Originally posted by canoehead
I also spend some time in the ER and especially during busy shifts families loiter in the hallway, listening to talk at the desk, and peeking into treatment rooms. Generally the ones that are this obnoxious are also the type to challenge us with "but that's my mother/son/friend!" It is most common when the waiting area is full, and waiting time is long.
I especially hate the clients that demand to know why they have to wait so long. We can't very well tell them that bed 1 is having a heart attack, bed 2 needs three people to hold them down for a treatment, waiting for labs on beds 3 and 4, and the empty room they see is waiting on the ambulances bringing in an MVA. They just see one area with the curtain closed and empty bed and a nurse sitting waiting at the desk to triage or the ambulance. 
Families, families my #1 stressor. I work in a 38 bed general ICU and it kills me when each and every individual family member, church member, friend, "just LIKE a sister", of a certain patient insists on getting updated from me. I always insist that there be ONE spokesperson (the wife/husband, mother/father, so on) and have THAT person talk to the doctors and receive updates from me and let him/her decide on what to tell the rest of the family. Granted- most of my patients on unable to make that decision for themself (too ill, intubated, etc.) in my unit. Of course - the majority of visitors just don't get- for which I respond "would you rather I take time away from taking care of your loved one???THANKFULLY, they cannot call directly to the unit and must call the ICU waiting room.
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