Do you ever feel like a licensed drug pusher?

Specialties Emergency

Published

Do you ever feel like you're a licensed narcotics pusher/IV starter for seekers? :(

From ghetto to ghetto, backyard to yard

I sell it whip on whip, it's off the hard

I'm the neighborhood Pusher

Call me subwoofer, cause I pump bass like that, Jack

Grinding *bom bom bom bom, bom bom bom*

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

do you ever feel you are judging people who may have actual pain? Even addicts can hurt and may need additional doses. How do you know they are NOT in physical pain? Can you feel for them?

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do you ever feel you are judging people who may have actual pain? Even addicts can hurt and may need additional doses. How do you know they are NOT in physical pain? Can you feel for them?

This is why the "pain is subjective" for me is so hard. I have never had pain so badly that I was screaming or hurting in my life. Even when I fell and broke my foot, I would never rate pain at anything more than a 4-5. I have such a hard time when someone tells me, "my pain is 11 on a scale of 1-10" but they can move about and act fairly normal. If it were me, I would be on the floor screaming and doubled over.

I work in drug and alcohol rehab and I know that there are many addicts that hurt. Much of the hurt that I see though, is emotional pain, not physical.

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When I was in labor with my first child, the nurse asked me to rate my pain. I was very uncomfortable with the contractions, but still able to function and work my way through them, so I rated my pain level 4-5. I certainly knew I wasn't at a 10 yet...

The nurse said to me, so condescendingly, "if you can talk through your contractions, I hate to tell you honey, but your pain is at a 1". I'll never forget that. I HATED that nurse.

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Specializes in ER, Pediatric Transplant, PICU.
This is why the "pain is subjective" for me is so hard. I have never had pain so badly that I was screaming or hurting in my life. Even when I fell and broke my foot, I would never rate pain at anything more than a 4-5. I have such a hard time when someone tells me, "my pain is 11 on a scale of 1-10" but they can move about and act fairly normal. If it were me, I would be on the floor screaming and doubled over..

I completely agree with you. I have problems with the "pain is subjective" too. People in the ER with migraines who are talking loudly on their phones in the waiting room, get them back to triage and their pain is a 9/10. I dont understand that! So, yes, sometimes in those situations, I feel like a drug pusher giving that Dilaudid and zofran. :-/

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Specializes in LTC Rehab Med/Surg.

There is a fine line between compassionate nurse and gullible schmuck.:twocents:

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There is a fine line between compassionate nurse and gullible schmuck.:twocents:

This made me chuckle......thanks.

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Specializes in Medical Surgical Orthopedic.

I call them my baby elephants, because I feel like I'm giving them amounts that only an elephant would be able to tolerate. Patients actually seem to like being called elephants, and many of them tell me they've been called horses, whales or other large creatures by friends/relatives. Haha.:p

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There is a fine line between compassionate nurse and gullible schmuck.:twocents:

Maybe the OP can put this slogan on a srub top in bright colors so the patients can have a read before their pain assessment. On the back can say "Dont cross the Line!" Ha!

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Yup. All the time. Sometimes, I feel like a pez dispenser... except I dispense percocets instead. Other times, I feel like a waitress... :-/

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I try not to Judge. I work in LTC/Rehab and most of my pt's have been on pain meds a very LONG time. Most get set round the clock narcs at 4 and 6 hour intervals. They take in amounts that honestly would have me laying on the floor in a drooling coma (and I am not a small guy). The fact that some of these meds have no effect on them beyond allowing them to function at a relativley normal level tells me that they have been on these prescriptions so long that the sedation effects have been worn away.

I end up most days worrying more about counting up how many grams of tylenol are imbibed then worrying about the strength of the narc that it coats.

I've questioned orders on both ends of the spectrum..pts preparing for hospice on northing stronger then tylenol for pain that rates 8-10 and others that are short term rehab that get 15-60mg morphine everytime their back itches.

About the best I can do is get those that need stronger pain meds new orders from the MD, and get the PRN stronger narcs set to scheduled times to lower abuse.

On a side note I do try non-narc nursing interventions first...mostly because I get the strangest looks from my fellow nurses, it seems to annoy my pts that put on huge coughing fits to get their morphine/codeine syrup..until I reenter the room and then they are prefectly fine and asking if they can go out for a smoke, and once in a blue moon just talking with a pt to distract them from from some kinds of pain actually does work, or they were lonely and the only thing they could think of to get attention from the nurse is to ask for meds.

-Big J

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No, I don't feel like a pusher because I don't push drugs on anyone, but I do feel like I'm being played sometimes.

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