Odd ER visit

[inshallamiami]

Well, my husbands Doc (actually his staff) told me to bring him to the ER. It's a SMALL hospital, and we get seen fairly quickly. The triage nurse asks me to wait in the waiting room while he talks to my hubby and that's cool, but my husband doesn't feel good and doesn't have a lot of his own info easily "at hand" but hey, I figure the triage nurse doesn't want to ask him questions and have the wifey answer. Perfectly understandable. Sure enuf, ten minutes later he comes out and asks me to come in to provide med info etc. later my hubby says that the triage RN kept asking a lot of questions which he couldn't answer and kept telling him to get me. All of this is fine and dandy, and of course I don't tell him I'm a nurse but boy this triage nurse seemed unhappy and bored and po'd. I'm sure he would have preferred an interesting trauma.

Ok so we get to the ER and that nurse was FANTASTIC but the ER doc, sheesh! He spends a t least five minutes GRILLING us about whether We spoke to our doc. I say no, repeating several times all my calls to the dr and how eventually his staff spoke to the doc (Presumably). they told us our dr says GO TO THE ER. I would have preferred at trip to the office but I wasn't given that option. Well the ER doc seemed to have a bug up his u know what about this but again I try to go with the flow.

Hours later the ER doc then asks if my hubby ACTUALLY passed out, which my hubby wasn't 100%sure but the doc didn't like that response and again seemed to give us a hard time. I felt like we were treated like criminals trying to take advantage of the ER or something. Hey my hubbie was I'll, couldn't walk, probable passed out, and our doc TOLD us to go to the ER.

Well we felt awful how we were treated, like criminals or morons or something (and he does have an underlying condition requiring chemo) It was like they were all in bad moods (except for one great nurse)

God I've been a nurse for years and years and I at least TRY not to make my patients feel bad or guilty. Ah well, thanks for listening to my vent.

[inshallamiami]

An ER dept can clear out really fast. It also does not rule out the possibility of someone being seriously sick in one of the rooms. If you are a small hospital, they could have had a patient who was crashing and they were busy stablizing to transport him to a larger hospital. I worked in a rural hospital and we would often have serious patients that we would need to transfer out to another ER.

I'm just inherently skeptical of what constitutes as rude. A lot of patients feel like the staff is rude when they are not. Also, when a family member or patient is stressed, anything can seem like an attack. What could be grilling could be the doctor trying to make sure that the story is consistent and not a "well, I don't want to make a big deal of it so I will say no to passing out." Or "I am not sure so I probably didn't pass out so I'll say no." Did your husband state that he passed out to the doctor just the triage nurse? I try to put down everything the patient tells me in the triage notes so in case they forget to tell the doctor something.

This has saved me time and time again, especially if the story changes between triage and the time back to the room.

Another consideration. Were you giving them an attitude when you did not mean to? A lot of people give off an attitude when they are stressed. Some people can take that personally.

Also, did you really take out your husband's IV? That should have been a big no right there. No offense, but why would you do that? Yes you are a nurse but you are not employed there. They do not know that you are a nurse. If you make that a habit, they may begin asking you to remain in the waiting room if he is to be seen there because you become a liability. Yes you are a "nurse," but you are not working. They also do not know you are truly an RN.

The er doc initiated his interaction with us by repeatedly asking us if we spoke with our specialist . I said I called and explained situation to staff. They spoke to specialist and relayed info. The er doc asked this question at least Six different ways so yes it did seem like a grilling like he didn't believe us like we were tring to abuse the er system

Then when my husband had difficulty explaining what happened, to the Er docs satisfaction , the doc was obviously annoyed. And was sarcastic . I'm sorry my husband couldnt explain better. But when someone states that his vision became tunneled then all black and as this happens he lowers himself to the ground in a shower that is very small and that he lost track of time. That sounds like losing consciousness to me but my husband was alone and can't remember any more than that. It's not like he was in a room of people, sighed , clasped his hand to his head then Swan dived to the ground while I patted his hands in dismay.

And to add to it all. The er doc eventually comes and says your doc said that if you passed out it has nothing to do with your new meds/chemo so u must be admitted but if u didnt lose consciousness then i wll discharge you and u have to stop your meds and chemo. And you have to decide now cuz i have four ambulances coming in soon.

We felt overwhelmed. I said give me a moment. Doc left. We talked. Decided The whole idea (albeit the doctors idea) was becoming a clusterf$@$ Let's go home. I told the nurse will take curtain no 2 ( didn't really say that). She told the er doc . I'm upset , dc hep lock ( at this point I don't give a damn) wait for our meaningless dc papers and go home. The nice er nurse did apologize although we did not complain to her. Guess it just took one look at my face

And to all you er nurses and docs I am SO SORRY that my husbands complaint is not exciting. I m sorry he didn't have a golf club stuck thru his brain or swallowed a live lizard or something. He was worried we called our doc. He said go to er period. No need to treat us like criminals

I didn't have an attitude when we walked in. I have one now though

[Anna Flaxis, BSN, RN]

The more I read, the more I agree this truly was an odd ER visit. The evaluation of syncope is pretty straightforward.

This part is especially confusing:

The er doc eventually comes and says your doc said that if you passed out it has nothing to do with your new meds/chemo so u must be admitted but if u didnt lose consciousness then i wll discharge you and u have to stop your meds and chemo.

This makes zero sense to me. I don't blame you for feeling unsettled about this visit, if things are as you describe.

It's true that there could have been things going on of which you were unaware, but that doesn't invalidate your experience of feeling mistreated. It's true that EDs can be like little worlds unto their own, where staff can be really unkind without meaning to be. Having worked in an outpatient capacity for the last year, I have seen how people have to bend over backwards while jumping through flaming hoops to get their needs met medically, and I am far less judgmental about how people utilize the ED. It's been an eye opener.

[inshallamiami]

Maybe I didn't describe it well. Er doc says he talked to our specialist who said if hubby DID pass out it wasn't due to new meds and chemo(hubby has a lot of side effects from both) and that he should be admitted to determine cause. But if he didnt pass out he should be discharged and see specialist as he would need to have his new meds possibly stopped thus stopping treatment. And there were four ambulances coming he so he can't deal with this much longer. ( our dr face to face maybe 3 mins). Note - doc not sure hubby passed out. Hubby could only repeat what happened re going black etc

So "a pox on both your houses" we opted to go home. Saw our P C P. made appt with specialist.( which we wanted to do in the first place but were instructed to goto er by both)

[Altra, BSN, RN]

Maybe I didn't describe it well. Er doc says he talked to our specialist who said if hubby DID pass out it wasn't due to new meds and chemo(hubby has a lot of side effects from both) and that he should be admitted to determine cause. But if he didnt pass out he should be discharged and see specialist as he would need to have his new meds possibly stopped thus stopping treatment. And there were four ambulances coming he so he can't deal with this much longer. ( our dr face to face maybe 3 mins). Note - doc not sure hubby passed out. Hubby could only repeat what happened re going black etc

So "a pox on both your houses" we opted to go home. Saw our P C P. made appt with specialist.( which we wanted to do in the first place but were instructed to goto er by both)

This was my thought -- that the crux of the matter was whether or not there had been an actual loss of consciousness.

[Anna Flaxis, BSN, RN]

Yes, it's an important distinction, but if the patient doesn't know, then at what point does it become badgering?

[green34]

Maybe I didn't describe it well. Er doc says he talked to our specialist who said if hubby DID pass out it wasn't due to new meds and chemo(hubby has a lot of side effects from both) and that he should be admitted to determine cause. But if he didnt pass out he should be discharged and see specialist as he would need to have his new meds possibly stopped thus stopping treatment. And there were four ambulances coming he so he can't deal with this much longer. ( our dr face to face maybe 3 mins). Note - doc not sure hubby passed out. Hubby could only repeat what happened re going black etc

So "a pox on both your houses" we opted to go home. Saw our P C P. made appt with specialist.( which we wanted to do in the first place but were instructed to goto er by both)

That is inappropriate if he said it like that. He should have said he needs to go to another room and he will be back shortly and that your husband should think about it.

However, it sounds like they were trying to get him admitted but the patient's doctor only wanted him admitted if he did actually collapse.