Why can't people just be sick at home!? (RANT!)

Of course there are 2 sides to everything and nothing is ever black and white. I have been on both sides of this story. I was as are many a recipient of medicaid...and also did clinicals in the ER. There were times that with that medical card, I couldn't even get a family physician. So, I guess I was one of those one labeled a "frequent flyer". However, for the most part I was treated with respect and dignity. Being divorced with three children to care for, there were many trips to the ER. Yes, sometimes over coughs, rashes, earaches...and such. Because, whether I had medicaid or not...when my children got sick, I got worried. As a nursing student we all know that abscence is not tolerated just because you have a sick child. So, after 4-5 days of the same cough just getting worse, yes, if needed they went to the ER. BUT...hats off to all of you ER nurses...now I am a self supporting nurse, with the ability to pay for health care and have a reliable physician who can see myself and my children. You ER nurses are the heart of the ER...usually the first and last people seen in a visit..and I thank you!

Mjlrn, I hear ya. But maybe a please and a thank you occasionally instead of "get me this" and "get me that" "Cuz its my right" might create a better environment.

Nurses don't immediately dislike patients or their problems, its the presentation and the reaction and the "this is a service industry now... so jump when I say... attitude" that gets us a bit testy.


Treat the nurses in the same manner as you expect to be treated...It really does work. If you are dying or might die soon you will be seen immediately. If you are destitute as you were and need to use the ER as a PCP, then please be patient with your doctors office visits. someone will see you in 4 to 6 hours. That is the expected wait time in most ERs for non-emergent patients. That is the wait time in the clinics that you don't quite qualify for either.

Oh yeh, when you finally make some cash and can have a PCP, the wait time for an appointment is 1 to 2 weeks. Geeze, what happened to the better health care with insurance, ****. LOL

"I especially love the scum bags that come in and are on total assistance and state that they are "considering becoming a nurse"

The ER was my only option 2 1/2 years ago before i entered school, if i got sick. I mean 103 temp, dry heaving, dizzy, the runs, etc. Because they send the bill in the mail and i can make payments on it. And i got treated like SH*T for not having an insurance provider. Sonn as i said "no insurance" the nice routine dropped. Kinda sucked when i spent half the time APOLOGIZING for being an inconveniece! I just reminded myself that the attitude the employees expressed to the 'scum' would not be the way i'd treat or talk about my patients because that's NOT the nurse i wanted to be, and that's NOT the way i'd want to be treated. That would make it seem like i thought that i was better than everyone else. I'll also keep in mind that i was once on total assistance myself a long time ago, and i was still a human being as i am now.

I don't think anyone is belittleing those private pay folks who come in with legitimate emergent problems -- if your child is having a seizure, or you're in status asthmaticus, the ER is where you need to be and never mind whether you have insurance. It does get frustrating, though, when people abuse the system to get pregnancy tests and the like. The hospital where I work is less than a ten minute drive from the county hospital, which receives governmment funding to care for the uninsured ; we don't. Yet private pay patients continue to clog our facility with nonemergent problems, and we have to treat them, knowing the hospital will probably never see a dime of the money we're owed. Their reasoning? If they go to the other facility they'll have to wait to be seen. It drives up costs for those with insurance, drives down profit for the hospital resulting in budget and staffing cuts. . . I don't know what the solution is, but it's a helluva convoluted problem for sure.

And for what it's worth, I think most of us ER folks realize that for some people, there just aren't a lot of health care options available. But the ones who blatantly abuse the system stick in our minds, and we end up coloring everyone with the same brush without really meaning to.

P.S. hope you're feeling better, Pam!

Hi There

Insurance or ability to pay has never been an issue in my books. Never will be.
Its the 20 y/o who has had a cold for a week and says he has chest pain thinking he needs to be immediately taken back for it
Its basically the ones with minor problems that try to aggrandize their situation with hysteria that I lose sympathy for.
Its the ones who say I was here last week for the same problem dont you have my record herem why dont you have my record here, why dont you know what meds Im on, etc.
Its the ones with elevated serum W titers, or decreased serum testosterone titers, increased porcelain titers etc.
aka the wimps.
Its the ones who are chemically challenged, who come in cursing at me or trying to bite or spit at me.
Its the ones that come in, that 3 and 4 years later I end up being called to testify for the DA about their behaviours, who the hell can remember. just this monday I was in court for almost 8 hours waiting to testify, Spent 13 minutes on the stand before I was released on a case from 1999.

You guys turned this into something I don't think it was ever meant to be. I've worked in the ED for 15 years and I don't care if you can pay or not, if you are black, white, green or orange. Everyone gets treated the same. I am working at a new place, been in my new job less than 2 months and already I know some of the patients by name. This has been a terrible week where I work too, everyone has the flu but they all think they are about to die. We have been packed. I am the only triage nurse for 3-11 shift and we have been seeing over 120 patients a day and we all know that 3-11 is the busiest shift. I am tired, we work 7 on 7 off and the girl that works opposite of me has the shingles so I have worked 9 days in a row, I'm off until Tuesday. My opinion is that the person that wrote this meant that often times people that are on public assistance use the ED as primary care when they DO have other options, at least they do here. There are public health offices allover here, it's just much more convenient to use the ED. I haveseen the same child come in 3 times in the past 2 weeks because of an ear infection that could be handled elsewhere. I can understand the people that are not on any kind of assistance and can't afford insurance either. I don't care if you have insurance or not, if you come in for something that doesn't need to be seen in the ED, something that doesn't need to be seen anywhere, you are wasting my time and EVERYONE'S resources.

I was warned before I read this thread that it was a rant. The poster clearly stated that on the subject title. I say let them blow off some steam. We all need to blow of some steam once in a while after a bad week. This BB allows us to do this and also to get support and hugs and humor from other nurses and members. The same poster who rants about the ED patients is also the person who dresses their wounds, administers medications, and helps educate them. So I really don't think this poster or the others who replied with their own vents meant any malice to their less privilaged patients. And for any person who has been without insurance or felt looked down on while in the ED- (been down and out myself) I am sorry for your experience and wish you the best of luck in the future. I mean that sincerely.

"I especially love the scum bags that come in and are on total assistance and state that they are "considering becoming a nurse"



Then statements like the one i pasted above shouldn't be made, because they can be seen in a very bad light.

I apologize if my post about what it's like to be on the other side of the counter offended anyone here. My intent was NOT to prevent anyone from ranting, just to provide a different perspective, because I was seeing a lot of hostility toward the less fortunate, and this attitude usually DOES come across to the patient, regardless of how hard one tries to hide it. Believe me, I've been on the receiving end of it more than once in my life.

No, I haven't worked ER much, but I'm the one who deals with the people WITH insurance who are actually admitted to our hallowed halls......who then proceed to carp about the rooms being too hot or too cold (sometimes in the same breath), the pillows being too flat or too fluffy, the halls being too noisy, the nurses being too slow with the pain pills and too fast with the treatments, the aides being too lazy to bend their straws for them or take them to the bathroom for the fifth time in 20 minutes. Sometimes I wonder if the only difference between me and the average food server is about 20 bucks an hour, and of course I don't get tips for bringing the guy in 204 his eighth Pepsi of the night, or running down to the ICU for a warm blanket for the post-op in 220.

Now, I'm not really complaining......I couldn't care less if patients have insurance or not, if they're rich or poor, if they want a waitress, a shoulder to cry on, a counselor, or a technician. I'm paid the same for my 8 hours whether I'm running to a code 99 or running to the ice machine.

I can understand the frustration you all are dealing with when people decide that the sore throat they've had for a week suddenly is an emergency at 2 AM on a Sunday morning, but this behavior isn't limited to the "scum on total assistance". I'm sure we all have our frequent flyers, who come from ALL income brackets and take up valuable space complaining about runny noses and vomiting and other things that could easily be taken care of elsewhere, but who come to the hospital and get admitted, simply because their doctor doesn't know what else to do with them and they won't just go home and let whatever is ailing them run its course.