Patients Waiting for Pain & Nausea Meds

allnurses Guide · Jan 25, 2004

I've never read anywhere where it is ok to let someone have pain and nausea and not medicate them promptly. I think the most anyone has had to wait for me is 5 minutes.

It doesn't matter what caused the emergency or pain or nausea . . . we treat the symptoms. We may grouse on here about people causing their own problems but that is just a way to vent from a very emotionally and physically taxing job. We don't treat based on who got their symptom "innocently" and those who did it to themselves.

If someone is an inpatient, there should be a way to get them relief promptly.

If someone is waiting for an ER visit . . .well, unfortunately that is a place where I can see someone with pain and nausea may have to wait for someone with a gunshot wound.

I'm sorry your loved one had such a bad experience but don't judge us all by one bad (or overworked) apple.

steph

SmilingBluEyes · Jan 25, 2004

Will you KINDLY point it out where anyone has said that it's "ok for patients to wait hours for pain/nausea meds"?

How can you just make a statement like this with NO backup? YOUR bad experiences do not give you license to make false blanket statements about anyone, nurses included.

I think you are troublemaker looking to stir up a pot of trouble, really. IF this is the case, please go fishing elsewhere; You won't find much satisfaction here. Now go find that thread for us please. I so want to see just where any nurse here said it's ok to make people suffer at whim.

**canoehead, BSN, RN** · Jan 25, 2004

Life threatening issues come before pain meds, and I'm sure if any one of us had to choose between two family members the one dying would get out attention first.

Of course it isn't acceptable to wait hours for relief- I'd draw the line at 15 minutes, 30 if there was something life threatening that needed to be dealt with emergently. If you think there was an excessive waiting time it would be more productive to write a letter to the hospital CEO. I've found that most nurses coming to this board are very concious of pain relief issues, and you'd be "preaching to the choir" here.

caroladybelle, BSN, RN · Jan 25, 2004

Originally posted by Doglover
I have read many different postings on various boards here where nurses seem to think it is OK for patients to wait for hours for pain and nausea medication. Well, it is NOT OK. Just because some other patient has a "life-threatening" ailment does not in the least justify having someone in agonizing pain and/or nausea lying in misery for hours. Many of these so-called "emergencies" that get triaged to the top are lifestyle-induced from obesity, smoking, drinking, drug abuse, and reckless driving. On the other hand, certain other illnesses in which the patient suffers severe pain are NOT due to lifestyle factors; they are random misfortunes that the patient did not create.

Nurses and other health care workers (excluding those who are solely private pay) are obligated to serve the public, and that means patients and their families and visitors.

Why do I think that the SDNs are having "fun" again?

I have yet to have seen where anyone has said that it is okay to make people to wait hours for any meds.

However, if there is a patient dying, another is not and there is one nurse, Well, guess where I will be. If you have problem with that you need to talk to the administration of said facility about the shortage of nursing staff - not harass said staff so that they quit (as nurses are doing, in droves) and the shortage worsens.

And as far as lifestyle issues, it does not matter. If one person is dying (and can be saved) and another one is not acutely about to die - it does not matter the causes, the acutely ill ALWAYS DOES AND ALWAYS WILL take precedence.

Does that mean I like taking care of drunks, and drug addicts? - NO!!! - but it is called prioritizing and it is life. I don't get the the option to take care of just those people, whose illnesses are "innocent" or that I like.

So doglover, why not tell us what you are really upset about, rather than posting random statements about uncompassionate, ineffectual nursing staff in various threads.

And the patient always comes first - we may educate families/visitors as the professionals that we are, but it is not our job to serve them - if it was, they would include the numbers in our staffing and acuity sheets.

berry · Jan 25, 2004

doglover i noticed both of your two post which attack nurses who in your in your opinion dont care about patients feelings. The first on another thread you stick up for a pt and question the nurse who is just venting about a pain in *** to deal with. and in this one you think that is is wrong and "it is not ok for someone to wait for pain medication". Let me tell you it is ok to wait for pain meds.

In the Er we are understaffed and overcrowed we treat patients based on acuity not feelings. My basic rule is if you can moan and complain you have an intact airway, + breathing and some kind of blood pressure, and my other patient the one whose heart is beating 30 times a minute gets me first. People with pain 10/10 and n/v need morphine/phenergan a whole lot less that the diabetic with a BG or 38 needs me at bedside with amp of d50. The patient whose heart is stopped needs the nurse hitting them with 360 joules more than the chronic back pain pt needs some medication. I dont want you to misunderstand me i advcate for my pts and pain control but pain control is easly bumped down my list of what needs to be done now. for more important interventions no matter why they need the help the sickest pt get treated first your pain. The pain caused by misfortunes such as a fall and a hurt arm you got a pulse in it no open fx are a level 2 at best and will sit in the waiting room while the chronic COPD smoker gets made a level one and brought back why because he is blue moving little air and is easier to treat before he goes into resp arrest in the waiting room while you get an xray for your misfortune.

just my 2 cents

Tweety, BSN, RN · Jan 25, 2004

Are you a nurse? Doesn't seem like you have a grasp on the realities of nursing. Plus, I haven't seen any threads where we advocate non-life threatening patients in pain wait hours.

???Troll????

berry · Jan 25, 2004

3rdShiftGuy says "troll?" some things are universal

Tweety, BSN, RN · Jan 25, 2004

I'm wondering too, as you stated you had a family member recently in the hospital. Was it a bad experience? Were the nurses horrible, was the food horrible, did your loved one have to wait for pain and nauseau meds? Do you have a bad image of nurses because of what you saw then, and what you read here?

Do you have issues with nurses that you'd like to discuss in a mature and nonaccusatory manner. You're sounding angry and we are getting defensive.

Calm down and talk to us.

sjoe · Jan 25, 2004

Don't feed the trolls.

live4today, RN · Jan 25, 2004

Originally posted by SmilingBluEyes
Will you KINDLY point it out where anyone has said that it's "ok for patients to wait hours for pain/nausea meds"?

How can you just make a statement like this with NO backup? YOUR bad experiences do not give you license to make false blanket statements about anyone, nurses included.

I think you are troublemaker looking to stir up a pot of trouble, really. IF this is the case, please go fishing elsewhere; You won't find much satisfaction here. Now go find that thread for us please. I so want to see just where any nurse here said it's ok to make people suffer at whim.

Amen Deb! (thumbs up) :)

Dave ARNP · Jan 25, 2004

If I were guess, this "person" is SDN, PRE-MED.

Wouldn't bet on them sticking around long. With this sort of behavior their chances of having a career in medicine is very unlikely.

I would imagine if won't be long before their world revolves around the grill and fryer at McDonalds.

Dave, who thinks the closest this person ever got to the world of medicine was watching ER on NBC.

:rolleyes: