Eat Before You Get Here!

Specialties Emergency

Published

WHY is it that as soon as people step one foot into the ER, they suddenly are overcome with hunger and thirst? Now I can understand if the patient is admitted and has been there all day and has eaten nothing. But I don't understand how when someone comes in at 10:30 at night they IMMEDIATELY ask for food and drink because they haven't eaten all day. They have had the entire day to eat.Its not my fault that they didn't eat at home. I don't know how many signs are posted stating "no eating or drinking until evaluation is complete". Then again we have I don't know how many RESTRICTED AREA signs and people ignore those too. The other day I needed to use a bedside table but there was a tray on it so I asked the young lady if she was finished. And she said(snottily)" THAT was lunch. I didn't even GET dinner, yet." She was NOT an admitted pt. Matter of fact she was discharged an hour later. Does this happen everywhere? :uhoh21:

I worked a 12 hour day without time to eat! Yes, other people besides nurses have high stress jobs. As I came home my two year old started projectile vomiting with green stuff coming out her nose! Next I waited an hour at the Childrens Hospital Oakland ER with no sign of any help or evaluation! My daughter spewing green stuff out her nose onto the floor in front of the nurses desk made no impression! I left Oakland drove the kid to John Muir ER in Walnut Creek! They were great. I watched her stop spewing vomit for the first time in three hours as they put a dose of phenergan in her vein. They admitted us to the pediatric ward. I got a few hours sleep on the floor next to her bed. Now 24 hours without food Im getting a little hungry. The kid is happy now. She is spinning around in circles trying to pull the IV out of her arm. The nurses do nothing to stop this. I ask them to take the IV out and they say nothing. They dont refuse or explain they just look at me and walk away. I have had no food for 30 hours! Excuse me I should know to EAT BEFORE I COME HERE! Or maybe I just have bad habits cause IM A MENTAL CASE!! MAYBE I USED MY WELFARE CHECK TO BY BOOZE AND CIGARETTES!

If you really feel this way about your patients you need to find another line of work.

I am outraged. I CANNOT believe that your ER does NOT have a meal waiting for your guests, or a McDonlad's in the waiting area! :roll
Specializes in Trauma, MICU.

I'm not a nurse yet, and I know that you'all have seen lots of things that I haven't...however...when my son was younger and we would go to the er (he has asthma) generally it would take hours to get admitted and upstairs (I now understand why!). So generally when we got up to the floor and in his room, he was usually hungry (so was I for that matter), so we would ask the nurse for something for HIM to eat (I figure I'm an adult, I can wait). The nurses were always very nice and I didn't think that we were annoying them with the request.

Just my $0.02 :)

I worked a 12 hour day without time to eat! Yes, other people besides nurses have high stress jobs. As I came home my two year old started projectile vomiting with green stuff coming out her nose! Next I waited an hour at the Childrens Hospital Oakland ER with no sign of any help or evaluation! My daughter spewing green stuff out her nose onto the floor in front of the nurses desk made no impression! I left Oakland drove the kid to John Muir ER in Walnut Creek! They were great. I watched her stop spewing vomit for the first time in three hours as they put a dose of phenergan in her vein. They admitted us to the pediatric ward. I got a few hours sleep on the floor next to her bed. Now 24 hours without food Im getting a little hungry. The kid is happy now. She is spinning around in circles trying to pull the IV out of her arm. The nurses do nothing to stop this. I ask them to take the IV out and they say nothing. They dont refuse or explain they just look at me and walk away. I have had no food for 30 hours! Excuse me I should know to EAT BEFORE I COME HERE! Or maybe I just have bad habits cause IM A MENTAL CASE!! MAYBE I USED MY WELFARE CHECK TO BY BOOZE AND CIGARETTES!

If you really feel this way about your patients you need to find another line of work.

I stayed in the hospital for 5 days with my daughter. The staff was great. Because I was bf I got a tray at meal times. I was in the er for hours with her. I also had not eaten for 12+ hours. You know what I did. When she was settled in I let the nurse know I was going to the cafeteria to bring some food up for me (dd was only 9 mos old and vomitting so none for her). The nurse and aide kept checking on her while I was gone for the 15 mins. There were also snack machines just outside the doors to the patient area. Also, after having my 3rd child I was starving. I told the pp nurse and she asked me if I wanted a tray sent up. I said no I would go get it myslef. She gave me a voucher and wheeled the little baby bassinet out by the station (it's a small hospital and was very quite). I don't see why if a pt (if medically/physically able) or family member is hungry they can't go get it themselves. I did and will always do so. Nurses aren't waitresses (BTW I am only a student) they are medical professionals and aren't there to wait on people and have more important things to do besides get people food and fluff pillows.

I worked a 12 hour day without time to eat! Yes, other people besides nurses have high stress jobs. As I came home my two year old started projectile vomiting with green stuff coming out her nose! Next I waited an hour at the Childrens Hospital Oakland ER with no sign of any help or evaluation! My daughter spewing green stuff out her nose onto the floor in front of the nurses desk made no impression! I left Oakland drove the kid to John Muir ER in Walnut Creek! They were great. I watched her stop spewing vomit for the first time in three hours as they put a dose of phenergan in her vein. They admitted us to the pediatric ward. I got a few hours sleep on the floor next to her bed. Now 24 hours without food Im getting a little hungry. The kid is happy now. She is spinning around in circles trying to pull the IV out of her arm. The nurses do nothing to stop this. I ask them to take the IV out and they say nothing. They dont refuse or explain they just look at me and walk away. I have had no food for 30 hours! Excuse me I should know to EAT BEFORE I COME HERE! Or maybe I just have bad habits cause IM A MENTAL CASE!! MAYBE I USED MY WELFARE CHECK TO BY BOOZE AND CIGARETTES!

If you really feel this way about your patients you need to find another line of work.

Well, I'm not going to get another line of work anytime soon (i hope) but what some people need to realize is that when people come in not breathing, no pulse, chest pain, etc., they take priority. So perhaps you will understand when I say the best I can do is crackers and water or juice, take your pick. I'd love to treat me patients to 5 star meals. Our hospital doesn't have the means to. Those bland turkey sandwiches, if any, will go to someone who is staying in the hospital. Your fractured ankle, I realize, is painful, and if it's really bad may require surgery, but that also means you do not get to eat.

If you're in an ER with a fractured ankle, that large portable red cart is not for you, hopefully, and I trust that you'll understand when people are running to get that large red portable cart it is because someone's heart has stopped or is stopping, and perhaps that isn't what they ordered that day. Therefore they take priority over a fractured ankle. Uncomfortable, I know, inconvenient, I realize, but we must prioritize. It's the hardest thing to do at work.

I try to offer patients meals if medically appropriate. Pt coming in w/pancreatitis, who are almost always alcoholics, who say "I haven't eaten in days because I'm vomiting so much" do not get the bland turkey sandwich and weird colored jello from the ER fridge. Know why? Because they are vomiting and have pancreatitis. It isn't because we're mean, nasty nurses or we don't feel like feeding our patients. It isn't because we don't like drunks (but we don't like drunks). It's because there's a medical protocol to be followed and that means NPO.

I'm glad your child is better. But try to be cognizant of the fact that a nurse's job is to care for her patient's medical needs first and foremost. Yes, that includes eating, but it is important to bear in mind that the ER is not a giant cafeteria with free demerol, codeine, valium and bland, bad turkey sandwiches.

JMHO, if you need to eat while your child is sick, ask the nurse, NM, or unit secretary what suggestions they may have for you. You may be pleasantly surprised that they will ask for a guest tray for you, or direct you to the cafeteria while they pay extra special attention to your child while you are gone.

I'm sorry that you had a bad experience while your child was sick. But ER nurses have difficult jobs, and feeding those who are 'with it' enough to demand food of the nursing staff (like those who come in with constipation x 2 days) just aren't the priority.

Our local ER has a Movin Mocha (starbucks type place), so we can get all the foo-foo coffee drinks and snacks we like. :) Sure beats vending machines. So, last time I was waiting at the ER with my MIL (has diverticulitis) I kept myself flying on caffeine. Seriously, I did notice that lots of the other families/pts had McDs or BK while waiting. I thought it was humorous that no matter how sick :rolleyes: some of the male pts were they seemed to be able to ambulate to the TV that had basketball on, versus the one that had cartoons on (at 7 in the evening)

Laura

Specializes in Oncology/Haemetology/HIV.
Not that I blame you guys at all . . .

But the ER nurses at my previous hospital always promised the patients they would get fed when they got to the floor. Of course most of the admissions came right after shift change since they had been holding during shift change which meant they had missed dinnertime from the cafeteria and the snack shop wouldn't open for another hour and a half.

That or the infamous, "But I was told that I would get pain med, when I got to the floor".

When they had pain med orders in the ER but none valid for the floor..and it will be 60 - 90 minutes before pharmacy will put the order in from the floor since it is Not an Emergency.

Specializes in Oncology/Haemetology/HIV.

If you really feel this way about your patients you need to find another line of work.

And people wonder why there is a shortage of intelligent, competent, compassionate individuals wanting to work with the Public as Nurses??????

And people wonder why there is a shortage of intelligent, competent, compassionate individuals wanting to work with the Public as Nurses??????

The bottle neck is the nursing schools. Here in CA the salaries have gone way up. Many people are trying to get into nursing. We want to help the patients and YES we want the high pay. However I will have to be a super-competitive to get one of those rare slots in a nursing school.

Clearly, there are systemic problems with the health care system. The patients -- even the crazy, egocentric, welfare cheats that you seem to get -- are not the ones responsible for your low pay and bad working conditions.

That or the infamous, "But I was told that I would get pain med, when I got to the floor".

When they had pain med orders in the ER but none valid for the floor..and it will be 60 - 90 minutes before pharmacy will put the order in from the floor since it is Not an Emergency.

I noticed that. The narcotics etc. just keep coming in the ER then no more meds after your admitted. Oh well.

Awhile back I discharged a pt to home. There were cans of pop on the counters, crumbled crackers and goldfish on the floor, etc. But there was also a can of vienna sausages on the counter. Half of one was still left. It looked rather like an amputated finger, I thought.

I transferred the sausage and its juice to a specimen cup. One of the other nurses had a pt earlier that night with a partially amputated finger. Went up to her, held up the cup, and said, "Hey, wasn't that guy's finger supposed to go to the OR with him?" hehehehehe :D

Career2:

I think most of of don't mind getting food for people with "legit" problems, like a fracture (although you probably wouldn't have been allowed to eat anyway due to possibility of surgery),or a parent with a sick child admitted to the hospital. It's the people who come to the ER all the time for hangnails, chapped lips, sore throats, and the infamous abd pain/nausea/vomiting who treat us like food servants.

This is a forum where people can come to vent and to share humor - it's all in good fun. We obviously can't say these things at work, so we share them here.

Career2:

I think most of of don't mind getting food for people with "legit" problems, like a fracture (although you probably wouldn't have been allowed to eat anyway due to possibility of surgery),or a parent with a sick child admitted to the hospital. It's the people who come to the ER all the time for hangnails, chapped lips, sore throats, and the infamous abd pain/nausea/vomiting who treat us like food servants.

This is a forum where people can come to vent and to share humor - it's all in good fun. We obviously can't say these things at work, so we share them here.

Exactly. I'll even go get the tray if the caf is closed for someone who really needs to eat, but most come in w/families and the families are the ones who need to take some responsibility for the patient's -- and there's a Subway right around the corner!

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