Whats your biggest pet peeve working in the ED?

Hagabel · Dec 26, 2012

Rofl! Wow. Uh, I've been a patient? You know, one of the people you ridicule on the job?
I know the difference between all four things and I'd rather sit through a 5 hour tattoo session or get a piercing than ever getting an IV or blood withdrawn. Hands down.
Am I supposed to be a nurse in order to give an opinion on things I have physicially experienced? Smh...

Yes I agree, if you are going to post on a ED nursing board you probably want to know what you are talking about and have some experience, just to appear a little more credible. (nothing personal)

cannolis · Dec 26, 2012

N/m .....

KnitWitch, ASN, RN · Dec 26, 2012

Look, you came to see US. Whether it was for SOB or CP or Abd Pain of *** ever, you came HERE. With all your fellow compatriots with the same complaints. So if you come marching up to my desk, giving me the stink-eye and the rage face because I "won't" (can't) d/c you because the doc has not yet seen your test results/your fluids aren't done/we aren't sure you won't drop dead on us once you depart, DON'T EFFING YELL AT ME ABOUT HOW LONG YOU HAVE BEEN HERE/YOU ARE MISSING WORK/WHATEVER ELSE IS HAPPENING IN THE OUTSIDE WORLD. You chose to come here. We will do everything in our power to treat you. We don't care how long it takes to get valid results and interpretations. If you are seriously concerned about your health YOU SHOULDN'T CARE EITHER. Don't yell at me about how long you have been here. This is not the effing Minute Clinic, though we do put their address on all our d/c paperwork. If you want a quick in-n-out go see them. Otherwise sit tight and quit effing bothering me, as our facilitator has just put a pediatric basilar skull fracture in an intermediate room.

No love at all,

--me

PalmHarborMom · Dec 27, 2012

KnitWitch- I LOVE IT!! Don't you wish that you could tell unreasonable people that? And even Minute Clinics get irate people. I brought my son to a Minute Clinic after him waking up on a Sunday morning with a bad case of pink eye. One Nurse Practitioner and 4 patients showed up right after we did. I guess that they thought "Minute" Clinic meant they could be seen in only a minute. Nevermind that they have had symptoms for 2 weeks and waited until Sunday to be seen. I just shook my head in disbelief as 2 of them started banging on the NP's door to hurry the process. At least they stayed away from my son with the festering eyes and I.

All too often, I see that patients or people in general have an entitled attitude toward any service that they are being provided. They feel entitled to be served first, no matter that the guy that came in after them is circling the drain, or the kid in the next bed can't breathe due to an asthma attack. It would be sad to be so close minded that one can't see that there will always be others that have it worse. Thankfully, nurses are there to keep the entitled from monopolizing available resources. (No matter how much of an earful they get)

shoegalRN, RN · Dec 28, 2012

No, we won't call the surgeon on call to come and give you surgery TODAY for your "chronic" back pain.

And the kid next door with the asthma flare up who can't breathe and we are now putting a tube down his throat takes precedence over your chronic back pain. Yes, it takes ALL those doctors and nurses to "save his life". So, stay in your room and if you come out again bothering staff during a REAL emergency, we will call security. Better yet, we'll let the parents of that kid deal with you street style.

Get over yourself.

AngelfireRN, MSN, RN, APRN · Dec 28, 2012

The first time any patient bangs on my door to hurry me along....wait, make that the NEXT time it happens, I'll deal with them the same way I dealt with the last one that did it. They are no longer allowed in the clinic, and any patient that witnessed the ensuing throwdown ( and whoall else they told) has better sense than to ever pull a stunt like that again.

I don't do entitlement.

GM2RN · Dec 28, 2012

My second biggest peeve is other nurses that take things from my rooms without telling me...especially stock....if you are out, go get a handful from the stock room, its not that much farther away....and don't take my IV pumps when I'm expecting a stemi in a few minutes. Grrrrrr.

I have several pet peeves of my own, but the flip side to this one is nurses HIDING pumps in the cupboards in their rooms, then I run around the ED looking for a pump for something necessary (nitro, heparin, cardizem, etc.), and they don't know where one can be found!

GM2RN · Dec 28, 2012

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.

Magical? Naw...they just want us to see what the tempature REALLY is! Then there are those who can't afford a thermometer or OTC motrin, but they can afford an ER visit. OOOPS! My bad! I forgot that an ER visit is FREE!

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Dec 28, 2012

I was sent to work in the ER at my old hospital when they were severely short. I was in triage and had a woman come in saying she thought she was pregnant and needed to find out. I looked at her and no words came out of my mouth. I took a deep breath and I repeated what she said and my first comment was do you know how to use a home pregnancy test? She said she didn't have money for that. But yet she had a Gucci purse and shoes and a real expensive looking coat. I was floored. This was my very first ER experience as a nurse and I can't believe some of the nonsense that comes to the ER.

Welcome to our world......we see stuff like this ALLthe time!!!!!

hiddencatRN, BSN, RN · Dec 29, 2012

This is more of a coworker pet peeve. I've been getting kids back all night with obviously fake triage vitals. The 19m old with a triage hr of 60 and respers of 16? Uh....if that was true, why weren't they rushed back for some stat interventions? Interesting that when I went in the hr was in the 140s and the baby was breathing around 34.

If you're going to fake normal signs at least know what's developmentally appropriate, for heaven's sake.

DeBerham · Dec 29, 2012

c/o abd pain while sucking down pringles... seriously now.

SionainnRN · Dec 29, 2012

Hands down biggest pet peeve is parents who don't control their kids. Loved the mom who's 5 yr old was hitting and kicking the gurney for no reason then rolled his eyes at me when I explained what I was going to do to him (flu swab). She just laughed and thought he was being so cute. I called him out on the eye rolling...you do not act that way towards an adult. Heck I've had a cute little 7 yr old thank me while crying after giving her a pcn shot in the thigh! Sadly the good parents are few and far between in the ED.