know enough to know what they do not know, and, therefore, listen to and seek out nurses for advice, are not the problem here. But too many residents, enamored of their MD status, won’t ask for help. “I’ve had doctors give orders for meds to be given IV that should never be given IV. And residents have asked me what a med was,” said a Washington State ER nurse. “They need to be guided and given lots of hints: ‘Would you like me to call the doctor who specializes in that? Would you like me to order that test?’ I don’t think they realize everything the nurse does for them and the patient. We cover their asses.”

Some patients who must be hospitalized in July for particularly complex procedures might consider avoiding teaching hospitals. Approximately 25 percent of U.S. hospitals are teaching hospitals, which patients can identify by checking the “About Us” page on a hospital’s website.

There are dead people in there.

If you see a large gray box in the hospital hallway, that’s not meal services. It’s probably a container holding a deceased patient, a Pennsylvania nurse said. “The morgue is never labeled that, either. They’ll call it something like ‘Anatomical Pathology,’ so if someone passes by, they won’t think there are dead bodies inside.”

We know secrets about your doctors.

Nurses have much to say about the doctors with whom they work. Perhaps more than anyone else, they are certain which doctors they would trust with their lives and which ones to steer clear of. “If you want to know if a medical facility or a doctor is any good, ask a nurse [away from that facility],” said a Washington State nurse. “Unless she doesn’t like you, she will tell you the truth.”

Some of their observations include:

After the procedures, when witnesses dwindle, doctors aren’t necessarily on their best behavior. An Arkansas nurse watched a cardiovascular surgeon check whether his female patient was awake. The doctor pulled down the sheet and twisted the patient’s nipple. “My reflex was as if he had done this to me: As soon as he touched her, I smacked him on the arm. He gave me the dirtiest look,” the nurse said. “A lot of nurses would like to smack their doctors once in a while.”

“Sometimes residents practice procedures on a patient after a code [such as using a needle and catheter to remove fluid from the sac around the heart]. We put a stop to this in our hospital,” said a nurse in the South. This practice does not occur as often as it used to. Before simulators were sophisticated enough for doctor training, physicians would “spend up to eight hours practicing on the deceased, which prevented family from coming in, and they did not know why,” a North Dakota nurse said.

“The highest-rated heart surgeon at my hospital, according to U.S. News & World Report, is the one I would least want to have operating on my family member,” said a nurse in the Northeast. “It seems that more of his cases come out of the OR with bleeding complications. The consensus among the nursing staff is that this happens with him more frequently than our other surgeons.”

“Some physicians, especially psychiatrists, make rounds at night or very early in the morning so they don’t have to talk to the patients,” said a Texas nurse.

“Doctors don’t always tell the truth, they often blame others to protect themselves, and some doctors are lazy. They want nurse practitioners to do the work and they bill for it [in the hospital],” said a Michigan nurse. “I’ve seen a lot of mistakes: misplaced lines, nonsterile technique, lying to patients or withholding information, wrong medication dosage. There was an incident where equipment in the OR was not used correctly and it affected the patient. No one told the family, but staff knew.”

Some doctors and nurses are placing bets about you.

Several nurses confess that they have wagered on patients. Guess the Blood Alcohol is a common game, where actual money changes hands. Other staffs try to guess the injuries of a patient arriving via ambulance. And surgeons have been observed playing “games of chance” during operations, placing bets on outcomes of risky procedures.

Hospital codes can vary, but the meanings are fairly common.

Different “codes” mean different things at the hospitals that announce them over the loudspeaker, but here is a sampling of what they can stand for (some hospitals use different colors to refer to these scenarios):

Code Blue: patient in cardiac arrest

Code Pink: infant abduction (all exits are secured)

Code Red: fire

Code Orange: hazardous material spill

Code Silver: hostage or weapon situation

Code White: communications equipment or computer system failure

Code Green (or Condition Green): combative patient

Code Gray: tornado warning/severe weather; a combative or violent patient or visitor

Depending on the hospital, a bomb threat can be a Code Gold, Code White, Code Black, or Code Yellow (among others).

Sometimes hospitals don’t want patients to guess what a page means.

Some hospitals further disguise codes to announce bad news. A page for Dr. or Mr. Firestone can indicate a fire. Code Strong signals hospital security that a patient or visitor is becoming aggressive. “MSET” (Medical Surgical Emergency Team) alerts staff to an unresponsive patient. At some hospitals, Code Lavender means that a doctor or nurse is overtaxed; at Ohio’s Cleveland Clinic and Hawaii’s North Hawaii Community Hospital, a rapid response team including a chaplain and a holistic nurse offers the healthcare provider Reiki, light massage, healthy snacks, water, and a lavender bracelet so that he or she remembers to take it easy.

Actually, Code Lavender, which is called approximately once or twice a week, is meant to achieve what Lara had hoped for with the debriefing room. Originally, Cleveland Clinic’s healing services team was created in 2008 for patients. “Then we started getting called more and more often for staff. If you care for one nurse, you’ve cared for twenty patients,” said the Reverend Amy Greene, director of spiritual care. Healing services is most often summoned for staff after an unexpected death. The team arranges backup coverage and finds the nurse or doctor a quiet corner in a break room or broom closet where she can listen to meditative music, talk to a chaplain, or simply find a few moments of peace.

The break lasts approximately ten minutes, which is enough to recharge someone, Greene said. “Compassion is self-perpetuating and reinvigorating, and it doesn’t take that long. Symbolically, this says that what happened to you is important, you’re important, and the institution has your back. Caring for the caregivers is much more important than we thought in times past.”

We have our own secret codes, too.

The most universal code that nurses call among themselves is a Code Brown, an elegant designation for an inelegant situation: a defecation mess. If you hear nurses referring to “liver rounds,” they are probably talking about happy hour. Non-gastrointestinal doctors who say they are doing “G.I. rounds” are likely taking a break to eat.

Some people impersonate nurses, and you have no idea.

A medical/surgical nurse who has worked in a pediatrician’s office warned that when you call a doctor’s office to speak to a nurse, you might not actually reach one. “Parents call to ask the nurse a medical question about their child. The medical assistants, who are not nurses, pick up the phone, say, ‘Hello, this is the nurse,’ and then give advice,” she said. “This is illegal and dangerous. Parents have no idea this is going on. MAs have taken a one- or two-year certificate training program, may not have a college degree, and do not have a license. I’ve heard them give incorrect advice. We worked hard to get where we are and it makes me mad when people think they can easily do our job. We have a two- or four-year college degree and a Registered Nursing License. If you are calling in to a doctor’s office, make sure you know who you are speaking to.” Ask whether you are speaking to a licensed nurse or to a medical assistant.