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"
I always enjoy the homeless people that come up with new complaints just to keep from getting put back on the street (also like to complain you won't pay for a cab for them, like where do you want a cab to??)
Also the people that will take an ambulance to the ER for a runny nose and then get really mad at you when you tell them it's not your job to find them a ride home. You were able to get to the ER, now figure out how to get away from the ER. Once they are banished to lobby the always have a ride within 10 minutes, simply amazing.
LOL Yeah we're slowly gearing off topic. But the ambulance hotline would ring, everyones face turns white because theres no more crash beds and the suspense is building when the nurse gets off the phone and says "21 female the flu"
Two more I enjoy are the people who say, "I don't have money for the medication the prescribed or a cab ride." but have a cell phone, pack of smokes, and 2 bags of Doriotos.
And the ever popular: Since I was here can you take a look at this for me? Family member or friend is in the bed and suddenly they want to be checked out as well since are there anyway, usually they get better quickly when told they have to go through triage and wait in the lobby until a room is available for them.
I have not worked in the ER but when I was woking in a hospital in central TX this Hipanic family came with grandma to the ER with a serious nose bleed. Ok understand that the family cares alot but it was almost 2100 when they brought her to the floor for admission & there were over 15 people with her & she was in a semi private room, had to get security to remove them.
Not being prejudiced but in my experince here in TX is that a lot of Hispanics do bring the whole clan to the ER for even just a broken finger. If the shoe fits in my opinion whethr it be a Hispanic, Jewish Oriental or even German family then accept it as true.
This is a great thread have not laughed this much in awhile!
i had a 13 y/o male came in with a cc chest pain, family member( i thought) had been knocking on my glass window frantically (~like someone is dying in the waiting room and there was just a big rush of people and im still triaging a patient)....come to find out that he was in brought by his aunt and uncle, their 4 kids, and the entire church prayer meeting group and filled up the waiting room. child was c/o epigastric pain after eating a fried chicken and lay down right after a meal. when the child was discharge half an hour later.....he went to the vending machine and is already craving for a snack. way to go!
Just wondering......how often do you actually allow family members to be with their sick family.....How do you impose your visiting hours...and how often do you have to deal with them??? Just wondering....because in ER vising hours is 24/7:twocents:
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.
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.
the topic is about funny anecdotes of er nurses....to lighten up their long haul. if you are an er nurse, you would know why this topic had been brought up. it's our observation of life in the er and visitors. try working in a busy er with nowhere-to-stop inbound patients....and if you still have your sanity intact without sense of humor.....i will salute you for the rest of my life.:bowingpur we dont have the same privileges that ccu or icu dept. having 2 patients for the entire shift and to cater 1-2 visitor at a time, with specific visiting hours. rather we have non-stop patient turnovers, visitors to cater, nurses in another dept. to please, because they are not ready for their admitted patients, ems patients coming to different directions,etc.
so....for the love of this hard working er nurses.....have them vent what they needed to vent in this forum.....besides, were still on the same boat. saving lives!
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.
So, if my family member is in your ICU, I can visit, along with 10 other family members all at the same time, bring my baby nieces and let them jump on the patient's bed and chew on every piece of equipment in sight, sneak in cookies for my family member who is NPO even though I've been told 8 times not to, ask for meal trays for all of my family members and scream at you when you tell me no, silence the monitors or IV pumps when they start beeping, pace the hallways and nosily peer into other patient's rooms then get upset and scream at you some more when you ask me not to, have my other five family members call you for updates every 15 minutes so you can't get any work done, start screaming that my loved one is dying every time he hiccups and then stand in your way throwing a fit while you're trying to squeeze your way into the room just to do your job- and you won't get mad??? You'll let me do all of this and not complain about it one bit, or go home and vent about how drained you feel from dealing with your patient's family (your ONE or TWO patients, not 5, or 6, or 7, or 8...)??? Come on now, really???
SOMEONE has to provide decent nursing care to these patients and their millions of family members after they have been treated so RUDELY by all of us ER nurses... I mean what are we thinking? Wanting to concentrate on saving lives and dealing with TRUE emergencies rather than dealing with all of the non-emergent patients and schmoozing their family members?!? Oh, yes, we must truly have our priorities messed up....
Because you know, it's never the truly sick patients or their family members who are demanding or causing problems, it's always the non-emergent patients that should not be in the ER in the first place, the ones who abuse the EMS system by calling an ambulance for a hangnail, and then abuse it even more by being demanding, and taking nursing attention away from those who truly need it.
I have no problem with catering to the family members of patients who are truly sick- I know that they're going through a tough time, and if I can make it better for them, I will, and 99.9% of the time, the families of those who are truly sick are really appreciative of what we do for them. BUT, what you don't see in the ICU (because they get sent home), is all the patients who are abusing our ER's, sucking the life out of ER nurses, crowding our waiting rooms, taxing a system that's already bursting at the seams, verbally and physically abusing our staff, making unreasonable demands...
So what I'm not understanding is why anyone, especially another NURSE, would chastise us and call us uncaring and unprofessional for finding the need to VENT about this!
Isn't this, of all places, the most appropriate place for such venting???
brought in by police after being found passed out in city park. after banana bag, fluids, and a ham sandwich, is being prepped for d/c when he looks out the window at freezing rain and starts having level ten chest pain (with nsr, no dyspnea, and requesting another sandwich and a smoke break).
in the presence of normal labs, may seroconvert to
suicidal sam
just remembered that he has an acitve suicide plan, at least until the weather breaks!
i actually had a "voluntary baker act" (baker act is the involuntary 72 hold for danger to self or others in florida). i had a guy who wanted to go to the county mental health facility for detox, but they had no beds, so he said "ok, i'm going to kill myself. now you have to baker act me and they have to take me." he was right, so i sent over a "voluntary baker act". the casa del whacko had a field day with that one.
Every time a cop comes in the ER, I tell them I did it (whatever "it" was) and they should take me away. Still haven't gotten one of them to take me up on it. One jokingly put the cuffs on me and I said "OK, let's go". She started to take the cuffs off but I grabbed her by the hand and starting dragging her towards the door. I told her she couldn't start something and not finish it. Didn't work. I'm still here.:chuckle
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.
Daverika you seem to take offense to everything people say.
If someone was in the ICU for a injured finger and there was 27 people at the bedside wouldnt you scratch your head? Even if this SAME patient requests a bedpan, sandwich, water with 2 lemon slices and 4 cubes of ice. Come on, we're just blowing off steam. Better we do it here than in real life..This is our escape
I bet that patient got the best care (30 minutes, new record LOL) and doesnt even realize that this thread exists.
lol....I find it funny how ICU nurses really get a kick out of thinking such negative thoughts about ER nurses. They've never done our kind of work, so I guess the saying is true, ignorance is bliss. I wonder how that ICU functions with allowing so many visitors....They complain when our Trauma patients haven't been shaved and showered and a ironed hospital gown not put on when you transfer them to the units. I mean come on....
Natingale, EdD, RN
612 Posts
LOL Yeah we're slowly gearing off topic. But the ambulance hotline would ring, everyones face turns white because theres no more crash beds and the suspense is building when the nurse gets off the phone and says "21 female the flu"