You experienced ED nurses will get a kick out of this.....

Specialties Emergency

Published

Specializes in Med/Surg; Critical Care/ ED.

You may recall that one of my last posts was concerning how patients were being treated by the other ED staff. Well, I've been in the ED now for 2 whole months. I promised myself that I would NOT become a mean ED nurse. Well.

I am pretty sick of people in general at this point. WHY are you coming to the ED at 3 in the morning with a cold you've had for 3 weeks??? You can't take it anymore? I think you can probably wait for 6 more hours and call your doc. And PLEASE don't come in here and lie to me about things that are perfectly apparent to anyone with eyes and a nose. It's obvious you have been drinking and yes, you DO smoke, and smell awfully of it, so why are you crying because your baby has an ear infection AGAIN?? Especially after I told you LAST WEEK that second hand smoke will cause your baby to have repeated ear infections?? My favorite is the guy who came in with hiccups x 10 MINUTES. We were slammed that night and the hiccups resolved after 5 minutes but he still wanted to be seen. Well, okay, but you will wait until after the truly ill are seen. Then he'd decided we were ignoring him, so he laid down in the middle of the waiting room. O...M...G I was livid. That story goes on, but you can see where I am going with it....

So, lately I've been pretty pi$$ed off at work, and am feeling most people are jackasses! I told one of my coworkers that I don't think I can work ED because I'm mad all the time. She just laughed and said I'd be mad for a while, then I'd just think it's funny. I'm hoping that part comes soon.

OTOH, the other night we had a chest pain come back, definitely an AMI and I was part of getting him better! That was awesome!!! That's what I want to do, NOT be a clinic for people that just don't get it. After reading posts here, I know that ED abuse is everywhere, so I know I'm not alone in feeling this way, just new to it. I hope I can balance myself soon. I can hear myself getting shorter and shorter with people. :nono: I really don't want to be that way, but good GRIEF sometimes these people deserve it!

PH

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

I too was angry the first year or so in the ER (when I wasn't overwhelmed that is). Then...yes, it does become funny. After five years you become pretty sarcastic and don't believe much of anything anybody says to you.

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...OTOH, the other night we had a chest pain come back, definitely an AMI and I was part of getting him better! That was awesome!!! That's what I want to do, NOT be a clinic for people that just don't get it...

PH

90% of patients coming in to the ER just don't get it...If you can sort through them, and enjoy the remaining 10%, then you'll last...

It takes time (took me 5 years) to get past caring about the ER abuse...Once you do that, you are home free...

Hang in there

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Specializes in ER, NICU, NSY and some other stuff.

Amen Trauma.

Parrothead, you will get past the being angry. I take a very no nonsense approach to the "drama"

I am not imressed when you lay in the floor and throw you infantile tantrum because you didn't get trauma room treatment for your hiccups.

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

My favorite was to do triage on the ambulances and send the patients (after making them get off the cot first) out to triage to wait their turn. It quickly got known that just calling 911 didn't get to the front of the line.

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Specializes in Tele, ICU, ER.

To the OP: You will get that sense of humor, I promise. As my oh-so-wise asst. nurse manager told me when I had a night like that... "Stupid pays your paycheck". If we didn't get so much half-baked BS, they wouldn't need us, would they?

{{{hugs}}} It gets better.

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Ahh..how I remember the first few months when a pt. wanted more than toradol for pain and jumped out of his wheelchair trying to grab my leg. The other staff laughed at me because this guy did this on a regular basis. Goodluck, dont let these ppl bother you because there are those pts that need you!!!

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Specializes in ER, NICU, NSY and some other stuff.

Just remember that you are there for those that REALLY need you. You have to wade through all the bull-puckey in the mean time. Just like the MI I shipped off to the cath lab this am and the 14 month old post-ictal septic baby. The other junk just killed time until they got there.....

Otherwise you can just look at it from the entertainment factor. You can't make up half the stuff folks will come to the ER for.

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To the OP: You will get that sense of humor, I promise. As my oh-so-wise asst. nurse manager told me when I had a night like that... "Stupid pays your paycheck". If we didn't get so much half-baked BS, they wouldn't need us, would they?

{{{hugs}}} It gets better.

I like that! "Stupid pays your paycheck".

That is the way I try to think about it. It IS hard - we had a lady with a migraine recently, really truly a migraine. It was her husband who was the problem - they had been waiting 1/2 hour when he walked up and rudely asked when the doctor would be there ... I wanted to say "after he finishes dealing with the respiratory emergency" but I didn't. I wanted to say "try the big city ER 70 miles away - you might have to wait all day". I didn't. I was nice. His wife was really in alot of pain.

steph

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Specializes in ICU, ER.

As I frequently remind my frustrated co-workers: If it wasn't for stupid people half us us would be unemployed.

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Specializes in ER, NICU, NSY and some other stuff.

Yep, dumb people tricks are the meat and potatoes.

I also frequently say that stupid should hurt more....

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Specializes in ER, ICU, Infusion, peds, informatics.
i like that! "stupid pays your paycheck".

that is the way i try to think about it. it is hard - we had a lady with a migraine recently, really truly a migraine. it was her husband who was the problem - they had been waiting 1/2 hour when he walked up and rudely asked when the doctor would be there ... i wanted to say "after he finishes dealing with the respiratory emergency" but i didn't. i wanted to say "try the big city er 70 miles away - you might have to wait all day". i didn't. i was nice. his wife was really in alot of pain.

steph

had a patient's very demanding family member come to the desk saturday night because "he's been here 3 hours and hasn't seen a doctor yet. when is the doctor going to be in. and he needs to eat." we had just gotten two full arrests in at the same time, and we are a fairly small er. we only have two docs on at a time. i just smiled and said "you've only been here 3 hours and you are already back here in a room? wow, thats pretty good. most people are waiting a whole lot longer than that tonight to get back here. the doctor will be in as soon as he can, he is tied up with another patient right now. and i can't get you anything for him to eat until after the doctor sees him. could i please get you to wait in his room? i need to be able to see what they want in those two big rooms behind you."

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