Could you work in this? Worst ED in North America

tridil2000, MSN, RN · Feb 26, 2006

I have come to the conclusion that we have the worst ER in our large city in Canada.We used to have 2 and now we have one, the other was turned into a LTC facility.
Our city has over 120,000 people and a doctor shortage. I have witnessed some very bad things in the last few years.
Aside from my allergic reaction to toradol I was also left sitting on a bed with no rails with a head injury (I actually fell off the bed!), And my first visit in three years as a patient was last week and this is what I saw. I went in for severe chest pain and high BP. I took it at home and it was 147/94 which is crazy high for me. I was also wheezing (asthma) and my Pulse Ox was 94%. I waited for 5 hours in the waiting room. By the time I got in I needed a ventolin treatment.
In the waiting room I observed FILTH, it was so dirty, dirty floor, chairs, the windows all smeared and garbage spewed about.One family had 10 people with them in the waiting room. There was a girl puking on the floor into a bag from kidney stones and I could smell it.
People where standing on the sides with bleeding wounds.I looked around and thought, is this really Canada? I got an EKG, he wanted to draw blood and I said that I would go to my doc the next day.
The healthcare system is in bad, bad shape.I honestly felt like I was in a 3rd world country.The nurses where all rude and mean and while I was in the exam room someone brought muffins to the desk.I saw 5 of them sitting there for almost 1/2 an hour. Yes I understand that maybe it was the first time they sat down all day but I pay enough taxes to get timely care.They must all hate to work there as the attitudes just sucked.

sounds like half the ers in nj!!!

Rio, ASN, RN · Feb 26, 2006

Sounds bad...

I work with alot of great Canadian Nurses here in the States...

unfortunately , sometimes, things have to get worse before they can change for the better...

It doesn't read as though you are a nurse.. are you ? Either way a letter and a phone call to your Department of Health sounds warranted. Also a letter to the Hospital Administrator, Risk Manager, ER Nurse Manager and ER medical director.

ERERER · Feb 26, 2006

ha ha, come to Florida in the winter! (no, please don't really). 8-12 hour waits in the lobby are common, 1-2 day stays in the ER waiting for a bed upstairs, 2 hours waiting on an ambulance stretcher for an ER bed. i haven't had a coffee break let alone a lunch break in months, most shifts run over to 14 hours. nurses tired of working extra shifts because you just feel like crap on your day off.

need any more? i'll tell you more...... cut back on housekeeping so garbage overflowing. cut back on lab techs so results take forever. the patients and their families are extremely rude "it's not like this in NJ (NY, OH, PA, MI, etc). so go back!! the frail elderly migrate here in the winter for the weather, but head right to the ER, not knowing their meds, not having a doc locally, etc

sounds like you have it good!!!

sorry to rant on and on. but Florida ER's in the summer are great!

Trauma Columnist · Feb 26, 2006

GeriatricSunshine - I hope you get to feeling better. I am unsure of the medical care system in Canada and how to make things better. Is it better to go to your MD if at all possible? What about an after-hours call system?

GeriatricSunshine · Feb 26, 2006

It dosen't read through like I am a nurse? Just so you know my mother was an ER nurse for 20 years and my aunt is a nurse..I could go on.

I worked in that ER during my training for the volunteer course in prep for nursing school and there are serious issues.I did a total of 14 8 hour shifts following nurses around to see what they did and how they came across.

These nurses are very hardened people, I actually hear one call a patient a whiner and that he could wait until she had her break (it was an 8 yr old with a broken leg).

It is a myth especially in the hospital that they are busy ALL the time.As soon as some sort of distraction arrived the attention would go to that and NOT the patients.Canadians pay tons of taxes for these services, do they not deserve the best? Or at the very least adequate care?

rjflyn, ASN, RN · Feb 26, 2006

Another reason we dont want Canadian type social medical care in the US.

I concure with the other nurse from Florida. If you have healh problems at least have a list of your current medications. Even better would be a copy of an H&P from you regular up North MD. Better still your here 6 months out of the year quit using us as primary care and get a local doctor. :uhoh3:

GeriatricSunshine · Feb 26, 2006

So lets think for a minute. Florida without snowbirds? I am sure it would be great for the economy huh? My great aunt is a snowbird and she goes for 6 months a year.Some of these people have lived through the depression, a world war and much more that we can only have nightmares about.

These people saved to go away and get in the sun for their last year or two of life. Many cannot get a local doc for the 6 months they are there. My great aunt is very lucky she lives with her husband who is a US citizen and got her a doctor.

I will be sure to tell her not to head to the local ER unless she is for sure dying. As a nursing student I am pretty sure I will be sticking to long term care.

As for me? I have a doctor, but he can't give me an ekg or sew up my head lac in his office.So I go to the ER if I have to. I paid 300.00 in Canadian health tax this year, it is supposed to go to improve these situations but it unfortunate that it keeps getting worse.

I mean NO disrespect to any ER nurses I know there are some that are compassionate. But from reading these boards over the last little while it seems to be more complaining than caring about patients.Thats so sad. I am getting into nursing because I care. My mother and my aunt are 2 of the kindest, compassionate people I have met. When my mom burned out after 20 years she switched to another occupation.

rjflyn, ASN, RN · Feb 26, 2006

Yes they can get a local doctor most choose not to. The ones that do, do so generally after they have had to be hospitalized here.

I'm sorry but if you have chronic health problems, take fists full of medications and live somewhere for 4-6 months out of the year you need to have a local doctor.

Just like alot of the patients we see repeatedly choose not to fill their prescriptions. I'm sorry but you were given that Rx for a reason and of course your not better... duh. And if you could not afford that medication you should speak up and say something when you got it.

Rj

ERERER · Feb 26, 2006

$300 a year?????? we would be lucky to find coverage for $300 a month. i have no problem with people who use the ER that are truly sick. BUT, anytime i travel i am damned sure i bring medical info/med lists with me. "I take a little pink pill for hi blood pressure and a big white one for my diabetes. I haven't eaten all day, i need to poop, and fix my pillow." I am an ER nurse, not your momma. i am nice (usually overnice) to those who are nice to me. all others, i keep my mouth shut and do my job, which i do very well. walk a mile in my shoes, missy. I would pay extra to have Florida without snowbirds.

Rio, ASN, RN · Feb 26, 2006

So lets think for a minute. Florida without snowbirds? I am sure it would be great for the economy huh? My great aunt is a snowbird and she goes for 6 months a year.Some of these people have lived through the depression, a world war and much more that we can only have nightmares about.
These people saved to go away and get in the sun for their last year or two of life. Many cannot get a local doc for the 6 months they are there. My great aunt is very lucky she lives with her husband who is a US citizen and got her a doctor.
I will be sure to tell her not to head to the local ER unless she is for sure dying. As a nursing student I am pretty sure I will be sticking to long term care.
As for me? I have a doctor, but he can't give me an ekg or sew up my head lac in his office.So I go to the ER if I have to. I paid 300.00 in Canadian health tax this year, it is supposed to go to improve these situations but it unfortunate that it keeps getting worse.
I mean NO disrespect to any ER nurses I know there are some that are compassionate. But from reading these boards over the last little while it seems to be more complaining than caring about patients.Thats so sad. I am getting into nursing because I care. My mother and my aunt are 2 of the kindest, compassionate people I have met. When my mom burned out after 20 years she switched to another occupation.

My father was a 'snowbird'. He also grew up during the great depression and fought in WWII. That generation, in my experience both personally and from caring for like individuals in our local ED, never rest on their laurels. They do not, and I realize I'm generalizing a whole generation, carry any sense of entitlement. My father always told me he received great care in the ED he had the misfortune to wind up in while in Florida. It wasn't often BUT it did happen. He had a primary MD and cardiologist in both Florida and NY. He carried a list of medications that I reviewed with him frequently and every 6 months or so from the docs up north or the docs down south they'd tweek his meds. I like to think my Dad was fortunate to have someone like myself experienced in pharmacology to coordinate 4 different docs prescribing his medications (it wasn't really that big of deal, but he thought it was.)

So THANK YOU to the nurses and staff that took care of my Dad.

GeriatricSunshine · Feb 26, 2006

I agree that 300.00 a year does not seem like that much to you, but in our country that is how healthcare is provided. I almost died when my brother got stitches on vacation in Chicago.Thank god for health insurance because it paid for all of it.

I do not think the "I take a pink pill then a yellow pill" has anything at all to do with snowbirds, that would be the elderly in general. We have a ton of patients in LTC who have no idea what they take. When I send my grandmother anywhere she is well stocked with her make up case with all her meds in it.

As for paying more NOT to have snowbirds that is a different situation. Snowbirds still pour tons into the US economy every year, that is fact it dosen't matter if you agree or not.

I could say the same of the tons of US tourists that come to Canada every year to get medications. They are not getting the best care at these "across the border pharmacys" and they are just as demanding. During the anthrax scare the pharmacists where bogged down at all border crossings with wealthy americans being paranoid about anthrax. Was that any easier to deal with?

To say that you would pay more to avoid any kind of patient kind of goes against what it is to be a nurse. Do you not have some moral code that would prevent you from being "tired" of any kind of patient?