primary care.

[nurse2002]

To all you ER nurses. As a float nurse Im assigned mostly to tele and med surg. So when I do work in ER I have over flow patients.

Well, what I want to know when someone has come in and lets say has had chest pain, vomiting, dizziness, or any number of different complaints for lets say 2 weeks, Dont you want to ask them why the h*** didnt they go to their doc or even call them to make an appointment.

[ernurse728, LPN]

Of course....and most of the time I will ask them why didn't come in when the symptoms started? As well as the family that brings their ailing loved one by car and really should have called 911. You know the ones that come running up to the front desk screaming that someone needs to come and get their husband/wife etc out of the car. I politely tell them next time you need to call 911...that way the paramedics can bring them in on a stretcher and start trying to assess what might be wrong with them as well as provide emergent care before they even get to the hospital.

[Uptoherern, RN]

If you ask a silly question, you get a silly answer. Ex. "My son is sick, he's had a fever for two days" ME: "How high has the temperature been?" MOM: " I don't know, he feels pretty hot." ME: "didn't you take his temperature?" MOM: "I don't have a thermometer" ME: "have you given any tylenol, motrin...?" MOM: "no." ME: "argh"

[ernurse728, LPN]

I like the mom who brings in the kid with the fever and when asked if they gave tylenol they respond ..."no, I thought you would want to know how high it was". People are so poorly educated sometimes.

[AngelGirl]

I think that people who come to ER after neglecting to give Tylenol actually have an understandable logic at work. They are worried that we will not take them seriously if they say that the child is sick, but then has no fever. They haven't thought it through that the source of the fever is an illness, which provides us with signs of its own. We look for far more than just a fever.

So, their worry is that we will not believe them if there is no fever. If they give Tylenol, the fever goes down.

I am told that ER visits in CA are easier financially for those on public health benefits, than clinic or MD visits. So, people use our ER as a clinic. It certainly gums up the works for when a true ememrgency arrives. When I work in triage and people complain about the wait --4 to 8 hours somedays--I tell them that this is largely due to people using our ER as a clinic. They quiet right down.

[zudy]

Actually, I have quit asking pts that, and I usually don't even think about it. It only frustrates me.