I LOVE triaging.....

Specialties Emergency

Published

...eejits who are not as sick as I am! A cough/cold they just can't stand anymore. Listen, Sonny, you are almost 20 years younger than me, healthier than I am right now and I am at work listening to you whine. Not only that, but YOU'LL get a TWO day work note!:trout:

The other night there were a SLEW of people in with cold symptoms. Meanwhile *I* had it, was miserable, and if I wasn't at work, I was in bed. Sorry to whine, but I had to listen to so much whining that I figured it was MY turn!:lol2:

PH

Specializes in ER, ICU, L&D, OR.

I hate triage, bores me to tears

Specializes in med/surg, rural, ER.

For those kids who are forcing the gag/puke response I look at them (ignoring mom!) and say, "if you throw this up, I am getting some more and you'll just have to take it again!" Mom looks at me like I'm a horrible meanie, but the kid normally takes it... then mom looks at me like I've worked a miracle.

I'll be in triage several days next week. I've been avoiding it, but can't escape forever! :)

If it's Tylenol I do give kids like that one choice: "Down the throat or up the hiney, but one way or another you're getting this. Your choice." I do the same thing with oral temps. Some kids will clamp their lips shut and refuse to cooperate. They have a choice in how it gets done, but not in if it gets done.

Specializes in 6 years of ER fun, med/surg, blah, blah.

Too many days in the Penalty Box, oops I mean Triage can make you homicial.

Specializes in ER, ICU, L&D, OR.
Too many days in the Penalty Box, oops I mean Triage can make you homicial.

It can make you homocidal, particularly parents who exhibit P.P.P. skils

P.P.P.= Pathetically Poor Parenting

and it doesnt matter if their child they are bringing in is 1yo or 40 yo.

My pet c/o is parents of people in their 30s and 40s talking for their "kids" when they are in for N/V/D and perfectly able to speak for themselves.

My favorite ever was the minor rash at 2 AM.

"How long have you had this rash?"

"About a year"

"And what about the rash that you've had for a year makes it an emergency at 2 AM?"

Ya gotta laugh or you're gonna cry.

Specializes in Case Manager, Home Health.
...and Mom says "how do you get kids to take their medicine?"

PR, that'll get 'em to think about barfing it up again. :lol2:

Specializes in Med/Surg; Critical Care/ ED.
My favorite ever was the minor rash at 2 AM.

"How long have you had this rash?"

"About a year"

"And what about the rash that you've had for a year makes it an emergency at 2 AM?"

Ya gotta laugh or you're gonna cry.

OMG I SO want to say that sometimes, but I usually say something like "so you've had this rash for a year. what happened different tonight that made you decide to come to the ED?" I say that in the hopes that it makes them think without making me the bad guy RIGHT away. (There's always time in the back for that! :lol2: )

"How much longer?",

"How many are in front of me?"

"Why did he/she get to go back ahead of me?"

All from the 20 something year old who broke her fingernail in an altercation w/ her baby daddy baby momma.

Specializes in ICU,ER.
The worst thing about triage is that every time you take a patient back, not only the nurse, but the damn doctor bitches at you and asks you why you gave them the patient and not someone else. I didn't know we get to pick and choose our patients.

Oh, I SO agree with you on that.

If some people had as much enthusiasm with actually doing their job as they do trying to get out of it... it would be a much better environment!

I really get sick of explaining why I put a patient in a certain room. I have gotten to where I don't explain.... I just tell that nurse "This is where I felt the patient should go. End of story."

QUOTE=TazziRN;2118524]I love hearing "S/he won't take medicine."

I get down to eye level with the little brat and tell him, "You do not have a choice. You will take this Tylenol and you will not spit it out."

Then I get an astonished, "How did you do that?"

My answer is always "Who's in charge, you or your child?"

I look at the kid and hold the cup of medicine and a supossitory and say you can have it this way or this way or it goes in your bum, it does not matter to me but you will be taking it. drinking it is much better I promise you. The choice is yours. Never have a problem. :saint:

Specializes in ICU, SDU, OR, RR, Ortho, Hospice RN.

LOL 911RN your post had me giggling. Your 3yr old sounds a riot. :)

+ Add a Comment