Whats your biggest pet peeve working in the ED?

Specialties Emergency

Published

Id have to say my biggest pet peeve is when someone hands you a medicaid card as they pull it from their Louis Vuitton handbag with bling on their hands after having rolled up to the ER in their Mercedes Benz! After that I'd say when someone comes to the ER for a UPT. Dont they know they are available at the dollar store now adays?

Specializes in Trauma/Critical Care/ED.

Everyone needs to watch the videos on YouTube if you've not seen them. Try searching for "how we would like to talk to patients" because they are most amusing and so true! There are a bunch of other animated videos along with that one :)

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.
Ya'll need to start thinking out of the box...

You're right...I need to think outside the box so I can work the system too. Hopefully I get far enough where I get the nurses on here to support me so I don't have to work and their tax dollars can supply me with a cell phone.

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Ya'll need to start thinking out of the box...I've been in this girls shoes before...that $20 could be all she has for the next week, two weeks, month to use for food, bus or whatever. Just because someone has a twenty doesn't mean there is more where it came from. And did you not consider that her phone is turned off cause she does not have the money to pay the bill, so she can't use it for calls but she can still use the address book?

Sure, the $20 could be all she has.

The phone could be turned off.

Alternately, the patient could have been yammering on her cell phone making a hair appontment drinking a $4 coffees, complaining of 12/10 pain.

I'll give the nurse the benefit of the doubt on his/her ability to assess the situation. Part of our job is to read between the lines. I have insisted on giving a patient a cab voucher even though he assured me he had the resources to get home. He probaly did, but in my judgement, he could have put that $10 to good use. He accepted it graciously. Nobody would have criticized me for doubting the pt's claims, and reading vetween the lines. He was a proud man, who I managed to help without injuring his pride.

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.
Ya'll need to start thinking out of the box...I've been in this girls shoes before...that $20 could be all she has for the next week, two weeks, month to use for food, bus or whatever. Just because someone has a twenty doesn't mean there is more where it came from. And did you not consider that her phone is turned off cause she does not have the money to pay the bill, so she can't use it for calls but she can still use the address book?

And I should have just ignored the carton of cigarettes in her bag? Maybe it was almost empty and the $20 was already allocated to the next pack...

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My biggest pet peeve is the constant complaining about the wait in ER. Hello, this is the ER. Whatever made you think it would be a quick in and out? Let me push that STEMI out of the way so you and abdominal pain can get right in. Do me a favor first, and throw that cheeseburger and chips away. It's hard to believe you've been vomiting all day when you are chowing down on a burger in triage. If you have to wait, its good news, you aren't dying!

My second biggest pet peeve is the people who go on and on to yes or no questions. Question: Are you allergic to any medication?" Answer: "Well, one time I was at my neighbors and bla bla bla.... it is a yes or no question! Yes or No

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Specializes in Emergency.

To piggy back on the wait time pet peeve...

The patient's who actually WAIT for 6+ hours in the ER to be seen. Sometimes I understand why, but when someone waits for 6+ hours to be seen for an ingrown toe nail then asks for narcs to go home with, that drives me crazy. If you're still alive after 6+ hours, you dont need to be in the ER.

My favorite conversation in the last month after ingrown toe nail extraction:

Pt: "motrin wont TOUCH my pain."

Me: "well, you just had a piece of your toe nail removed. It's going to be painful. But luckily you have prescription strength Motrin which will help with the swelling, which will minimize the pressure on those nerve endings. And with the decrease in swelling, it will really help with pain. Besides, how would you know if it's getting better if you're masking the pain with the strong stuff? *SMILE*"

Pt: "I can't function like this!"

Me: "Well, you REALLY can't function on narcotics. It messes with your cognitive processes amongst other things. Did you know you could get a DUI if you were taking narcotics and driving or riding a bike?"

Pt: "Fine, I'll just go down the street to the other hospital. they always give me the narcs."

Me: "ok."

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1) the patient who you spend 30minutes assessing, doing bloodwork, ecg, etc only to sign themselves out without being seen...what a waist of time

2) doctors who practice family medicine in the ER

3) patients who have a family doctor but use the ER as their routine healthcare service...as shown by the amount they come to emerg on their EMR

4) patients families who flip flop with their loved ones DNR status....no DNR, DNR, no DNR, DNR....I've had this happen twice where the family kept changing their mind :S very confusing.

5) infection control policies in the ER....

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Specializes in Pediatric ER, Adult ER.

I used to think my biggest peeve was dealing with drug seekers, but now I realize that it's dealing with young women who come in complaining of "abdominal pain" knowing that we will do a UPT (which will be postive) and a "free" ultrasound. They already know they are pregnant but want the discharge paper that says it so they can get Medicaid. We get an average of 3 a day!

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Specializes in ER, ICU.
Aren't you supposed to chart what the patient says? If they say 10 that's what you're supposed to put down, not "eyeroll" and put down what you think it is.
I chart that "patient reports some improvement to pain, per FACES chart XX/10, pt in NAD in bed texting on phone and watching tv."
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Specializes in ER, ICU.

Not sure what my biggest pet peeve is but here are a few:

Def get annoyed by women who come in for a urine hcg.

Ppl who come in around 0500 with "back pain x1 week" and one of the first things out of their mouth is "...and I'll need a work excuse".

Pts who complain of pain 15/10. I have told my patients before that I would never want to have pain 10/10 b/c I would have to be on death's door. And I thought kidney stones were bad!!

Parents who bring their kids in for fever but never checked the temp at home and/or didn't give any meds. My ER is just down the road from Walmart and most of our pts have to pass it in order to get to us. Really? Is our motrin magical?

Pumps - where the heck do they go?!?! Why can we never find any pumps in the ED and yet the floors have them stockpiled? Ugh, just return the darn things and we'll bring one up with the next pt who is admitted.

Doctors who try to weasel out of discharging the pt. It's what you're paid to do. Go talk to the pt and tell them their results. Do not give me the results and ask me to pass it on that they are all neg and the pt needs to follow up with their PCP.

That's all I can think of for now...I've had an easy week so all the normal peeves are not in the forefront. ;)

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A lawyer's wife.came with her sick child.High fever.

but when doctor prescribe a medicine for her child.He argue with the doctor that it was not the perfect treatment for her child and even suggest to change the medicine with other medicine.

Why brought her child late at night when she not even agreed with the doc's treatment and have her own version of treatment??

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.

I have no idea what my patients Ins. status is. Admissions handles that and I have never looked.

My Pet Peeves:

Patients that smell so bad. I wish we could hang air fresheners around them. They smell like ashtrays and alcohol and I am trapped in this small room with them. Hate it!

Those that complain about having to wait with stuff they could go to urgent care for. I will usually tell them we have an Urgent Care, actually 5 of them in this small town.

Those that take the ambulance for the most absurd stuff. If you can jump off the ambulance and skip into the ER than you could have come through the front door. I wish the ambulances could require an upfront co-pay for non emergent patients.

Floor nurses that constnatly have excuses for not taking patients or our BHS facility doing the same thing. Seriously I understand you're busy and overwhelemed, but I have a full ER with all our beds full, ambulances coming non stop and 15 deep in the waiting room, a patient that's been waiting 4 hrs from time the Admit status went up because we had to wait for the residents to write orders before they could be assigned a room and now you're telling me that it's a bad time and you're going to have to call me back. HUGE PET PEEVE OF MINE!

Oh and for the love of all things Holy, if you take multiple medications, have a freaking up to date current med list with the exact name and dosage and frequency you're supposed to take it.

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