Are ER nurses burnt out or just uncaring??

Specialties Emergency

Published

Specializes in Oncology.

okay so today i had a minor MVA...someone rear-ended me. i had my seatbelt on but my neck and head were causing me excrutiating pain...the paramedics were wonderful but once i got to the hospital -- nothing. I was strapped to the backboard for over 4 hours, with maybe one or two visits from a nurse to ask how i was feeling/check my vitals/etc.... they eventually gave me a dose of tramadol and i gave it 45 minutes to work and felt no difference so i pushed my call light and was told that a nurse would be with me in a few min....no nurse ever came. i know that the ER wasnt busy at the time because I could hear nurses/doctors/interns laughing and carrying on outside of my door and my boyfriend said he walked through and nothing was going on. i dont understand it.... are ER nurses just so burnt out with patients in pain that they dont care enough about it anymore? or what?? can anyone give me any insight on this???

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Specializes in neurotrauma ICU.

getting my popcorn ready...this could get interesting.

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Specializes in ER, Trauma.

Inexcusable. I hope this facility doesn't claim any trauma certification. 20 minutes on a board is excessive unless injuries require it (rare). When I have a patient on a board I make sure a doc sees them quickly. It's not hard to clear a c-spine and get someone off a board as long as they're competent (sober without distracting injuries). If you can't clear them right away, you get a cross table c-spine or ct of the c-spine stat. From your description I can't tell if it's the staff or the facility that's to blame. Walking past the nurses station also doesn't tell you how busy the ER is. 4 hours? Hard to justify. Do that ER a favor and make a major complaint about your treatment.

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Specializes in ED.
getting my popcorn ready...this could get interesting.

I've got the coke.

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Specializes in Nursing Education, CVICU, Float Pool.

That's one of those you ask very carefully, especially when it's in the home page. You might gave to prepare for the flaming. (Anyone smell anything burning?) I understand that your asking an honest and seemingly innocent question, but many nurses in here get offend very easily and quickly with posts like this. Especially if your not yet a nurse.

I'm not a nurse yet myself, but be careful it can get nasty.

It might be they are stressed sometimes. Well that's at least what I can come up with?

Maybe someone will take the time to answer your question and know that you meant no offense.

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Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.

:icon_roll:icon_roll:icon_roll:icon_roll

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Specializes in ER, Trauma.

The question may come across as baiting, but the care she received, assuming her account is accurate, is inexcusable. Or I've wasted 30 years in emergency medicine. EMS and ER inclusive.

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Specializes in Oncology.
That's one of those you ask very carefully, especially when it's in the home page. You might gave to prepare for the flaming. (Anyone smell anything burning?) I understand that your asking an honest and seemingly innocent question, but many nurses in here get offend very easily and quickly with posts like this. Especially if your not yet a nurse.

I'm not a nurse yet myself, but be careful it can get nasty.

It might be they are stressed sometimes. Well that's at least what I can come up with?

Maybe someone will take the time to answer your question and know that you meant no offense.

oh my goodness i am so sorry!! the way i worded my post was stupid..i wasnt trying to accuse ALL nurses of being burnt out/uncaring, i was just wondering what all the ER nurses thought about my situation...for example, if that was the norm or was i treated badly...i didnt mean to start a big fuss or anything...to all the ER nurses that may have been offended by my thread--- I am TERRIBLY sorry. I appreciate and admire all the work you do. Perhaps I should've waited until i had cooled off from the terrible experience. My apologies!!!

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Specializes in Oncology.
Inexcusable. I hope this facility doesn't claim any trauma certification. 20 minutes on a board is excessive unless injuries require it (rare). When I have a patient on a board I make sure a doc sees them quickly. It's not hard to clear a c-spine and get someone off a board as long as they're competent (sober without distracting injuries). If you can't clear them right away, you get a cross table c-spine or ct of the c-spine stat. From your description I can't tell if it's the staff or the facility that's to blame. Walking past the nurses station also doesn't tell you how busy the ER is. 4 hours? Hard to justify. Do that ER a favor and make a major complaint about your treatment.

20 minutes on that board would've been heaven..it got to the point where i was wanting not only something to control the pain in my neck & head but also the aching in my lower back and butt that the board was causing! lol it was awesome whenever the doctor finally took me off the board -- because i was about to be discharged!

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Specializes in ED, CTSurg, IVTeam, Oncology.

the fault isn't the nurses or the doctors, but with the medical authorities that run that emergency department. like someone stated, getting someone radiologically cleared so that they could be quickly removed from a very uncomfortable backboard should have been a clinical priority; you should have received a protocol mandated clinical upgrade, which would have brought an md and a rn to the bedside within minutes of your arrival; you then should have had an xr to show that you didn't have a spine fracture (fx) and then the board could have been removed (if you did have a fx then more appropriate and advanced services could have been directed to your bedside).

emergency department (ed, we really don't refer to them as er's any more) workers function according to assignments; and every patient there is an emergency. however, unless you happen to be their particular assigned emergency, you may as well be on mars. if you were dropping dead and they happened to notice, then sure, they would rush to your side. however, all else is literally none of their business so they will stay out of it. it isn't that people don't care, but the place where you were taken to, doesn't have a system in place that worked to your advantage.

what can you do?

for the extra time and discomfort that you spent on that long board? probably nothing. it unfortunately is one of those unfriendly bumps in life that we all encounter, but can otherwise do little about. :down:

but, if you really care about the process, so that if someone else in your position were to present to their ed, then write a letter to the hospital administration, and print out this thread. if they're smart, they would take it as a lesson and make adjustments to improve their bedside responses for patients that show up strapped to backboards. most hospitals now are very "client satisfaction" oriented, and this is exactly the things that they look for, because it is something that they can easily change. :up:

and btw, you have nothing to apologize for.

good luck.

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Specializes in ER, Trauma.

You're rightfully angry about crappy treatment. As to ER nurses, they either find the atmosphere exciting (changing chaos to order) or stressful and burn out. Burnt out ER nurses don't usually stay long as it's too emotionally painful. I can do ER/trauma nursing in level 1 trauma centers. I can't do OR, med/surg, LTC, school, or other niche nursing and admire those who can. There are many niches in nursing, and something I learned from a Paramedic in Albuquerque seems wiser every year. EGO; "Everyone Gets an Opinion."

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Specializes in Med Surg/Tele/ER.
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LMAO!!!

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