I have a real moment of pause when I write this new thread as there will undoubtedly be somone who wants to accuse me of having burn-out or an unprofessional attitude. Let me first say, this is a vent and I love this site to allow such vents to be posted and discussed.
I have a real problem with patient's and their families who grab on to an attitude that the nurses are somehow keeping the patient's in the ER for hours due to laziness or..... something. Even when you constantly update your patients or explain that for example: There's a Trauma, or stroke, or MI or any other EMERGENCY taking (Lab/Radiology/EMD/RN/Tech/ect.) presidence at the time.......THEY COP AN ATTITUDE WITH YOU, ROLL THEIR EYES, STOMP THEIR FEET, ACCUSE LAZINESS, THREATEN TO CALL THE CEO...the list goes on.
Yesterday, I had such an episode with a family member when his MIL was brought in with a HR of 165, SOB and hx: of pacer, etc.. It was all fine and dandy when she had 4 sometimes 5 professionals in the room when this acuity was occuring, but 3.5 hours into her visit he is standing over me while I was charting on yet another Emergent OD...1000units insulin suicide attempt/central line insertion, intubated patient....rolling his eyes at me asking why his MIL is still in the ER. I kindly explain the system of waits in the ER and inform him that the ER doc is in another room and when I see him I'll have him come in to talk with him.
This a-hole rolls his eyes at me....stomps his feet, gets in my personal space and rants about how long it's taking.......I had had enough....I stood up, walked into his personal space and repeated word for word what I had just said to him moments ago, and further added...."Sir, now if you will kindly respect my other patients right to their privacy while I chart here at the nurse's station and return to your family member's room, I will beable to help you sooner" ....This woman was not only helped with the acuity , she was given numerous warm blankets, a lunch and repositioning on many occassions/ bed pan, etc......(No break or lunch for any of us on the team...12 hour shifts mind you)
I feel I show great restraint/respect with patient's and families who think they can just talk to the staff the way they do. Why do people think they can just treat staff this way and get away with it? I know the reasons.....because customer service...blah blah blah.....Even when you educate people the time frame tests take, they still get this...."Drive-thru" mentality......Ohhhh does it tick me off. Rarely do I ever confront their ignorance, but in the back of my mind, I am looking them right in the eyes and telling them to back off and let us do our job. ER is hard , demanding work...and I wouldn't want to work anywhere else as a nurse. (I don't need to work at all actually, I went back to school to become a nurse) People like this just kick ya in the shins and make me wonder sometimes, why I take the abuse.
When people tell me "I'm a nurse", I love to interrogate about where they went to school and where they work. Lots of times, its not a legit statement. One lady wanted to obviously throw around her nonexistent "authority" and I asked her where she went to school. Turns out she was a CNA. Nothing wrong with that other than she LIED about her credentials. Also, the daughter of one of my CP patients said she was a nurse. Asked her where she worked and she said the nursing home. Again, nothing wrong with that, but in the back of my brain all I could think about was the resp distress patient that came from where she worked and they had put on a NRB at 2L/min (doh!). The whole time she asked stupid questions that were an obvious attempt to prove what she thought she knew. Just smiled and thought ugly thoughts....
My favorite are the drug seekers that come, don't get their candy, and scream before they leave "I hate this place, I'm never coming back". Want to say good, dingaling, cause we're tired of dealing with you and all of the extra paperwork you create from leaving AMA. Undoubtedly they'll be back in a week trying to con another MD for drugs.
I often tell my impatient patients "Thank you for your patience, as we are very busy with critically ill patients. We are trying our very best to provide you and everyone else with speedy but SAFE care." Often this works, sometimes it pacifies no one. In those cases I would love to drag them into a room where we are resuscitating an infant and let them see just how horrible that is. I would love to ask them, If this was your daughter, wouldn't you want our full attention on her or dealing with some **** ant like yourself with a boil on his butt.
I have to remind myself daily that for 10 bad patients, there is one good one and that is what I am doing this for. I am here for the legitimate good ones.
Yeah I had one patient complain that he hadn't been turned in over an hour. I said "Sir we turn patients every two hours but if you would like to be repositioned it will be a few moments as we are having an emergency with another patient in the room next door"...He says "I don't care, doesn't he know there are other patients here"
Yeah I had one patient complain that he hadn't been turned in over an hour. I said "Sir we turn patients every two hours but if you would like to be repositioned it will be a few moments as we are having an emergency with another patient in the room next door"...He says "I don't care, doesn't he know there are other patients here"
For those patients who actually say that to me...and I have had a few. I have actually spun around and made them repeat what they just said. I've told them at that point, your boil on your orifice is not an emergency actually and frankly I'm not here to kiss your ass I am here to save it!"
The problem is we've created a nanny state.The customer service concept has run amuck.When,at some poiny you percieve your current need isn't being addressed or met complain "very loudly"Use profanity,demand to speek to the supervisor,charge nurse et.al.write a letter,demang my managers contact info.etc.Society has been successfully bubble wrapped.We have a front seat to societal armegeddon.I'm exhausted by the threats (verbal and physical) stomping feet,clenched fists,spitting and contorted angry faces.Did I tell you I know the CEO,I'm a donor they told me I was alway's supposed tp mention this when i came in.My doctot told me I was just suposed to stop by,get some tests and be admitted,I'm to go right back.I've seen tired toddlers better behaved.
you know, it's interesting how i just happened upon this thread a short time ago. i think you guys have every right to be angry by the way some people behave while in the ed. now, i know this is a "rant thread" about how unappreciated you guys are, and i don't want to go and ruin that by being all nice and telling you guys about an amazing experience i just had quite recently or anything. but i'm gonna!
[color=#483d8b] the night this happened, it was getting late, i'd say around 11 pm. i was putting some towels away and my 8 year old son woke up suddenly coughing a very strange cough, and crying. he got up and i told him to go down stairs, i'd be right there. i got down stairs not a minute after him and he was crying and coughing and he actually vomited in the middle of all this. after he vomited, he was crying some more and he said he couldn't breathe! (this all happened within a matter of minutes, maybe). i was trying to calm him down, of course, and for some reason i grabbed a flashlight and told him to open his mouth so i could see his throat. (maybe i did that because of him saying he couldn't breathe? i don't know, i just went with my gut!) he opened up and when he took a breath in, it looked like his throat was closing up almost all the way. so i immediately put him in the car and went to the ed.
[color=#483d8b]when we got to the ed, we went through the front doors and straight ahead so i could sign him in (about 10 feet away, perhaps?). i didn't even make it to the clipboard, before an rn who was passing by stopped and quickly asked me how long he'd been breathing like that. (he was still coughing that strange cough, too.) i told him maybe 15 minutes. he said "okay!" and he told the triage nurse something and told us to come with him now. (i never did sign him in, either. there was no time for that!) he whisked us straight through the automatic doors and he told someone at the desk "get respritory down here now. i have an asthma attack." he took us straight into a room and immediately began getting a breathing treatment ready. he asked me if my son had a history of asthma. i told him no. at some point i was asked if he had ever had croupe. i told him no, this has never happened before. the rn was very calm, and very efficient. he saw the panic in my face and told me it was okay. i just sat quietly and watched him work. before i knew it, the respritory person was in the room and putting together a different treatment. she chose a different medicine than the rn had prepared, but they worked so well as a team! they gave my son a breathing treatment, watching him closely. when it was finished, the resp. person listened to his lungs, and gave him another treatment. when it was finished, they let him sit for a few and watch tv. they were keeping watch over him, though, from the desk right outside the door.
[color=#483d8b]a short time later another resp. person came in and listened very carefully to his lungs again, and gave him another treatment. when it was finished, he listened to him again and nodded and left. a little while later a woman came in and asked questions, and said she was going to get a chest x-ray even though his lungs sounded okay. (i had no clue she was the doctor at first. she never told me who she was. i didn't care to ask right then, either.) so they got the x-ray and we went back to his room to wait. about 20 minutes later, a different doctor came in. he said the x-ray looked good. he listened to my sons lungs. then he told me, " well, everything looks good. his x-ray was good, his lungs are good. go home and give him some robitussin, and maybe some motrin and follow up with his doctor in 2-3 days. it's an upper respritory infection, an he should be fine in a few days." so i asked him, what about his breathing? and that doctor told me, "well, to be truthful, ne never really had any trouble breathing. sometimes when kids get a stuffy nose, they will panic and think they can't breathe. but his x-ray was clear and his lungs are crystal clear and he's fine."
[color=#483d8b]i nearly fell out of my chair! this man who had not even laid his eyes upon my son until it was all said and done and he was okay and could breathe, was telling me that he never had trouble breathing? well, then i suppose the rn who immediately recognized there was a serious problem when we walked through those doors, who had heard this childs distressed breathing and strange coughing (it was a barking sort of cough), immediately took him back and began treatment on him, got the respritory therapists in to help him, had no clue what he was doing? and i suppose both respritory therapists who gave him three breathing treatments, and listened to his little lungs through the whole thing, had no clue what they were doing, either? i suppose they acted so quickly and gave him those breathing treatments and watched him so closely because they had nothing better to do? the rn who came in with his discharge papers hadn't been part of his treatment. but i had seen her at the desk. she told me about the diagnosis of an upper respritory infection, and looked me in the eyes with a knowing look that said everything i was thinking at that point. then she told me i needed to follow up with his doctor first thing the next morning. i thanked her and told her i most definately would! and we left.
[color=#483d8b]now, i just have to say thank you!!!!!!!!! thank you to the nurse who immediately questioned his breathing when we walked in, for being observant like you were, and taking him back to begin immediate treatment! thank you so much for being so good at your job, and quickly and efficiently helping my little boy! thank you for helping me stay calm by being so calm yourself! thank you for calling for the respritory therapists to help you get my little boy breathing good again! thank you to all the nurses and the respritory therapists for being there, even if you were just the ones watching from the nurses station!
i know that was very long. i didn't mean to write a novel!!!
[color=#483d8b]i simply wanted all of you to know that even when you're having the worst day ever at work, there is certainly someone who's life you change, and they do appreciate you!
[color=#483d8b]btw, i did follow up with his doctor the very next morning. she said he had an acute case of croupe, and that is why his tonsils were swollen as badly as they were (making it look like his throat was swelling shut) and he could not breathe. he also had a sinus infection that was secondary to the croupe. she was angry with that doctor. she gave him an antibiotic and prednisone.
Rarely do I ever confront their ignorance, but in the back of my mind, I am looking them right in the eyes and telling them to back off and let us do our job. ER is hard , demanding work...and I wouldn't want to work anywhere else as a nurse. (I don't need to work at all actually, I went back to school to 
mmutk, BSN, RN, EMT-I
482 Posts
Yeah I'm almost over underappreciation, I'm picking up my toys and going to the CCU one of these days.