ED given a bad rap

Published

ENA posted this on an online social networking site: Hospital's ER sign a farce

This article quite upset me, and I'm planning a response to the writer. Ironically, I had meeting on EMTALA at work today. It reminded me why proper triage is so incredibly important to ensure those proper medical screenings. Also reminded me, not surprisingly, why dental pain (unless airway obstruction is of concern) is triaged so low.

Thoughts?

Specializes in ER, NICU.
Dentists need to address weekend tooth aches. It's their specialty and why should they always get weekends off?

Granted Las Vegas is a 24/7 town, we have quite a few weekend/24 hour emergency dentists and still see alot of dental complaints in the ER.

Its a personal thing. When I did emergency response, I thought things were good. When it was my father sitting for three hours in a waiting room with chest pain, trouble breathing, AND his doc had called ahead, I was ******. Or my brother with his broken nose still dropping blood everywhere waiting two hours and being yelled at for getting blood on the floor. Unfortunately, what is common is burnt out nurses who are used to being told they can't triage worth a damn, so my anger got me nowhere. To see these, when my DH and his *gasp* kidney stone got admitted within 40 minutes, makes me a little sick to my stomach. But hey...now I know which hospitals to avoid here.

No ED is the same. No ED shift is the same. Some can triage like no other, others simply...can't. There are plenty of emergency rooms just locally that deserve every bit of bad rap that they get. And in some cases, like RN-Cardiac posted, people just don't understand.

Specializes in ER, Trauma.
Its a personal thing. When I did emergency response, I thought things were good. When it was my father sitting for three hours in a waiting room with chest pain, trouble breathing, AND his doc had called ahead, I was ******. Or my brother with his broken nose still dropping blood everywhere waiting two hours and being yelled at for getting blood on the floor. Unfortunately, what is common is burnt out nurses who are used to being told they can't triage worth a damn, so my anger got me nowhere. To see these, when my DH and his *gasp* kidney stone got admitted within 40 minutes, makes me a little sick to my stomach. But hey...now I know which hospitals to avoid here.

No ED is the same. No ED shift is the same. Some can triage like no other, others simply...can't. There are plenty of emergency rooms just locally that deserve every bit of bad rap that they get. And in some cases, like RN-Cardiac posted, people just don't understand.

Amen. Unfortunately what nurses do is CARE. It's hard to transfer that into the thinking of the bean counters. In the ER's you never want to go back to we end up working with managements' attitude of "the beatings will continue until morale improves." You can tell a lot about how the hospital treats it's nurses by morale. Staff is treated like overhead like the room rate, including electricity and trash removal. If they would bill for what nurses do they'd see that we make money for the hospital and they'd treat the staff better.

Specializes in PICU, NICU, L&D, Public Health, Hospice.
we have one doc that does!! the real dental pain pts appreciate it.....the drug seekers :eek:. i am wondering why a drug seeker would appreciate a local anesthetic more than anyone else? how does this med improve his "high" or satisfy the drug seeking behavior?toothaches usually don't just happen out of the blue. yes, dental pain sometimes happens quite suddently. most of the time you will have warning signs over a peroid of time that something is wrong. :idea: take care of it then and you won't be sitting in the er waiting...............

i just love it when you hear "i cant go to the dentist yet....i am waiting on my medical card, or i don't have insurance, and i can't afford to go to the dentist". how much do you think an er visit cost??? oh wait you don't care do you???? because your not paying anyway!!! :devil:

i am hoping that you are not quite as unempathetic as your post "sounds"

Specializes in ER, Trauma.

Dear All;

We share the same frustrations so abundant in the ER. I'm concerned by how deeply some of you sound like you feel them. Been there, done that, got that t-shirt! If all this is making you unhappy, you'll develop what I call the malignant attitude. Negative, venting, inspiring the same feelings in co-workers, all of you making yourselves unhappy on the job. Sucks, doesn't it?

You can't change the ER, but you CAN change yourself. When you're feeling abused by the endless pressures of the ER, remember this, and it takes a lot of practice but you'll be happier and a better nurse when you can do it, FORGIVE THE PATIENTS! It's often the hardest part of the job and the least obvious, but try it, you'll like it.

Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.

Good advice. :) When I'm stressed, I make a little "w" symbol with my hands, take a deep breath, and say, "Whatever!" It's very liberating.

Specializes in ER, Trauma.

OR! on really bad days I keep a running list of whom and in what order I'm going to shoot people when I finally go postal. That helps too.

Specializes in ER, IICU, PCU, PACU, EMS.
OR! on really bad days I keep a running list of whom and in what order I'm going to shoot people when I finally go postal. That helps too.

HAHAHAHAHAAAhaha ha ha errr......scary!:eek:

:D

Specializes in ER, Trauma.
HAHAHAHAHAAAhaha ha ha errr......scary!:eek:

:D

If it helps, Lawyers and Internal Revenue Service employees, and BP British Petroleum management are always at the top.

Specializes in ER, NICU.
OR! on really bad days I keep a running list of whom and in what order I'm going to shoot people when I finally go postal. That helps too.

Do you have a list on your wall like Steve Buscemi in Happy Gilmore?

Crap! I just made your list with that comment didn't I??:eek:

Specializes in ER, Trauma.
Do you have a list on your wall like Steve Buscemi in Happy Gilmore?

Crap! I just made your list with that comment didn't I??:eek:

I keep the list in my head, but since I may inherit alzheimers from my mom, now that you mention it a written list on the wall is a good idea! Thank you for the suggestion. Nothing for you to worry about. Relax. Just out of curiosity, what's the correct spelling on your name?:jester:

Specializes in Med Surg/Tele/ER.

"i am wondering why a drug seeker would appreciate a local anesthetic more than anyone else? how does this med improve his "high" or satisfy the drug seeking behavior? "tewdles.......i am wondering why choose to pick apart a post you evidently did not read this is not what i said... and i said usually you have warning with tooth pain.....not always!

"i am hoping that you are not quite as unempathetic as your post "sounds"i guess you don't hear well either.

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