Are ER nurses burnt out or just uncaring??

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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???

Specializes in home health, dialysis, others.

We went thru this backboard stuff here on allnurses a year or so ago.

My husband, who has CP, was placed on a backboard because they could not get the regular stretcher into our bedroom. NO NECK INJURY. HE was screaming in pain due to extreme muscle spasms because he was tethered to the board. Took almost 2 hours to get an MD to write to release him. So inappropriate. The nurse tried to say that the parameds hadn't told her that it was for their convenience. I am a nurse, I was there the entire time, and I was angry that the parameds didn't take it off him before they left.

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Specializes in Nursing Education, CVICU, Float Pool.

Forget what I said you seem to have it good so far.

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Specializes in Oncology.

even after i had been taken to X-ray and to a CT scan, i was still strapped to the board for another hour & a half!! i kept having the feeling that they had just totally forgotten about me! i would push the call light, and they would say "a nurse will be with you in a minute" and then nothing...i got one shot for pain, which didnt work, so i called once more then just gave up. i didnt want to be persistantly calling the nurses station because i've read on here how annoying it can get when someone does that and i didnt want to seem like a drug-seeker by constantly asking for pain medication but the toradol they gave me wasnt working....i still feel the same right now, but she prescribed motrin 800mg so i'm waiting for it kick in... thank you all for the helpful information...i will be considering filing a complaint if i can figure out to take the right actions to do so.

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The scary part is this happens all the time. I have been on the patient and the tech side and it happens all the time. Unless you are actively trying to die, you aren't their priority. Almost like if you aren't intubated you aren't any fun to play with. There is a long list of medical reasons this may happen from how you were triaged (esi level 1-5) and if any head trauma is suspected (no morphine on head trauma , increases icp, decreases respiratory drive (dangerous if you have thoracic injury such as collapsed lung). But yes when it comes down to it if your vitals are stable and pain is only issue most likely it won't be a priority unfortunately unless your nurse advocates for you with MD in charge. Unfortunately nurses don't write the pain med orders drs do, and from what I have seen they do the bare minimum unless the nurse advocates for more pain control. Lol sounds like you were in a county hospital next time ask paramedic for a private hospital, usually more patient rather than trauma centered care. There is a hospital where I'm at nobody wants to go to unless shot or amputation (county run trauma center) not so great for a cold but if you are circling the drain, it's most likely to save you.. Hope you don't have this happen again to you,,,it's a sad thing to experience when you are trying to maintain a good feeling about a career in nursing.

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Specializes in nada.
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.

Chile please dont nobody care about them getting offended over no mess like that! They'll get over it...its called a 5 -hour energy drink and get back to work.

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even after i had been taken to X-ray and to a CT scan, i was still strapped to the board for another hour & a half!! i kept having the feeling that they had just totally forgotten about me! i would push the call light, and they would say "a nurse will be with you in a minute" and then nothing...i got one shot for pain, which didnt work, so i called once more then just gave up. i didnt want to be persistantly calling the nurses station because i've read on here how annoying it can get when someone does that and i didnt want to seem like a drug-seeker by constantly asking for pain medication but the toradol they gave me wasnt working....i still feel the same right now, but she prescribed motrin 800mg so i'm waiting for it kick in... thank you all for the helpful information...i will be considering filing a complaint if i can figure out to take the right actions to do so.

Motrin is just an anti-inflammatory ...it's 800mg of anvil,,, you should probably consider a hot bath / shower and or some iceyhot as the worst of the pain (stiffness) is yet to come..feel better soon..also consider other over the counter pain relievers such as alleve or Tylenol as either can be more effective depending on your type of pain. If pain control is inadequate go to an urgent care clinic for additional treatment,,, lower acuity less wait.and more likely to offer different options.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

It's very weird to be left on a backboard after the secondary trauma survey. I would not have been surprised that a C-collar was left on, of course. In fact I would have been surprised if it hadn't- given your symptomatic neck pain. However, and granted I don't work in ER, but have been on the 2nd trauma team many, many times, not to mention the TNCC cert. The practice that I am familiar with- and believe to be correct is to logroll the pt. off the backboard to assess the spine. I don't recall any patients being placed back on to the backboard- even if full spinal precautions (holding c-spine, logroll, etc.) are indicated.

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It's very weird to be left on a backboard after the secondary trauma survey. I would not have been surprised that a C-collar was left on, of course. In fact I would have been surprised if it hadn't- given your symptomatic neck pain. However, and granted I don't work in ER, but have been on the 2nd trauma team many, many times, not to mention the TNCC cert. The practice that I am familiar with- and believe to be correct is to logroll the pt. off the backboard to assess the spine. I don't recall any patients being placed back on to the backboard- even if full spinal precautions (holding c-spine, logroll, etc.) are indicated.

I would agree but I'll bet that there wasn't a secondary survey conducted per se, the docs probably did the same our docs usually did which is check xray / ct and view rad report "cleared them" if nothing was questionable I doubt the doc ever even went back bedside. ER has a crazy pace I have seen an MVA patient with stable vitals just hanging tight while looking for somewhere to transfer him to, this is after finding several cervical fractures.. His airway was good, pain but no major distress,,, I'm telling you in a level one trauma center unless you have to be intubated you aren't fun enough for them...lol

Oh also I think that they should make it a dx...ED Psychosis,,,where you lose track of time and who you have seen and what has been done because all you think about is pain...ED nurses are a tough bunch, but they do care, it's just a weird way of showing it sometimes.

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.

Sorry you had such a hard time Heather. I had a rollover MVA in 2005 and I kind of had the feeling that once they figured out I was going to live they sort of forgot I existed. They were all standing in a semi-circle when they rolled me in, though!

I got a tetorifice shot, "here is your script for Motrin" :confused: (they didn't even ask what my pain level was) and my knees were the size of footballs. I noted that in the same area was a raging drunk guy who had fallen off a balcony and swinging at everyone and a few other individuals. The doc eventually apologized and said there were some very critical people even though I heard the staff laughing and joking, too.

It was wrong of them to ignore you but not all Emergency Nurses are like that. I know you clarified what you meant as well.

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

I am sorry you were on the back board for so long. Where I am at the Docs try to get in to the rooms within 5-10 to evaluate you to get you off the board if possible, we leave the C-collar on untll you have been to x-ray/CT and cleared, but we try to make you as comfortable as possible..un strapping your legs so you can bend your knees, or if condition indicates unable to do that we try to tilt the bed to try to relieve some stress off of the board.

It could be that your nurse who was managing your care really was busy with a more critical patient, just because your boyfriend walked through and didn't "see" anything going on doesn't mean that there is not. Just because you are in a ER does not mean that it will look like the TV show.......that is not meant to be mean, but a lot of people think that that is how the department should look if we are busy, just like the TV show. There can be very critical patients without people pounding on their chest with a crowd around them. You shouldn't be able to walk around the ED and see what is going on in the other rooms, to tell what is going on because we protect the privacy of the other patients

In the ED where I work it is has 28 beds plus a fast track, we are in 2 pods, 1st pod has rooms 1-15, which has our trauma rooms and is main part of the ED, the 2nd pod is used for overflow and usually only 1-2 nurses are there so 6 beds open when there are 12 rooms so that side appears empty, to patients in that side. the pods are seperated by the triage and fast track area and the exits to the lobby so if you are in the second pod you would never see nor hear the action in the 1st pod

For the laughing you heard at the nurses station, could be the unit secretary, CNAs, people from the lab, all people who can check on you, but can not really do anything for you, except to alert your nurse. like someone else said, if they were nurses then they were not assinged to you and generally they are not going to go in and evaulate you, I have seen RNs help out another RN with orders if they have time, but they may have been waiting to get orders from the Doc

we have some docs that are incredibly slooow for any treatments or orders, I know it drives the RNs insane.

Another thing that could have happened to delay care was delays with getting to ancillary services.

Last weekend, we only had 1 CT tech, we have 2 machines but on the weekends just one tech. Of the 6 pts we had on the second pod 3 needed CT scans, however on the 1st pod there also were 4 pts with CTs ordered and then we got a code stroke, so then they had to prioritze the order that the pts needed to go in to to CT starting with the code stroke.

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Specializes in Pediatrics.
. The doc eventually apologized and said there were some very critical people even though I heard the staff laughing and joking, too.

Sorry you had a bad experience, but just because you heard the staff laughing and joking does not mean there were not any critical patients in the department. Humor can be used as a coping mechanism for the staff when you are that kind of enviornment

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Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
Sorry you had a bad experience, but just because you heard the staff laughing and joking does not mean there were not any critical patients in the department. Humor can be used as a coping mechanism for the staff when you are that kind of enviornment

Yes, I know. I probably didn't write it clearly enough. When the doctor apologized for the long wait, he told me there were several critical people needing his attention. I had already heard the laughing and joking, so I knew they were laughing and joking while the critical patients were being taken care of. It may have been the Security Guard and the Housekeeping staff joking. There always seems to be at least 2 people taking a breather at any given moment.

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