Our daughter was in for surgery at a world renowned hospital #1 for what she needed ... and our experience was like your second example. After she moved to the step-down unit from the ICU, she had the same day nurse for the next three days and the same night nurse for four, as well as a consistent overnight NP throughout. We had a private room with a separate vestibule containing a washing station & laundry bin for scrubs/aprons. Also in the room was a whiteboard where the current nurse always wrote the intended schedule and reviewed it with us at the start of their shift. Our room had a single-bed sized sofa and a fold-out chair. It was quiet, and except when we had to wake our daughter for overnight oral meds, the nurses let her sleep. To be honest, while it was a hugely stressful situation, I'm convinced the hospital recovery environment and staff played an enormous role in our daughter being able to be discharged only 4 days after open heart surgery.