thought these were funny and true. add on if desired....
Alas, sometimes in the ER the family is harder to deal with than the patient. Here are some family member we all have seen in our ER:
DOORWAY GAWKER- stands and stares at the staff, arms folded, from the doorway with an impatient, angry looks on their faces
THE VENTRILOQUIST - talks for the patient until you tell them to stop it
THE SHADOW- you have to pry this person away from the patients bedside in order to do your job. then they watch every move you make as you start an IV, give meds, etc.
APATHETIC ANN/ANDY - brings a book, laptop - has a sort of been here/done this attitude - seems uninterested in whats going on
THE SUCKER - accompanies a patient with some kind of bogus chronic problem and has bought into it hook, line and sinker
THE KLEPTOMANIAC - you might catch this person rummaging through the cupboards, drawers and perhaps pocketing a thing or two
THE ERRAND RUNNER - may come up to the desk requesting warm blankets, footies, water, food, more pain meds, etc etc etc
MAMAS BOY MAMA - accompanies their grown son or daughter to the ER and sits with concerned look at bedside
BABY DADDY - accompanies girlfriend to ER and is suspicious of any male that comes into the room. Wants to stay there when pelvic exam is being done.
THE DUMPER- drops off confused mom/dad/annoying sibling/girlfriend/boyfriend and leaves
SPACE INVADERS - crosses that line into the staff area or follows the doctor into their area - definitely a no no
MAJOR HOLIDAY GIFTERS - brings mom/dad/grandma who they haven't seen for months to ER because they "aren't doing that well/can't take care of themselves/need to go to a nursing home"
CHICKEN LITTLE - runs to triage desk requesting help for mom/dad/etc in the car who are dying (99% of the time they are fine). Comes up to the desk and tells you heart monitor is dinging - is that OK??!!!
SUSPICIOUS STAN/STELLA- takes notes - wants names of staff, name of medication, name of tests. Has special "medical notebook"
In our ICU...24/7 (cots, recliners and all). Minimal restrictions. And they are with us a lot longer than they are in the ED. That might be why they actually come across as human beings instead of jokes.
I'm so amazed that your ICU lets in anyone who wants to come in. When my mother was a patient recently it was only two visitors at a time. I think yours is very unusual to allow 15 to 20 people at a time in those tiny rooms and to interfere with the harmony in the ICU.
Specializes in ER - trauma/cardiac/burns. IV start spec.
I would add the following one: Patient in 20's complaining of chest pain can give you every symptom for a heart attack until you ask where does the pain radiate and you can see them trying to remember the commercials finally they guess all the way down the right side. At this point we say Wrong! you flunked.
Well, when you come on an ER forum, and "chastise" ER nurses for venting about the stresses of working in the ER, what do you expect? Not all of us were built to "suffer in silence." Some of us need to vent, and I can't think of a more appropriate place to do that than here....
The last thing we need or want is to be judged for venting and joking about the things we have to deal with at work. The reason you were "warned" in post #2 is because it NEVER fails, someone will start a thread to vent about their frustrations of make light of daily stresses, and someone with a "holier-than-thou" attitude will jump all over everyone for how "inappropriate, uncaring, and unprofessional" it is to vent on an internet nurse's forum.
And the anthropology lesson really isn't necessary, either...
This is the second time recently I've seen a thread trying to go south, and I'd hate to see this one closed, since it's a good vent thread. I don't think that it is uncaring or unprofessional to vent about work situations or the rude obnoxious people nurses have to put up with.
I would think that ER nurses might actually get the time to eat lunch and use the bathroom if people with minor stuff such as a rash, a runny nose, a hangnail, etc. would not abuse the ER with things that they could go to a doctor for, or use OTC meds for.
This is the second time recently I've seen a thread trying to go south, and I'd hate to see this one closed, since it's a good vent thread. I don't think that it is uncaring or unprofessional to vent about work situations or the rude obnoxious people nurses have to put up with.
I would think that ER nurses might actually get the time to eat lunch and use the bathroom if people with minor stuff such as a rash, a runny nose, a hangnail, etc. would not abuse the ER with things that they could go to a doctor for, or use OTC meds for.
And we SO need to stop judging each other, and those who work in other environments and eating our young. SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL NURSE! Regardless of where she works and what she does, she does it because it's a part of who she is. There are some careers that get under your skin (cops, firefighters, nurses, teachers) and are a part of what makes you who you are. We should be celebrating, not judging each other for perceived "attitude" issues. Please :redpinkhe
And we SO need to stop judging each other, and those who work in other environments and eating our young. SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL NURSE! Regardless of where she works and what she does, she does it because it's a part of who she is. There are some careers that get under your skin (cops, firefighters, nurses, teachers) and are a part of what makes you who you are. We should be celebrating, not judging each other for perceived "attitude" issues. Please :redpinkhe
You hit the nail right on the head. The ER and the ICU are different environments with different issues, and there shouldn't be floor wars.
Yes yes, I know. Evil ER nurses. But anyway...I just wanted to say that all of these descriptions are soooo true. The sad thing is that if we can't laugh about some of the things we have to see/do/deal with we would all be insane from the stress!! I especially appreciate the humor. Being a relatively new ER nurse, I see how quickly people get burned out from the mundane/routine/bs people that invariably are the complainers! I love my job and (for now! HA!) can't imagine working anywhere else. The one thing about the ER is that there are no two days alike. If you don't like this shift, just come back tomorrow because it will be different! And to all you haters, it's a shame we can't support one another, after all, we are all nurses. Whether we are ER, OR, ICU, Med-Surg...whatever...we all had the same goal at one point-to be a nurse. Respect each other and our differences. Be nice to each other. You never know when it might pay off! You may be working side-by-side with that other nurse you were mean to last week. We really are all on the same side...whether we take the same path to get there or not! Love to my bros and sisters in nursing. Nurses ROCK! :heartbeat
Oh and I almost forgot:
Nervous Nelly- you know her...she's the one that freaks out about everything! She may be the pt or the family, but either way she's dying from whatever she has and wants you to comfort her or confirm her worst fears. You've seen her...just last week she watched that medical program on TV and she saw that story of the woman with the "burst blood vessel in her stomach" (aka AAA) and now she (the pt ) is having abdominal pain and she is sure she has that too! It's not even worth the energy to try and explain that it's not a burst blood vessel in the stomach.....LOL!
to daverika and all others who find this thread offensive:
If you have truly spent time in an ER, you would realize these descriptions are really pts we see. Of course, in the perfect world of ICU, you never have to see these people. Why, do you ask? Because we boot them back to whatever cesspool they crawled out of! So, the next time you disrespect your fellow nurse (ie..ER nurse) just remember who is handling door control so you can stay happy with your 2 truly sick pts. and you can fluff and puff them and their 85 family members until your heart is full!
As a seasoned ER RN, I really enjoy these type of threads. We have the same people from coast to coast! lol As one poster said, this is just a VENTING thread - it is not meant to be taken serious or imploy that any ER nurse gives less than professional care.
The mod and admin team do want to keep this thread open but can only do so with everyone's assistance. Let's poke fun at our foibles and not attack each other.
Specializes in Emergency Room, Specialty Infusions.
To ease the staffing shortage in critical areas our hospital proposed that we "cross train".
Emerg nurses go to ICU and ICU nurses come to the ER. Gives everybody a chance to pick up a few hours here and there and see what the "other side" is like.
Sadly, we lost a few ER nurses to ICU. They never came back, they liked the ICU so much better.
Needless to say, the ICU nurses who did a couple of shifts.....they never came back either....lol :chuckle
To all of u ER nurses I tip my cap (will try to find that squashed thing!) to you. My dtr recently had to take my grandson to the ER needing stitches & she was absolutely balistic by the time she did see a doc. Not mad at the nurses but the families of the patients-not he kiddos either they were dragged there by the supposed adults in the family. She described so many of the people like you have described them (she isn't in the medical field!).
Specializes in ER - trauma/cardiac/burns. IV start spec.
To all the other ER nurses out there a big THANKS. It is interesting to see that it is a national problem whereby any other "floor or ICU" considers ER nurses as the lowest group in nursing. I have seen soooooo many nurses pulled or just wanting overtime try to get thru:uhoh21: one night in the ER. It would be funny if it was not so tragic.
Cardiac ICU nurses trying to deal with a pt presenting with chestpain and not knowing what to do
L & D nurses lost during an emergent c-section with mom dead and trying to save baby:no:
Our ER handled everything from above and all the way down to an Ambulance pt that came in with a broken fingernail. No joke 11 - 7 was the Knife and Gun club. We had drive bys in our parking lot. We had cars pull up and dump bodies out. I delivered more babies in cars to the point that I was not allowed to go out for a break. Cause when I did I either brought a baby or a gsw or a body back:yeah:
Between 5 and 7 the radio phone (ambulances) would go off quite often as the nursing homes made morning rounds and sent us their drt's and our ER md would make them "Hail Mary" calls. We loved celestial transfers.
Yeah. ER nurses esp. nights have a dark or gross or both sense of humor if we didn't we would not last 3 months in the ER. My kids grew up thinking that discussing gsw's, stabbings, etc was normal. We have to vent our feelings without being made to feel that we are wrong. There is another name you can put on this that sounds more uppity - :bowingpur Debriefing - I know nurses ER nurses that suffer from PTSD because they would not talk:nono:
Ok lets wrap this up with more ER talk:
DAS - dumb as a stump or drunk as ****
fell off the perch
tro
tump over
When do you know you have been in the ER too long"
You know the patients med list before they tell you.
You know their allergies and medical history
You think caffeine and chocolate are 2 major food groups
You take your caffeine IV
You think that tstl should be a legal dx.
How do you know how many ER nurses are at a football game - announce Code Blue and count the number of heads that look up.
I will dig out more later - we compiled an entire folder.
to you. My dtr recently had to take my grandson to the ER needing stitches & she was absolutely balistic by the time she did see a doc. Not mad at the nurses but the families of the patients-not he kiddos either they were dragged there by the supposed adults in the family. She described so many of the people like you have described them (she isn't in the medical field!). 
I know nurses ER nurses that suffer from PTSD because they would not talk:nono:
azgirl
152 Posts
I'm so amazed that your ICU lets in anyone who wants to come in. When my mother was a patient recently it was only two visitors at a time. I think yours is very unusual to allow 15 to 20 people at a time in those tiny rooms and to interfere with the harmony in the ICU.