Another pet peeve....ER nurses who treat us like idiots

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Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

Last week, we had a woman with a spontaneous hip fracture. She was doing nothing out of the ordinary...no fall..nothing. Her hip broke. So we sent her to the ER. The ER nurse called one of my nurses and said "She was either dropped or was hit." :angryfire :angryfire When I was told this by my nurse, I immediately called that nurse. She denied saying that, but she did say, "Well, people just don't break bones for no reason." OKAY...we live in an area that's mostly people over the age of 65. You would think the local hospital would have nurses who have a clue about old people. The woman is 86 years old. In 1998 she was diagnosed with osteoporosis and had an xray then which showed an almost 20% loss of height in her spinal column. I tried to explain to the ER nurse that we neither drop nor hit our residents (I looked at her leg before the ambulance came...no mark no bruise) but she just couldn't believe anyone could just break a hip doing nothing. One of the docs called later and said that in his professional opinion, it was a spontaneous fracture caused by significant osteoporosis....ZOWIE...makes me so angry for the ER nurses to act this way.

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Specializes in Emergency, Trauma.

I can understand you being angry at THAT particular ER nurse; please don't vent at "the ER nurses"; you dealt with one and I'm sure you'll agree that generalizations about specific areas of nursing are not a good idea. I have a feeling this is another thread that will turn into a vent about us horrible ER nurses.

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Not that I'm mister know-it-all.....

When are people going to learn that there are jerks in every group of people? It's not just ER Nurses, Radiology Techs, Physicians, or any other single group.

There's a rule of thumb that an old dentist told me one time - the rule of thirds. (Approximately) one-third will be nice, one-third will be hateful, and one-third will be neither.

It seems to work for me. When I run across someone hateful, I just attribute it to that person being in the worst one-third. By the way, it's always the worst one-third who complain the most and are the most arrogant; that's what makes them the worst one-third.

Anyway, that's the way I see it.

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Specializes in Ortho, Med surg and L&D.
Not that I'm mister know-it-all.....

When are people going to learn that there are jerks in every group of people? It's not just ER Nurses, Radiology Techs, Physicians, or any other single group.

There's a rule of thumb that an old dentist told me one time - the rule of thirds. (Approximately) one-third will be nice, one-third will be hateful, and one-third will be neither.

It seems to work for me. When I run across someone hateful, I just attribute it to that person being in the worst one-third. By the way, it's always the worst one-third who complain the most and are the most arrogant; that's what makes them the worst one-third.

Anyway, that's the way I see it.

Hi there,

I read a similar rule of thirds in a book titled something like, "Memoirs of a country Doctor" from an Illinois doctor. Nice read.

Gen

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
not that i'm mister know-it-all.....

when are people going to learn that there are jerks in every group of people? it's not just er nurses, radiology techs, physicians, or any other single group.

there's a rule of thumb that an old dentist told me one time - the rule of thirds. (approximately) one-third will be nice, one-third will be hateful, and one-third will be neither.

it seems to work for me. when i run across someone hateful, i just attribute it to that person being in the worst one-third. by the way, it's always the worst one-third who complain the most and are the most arrogant; that's what makes them the worst one-third.

and half the world's population has a below average iq. but it seems like more than half some days, and it seems like more than 1/3 on others!

ruby (dealing with the lower half and the worst 1/3 today!)

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and half the world's population has a below average iq. but it seems like more than half some days, and it seems like more than 1/3 on others!

ruby (dealing with the lower half and the worst 1/3 today!)

that's funny. we always seems to run into that worst 1/3. hahaha!

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I have a feeling this is another thread that will turn into a vent about us horrible ER nurses.

Followed by ER nurses telling the rest of us how much smarter they are because they have to take whatever comes in. But once we finally agree that we're *all* idiots, what would we have to talk about?

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Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.
I can understand you being angry at THAT particular ER nurse; please don't vent at "the ER nurses"; you dealt with one and I'm sure you'll agree that generalizations about specific areas of nursing are not a good idea. I have a feeling this is another thread that will turn into a vent about us horrible ER nurses.

If you'll look at the title...I don't dislike ER nurses....only the ones who treat me like I'm an idiot...I don't like anyone who does that be it a patient, a doctor, another nurse......

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Specializes in ER.
Followed by ER nurses telling the rest of us how much smarter they are because they have to take whatever comes in. But once we finally agree that we're *all* idiots, what would we have to talk about?

Brilliant!!!:)

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

Moderator Note:

I will caution everyone here to keep this friendly and kindly ask we refrain from "floor wars" and generalizations. Generally, these threads seem to get ugly, fast, so this is just a friendly reminder.

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Having Done Some E.r. Nursing Myself, A Thought Occurred To Me That Perhaps The Nurse Called To Ask If The Patient Fell,and That Was Turned/twisted Into A Accusation.this Nurse May Have Even Been Asked To Call And Find Out WHAT COULD HAVE CAUSED THE INJURY. Have To Always Remember Some People Only Hear What They Want TO HEAR.

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Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.
Having Done Some E.r. Nursing Myself, A Thought Occurred To Me That Perhaps The Nurse Called To Ask If The Patient Fell,and That Was Turned/twisted Into A Accusation.this Nurse May Have Even Been Asked To Call And Find Out WHAT COULD HAVE CAUSED THE INJURY. Have To Always Remember Some People Only Hear What They Want TO HEAR.

I'm not trying to turn this into a "floor war", but I spoke to the nurse myself. She was very accusatory. We sent a report with the patient to the ER which clearly stated there was no fall. She said in a threatening tone "I'll have to report this to someone." I told her I was already working on the report to the department of public health and explained to her that anytime there is an incident like this, we have to investigate and report it to the state.

Maybe she was having a bad day and decided to take it out on my nurse

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