How do you handle overnight hospital stays?

I believe, if at all possible, an advocate for the parent should be with the elderly patient at all times.  Between the illness and general forgetfulness, things slip through the cracks.  When my mother was sick, my dad and I took shifts so all nurses and doctors would know what was happening because she could not tell them.

My mother has been hospilized several times in the past year and i either stayed with her or the hospital had a caretaker who stayed with her overnight and this was a respite for me. Most hospitals have aids that they assign to a patient who has memory impairment.

When my father was hospitalized for 3 days, my siblings and I took turns spending the night. He really was never alone in the hospital. Thankfully, it was good that we did this as they had a couple of medicine mishaps and he had trouble getting to the bathroom at night but he would never have buzzed the nurse to help him.