Fake crying and bad acting in the ER

Specialties Emergency

Published

I see a lot of untalented actors in the ER. They walk to their rooms telling their sad stories that sound like poorly written scripts. Then they plop down onto the gurney, starting what sounds like feigned tearless crying. Some of them continue to wail after you've left the room, amping it up every time they see you walk by through the glass door, peeking through their eyelids to see if you've noticed.

I've seen some really bad acting in the ER!

You meant 20/10 pain, right? ;)

That sounds more like it

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Oh goodness. I work in an inner-city community ER where we see a lot of drug addiction and the like. A lot of pill seekers try to rev up their acting game. We're talking like they throw themselves out of wheelchairs and onto the floor while saying "I'M COMING FOR YOU JESUS!" Maybe it makes me a bad person but it takes all I can do not to audibly sigh and roll my eyes and ask if they are all finished.

I know exactly how you feel... I had a patient "fall out of bed" with both side rails up because she was in so much pain and needed her medicine that started with a "d" but she couldn't remember what it was (Dilaudid). As she lay on the floor supposedly unconscious I happily walked over told her that the Dr was not giving her narcotics and gave her her discharge instructions. Yay me!

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I will never, ever say it. But I want to ask so badly. If it's been 'this bad' x's 1 week.. I don't understand why right this instant I must hustle.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
You arent the first ICU nurse I have heard say that either!

I dunno - I say it once or twice a year. Maybe I AM the first ICU nurse you''ve heard say that.

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Recently had a sudden onset R side weakness flown to my hospital for a stroke workup. Thankfully before we started the tPA we noticed that her previously unusable R arm (0 effort against gravity) was texting. Yay! TIA! Except when we pointed out she was using her arm, she quit using it and asked for Dilaudid since her previously numb arm was now hurting and no, she still couldn't use it.

The lengths some people go to.....

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Specializes in Emergency and Critical Care.
I know exactly how you feel... I had a patient "fall out of bed" with both side rails up because she was in so much pain and needed her medicine that started with a "d" but she couldn't remember what it was (Dilaudid). As she lay on the floor supposedly unconscious I happily walked over told her that the Dr was not giving her narcotics and gave her her discharge instructions. Yay me!

I have patients that will tell you that nothing works except for that medicine that starts with a d, you know dilauda, so I explain to the patient that it is very important for them to know how to say their medications and understand them so they can give accurate information to the nurses and Doctors, so I explain to them that it is called dilaudid, and if the doctor orders it I give it very slow so they do not get a head rush. They complain that I give it to slow and I explain to them that it will work better and longer when I give it to them this way. Some get so frustrated with me but I say all of this to them very calm, caring, and seriously, they just don't know how to take it.

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That happens all the time here.

And it's always annoying.

We really need a "my nurse was mean to me" thread, and all such traffic could be directed there.

Back on track- After a pt responded to my instructions to stop seizing, he informed me that he had a hx of pseudu-seizures. I offered him pseudo-ativan.

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When my fiancé fell through a roof and landed on his back, he tried to laugh and joke around in triage so that his mom wouldn't cry or worry. Because of this, he ended up waiting hours in the lobby, despite the mechanism of injury. When he finally got back to a room and they got some images, the doctor was furious; the fall had actually broken his back! Kind of a funny reversal of the topic. :)

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I had someone yelling out and moaning in pain and self inducing vomit. I would pull the curtain shut, she would rush to the sink, turn it on and then a few seconds later turn it off, rush back to bed and then 'vomit' the sink water all over the bed. This was her 32 ER visit for abdominal pain and vomiting in 3 months... When I told her we would not be giving her narcotics she quickly stopped yelling and moaning grabbed her bag and said to her boyfriend 'well I guess we are leaving then!' She suddenly stopped vomiting and was now able to walk despite her 500 out of 10 pain!

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
When my fiancé fell through a roof and landed on his back, he tried to laugh and joke around in triage so that his mom wouldn't cry or worry. Because of this, he ended up waiting hours in the lobby, despite the mechanism of injury. When he finally got back to a room and they got some images, the doctor was furious; the fall had actually broken his back! Kind of a funny reversal of the topic. :)

And yet another post for the to-be-started "My Nurse Was Mean To Me" thread.

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And yet another post for the to-be-started "My Nurse Was Mean To Me" thread.

Where in my post did I bash a nurse?! It was my fiancé's fault for downplaying his pain during triage and ACTING like it wasn't a big deal to appease his mother. I was giving an example of how acting like he WASN'T in pain only made things worse for him.

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Ah tonight was 'I can't breathe' but 100% room air.

Call another pt, they begin screaming at me.

The pts who waited an hour felt bad for the person, who stopped their bs as soon as I called their name.

DONT FLOP DOWN in a wc and wiggle around in it when you DROVE yourself. Sorry you don't want to wait tonight but if you can SCREAM at me, your lungs are working just dandy

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