ER Experience

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Hello all, I accidently posted this in the polls...dur hur. Anyway here it is my experience.

I just got of the hospital this morning. I had a great stay in the hospital but the ER was a total nightmare!

I got violently ill on Tuesday. During this time I passed out and my husband freaked out and had the ambulance take me to the ER. I get there and end of passing out again in the ER lobby. They get me in the ER and the ER Dr gives me 2 zofran for my vomiting...why do they give you pills when you've been barfing? I'll never understand that one. Anyway, I'm still sick and they discharge me from the ER. I walked over to my Dr's office which is about a block away and he takes one look at me and has a car from the hospital pick me up and take me back to the ER to have me admitted to the hospital. The people in the ER put me out in the lobby to wait and while I was waiting I had to go to the restroom and while I was going back to the lobby I freakin' passed out again!! :o The ER DR comes out with a nurse and helps me into a wheelchair and push me back into the ER to wait for a room.

Ok, here's the kicker...As this nurse was pushing me into the ER she mumbles under her breath, "If you faint again you can just lay there till you can get up on your own, this to complete bulls@#$." I was stunned and too sick to say anything. I couldn't believe it! What a heifer! I wasn't passing out on purpose! FFS I was sick. Come to find out I have a cyst on the ovary left over from my hysterectomy and the ovary itself is twisted. I'm going to have to go in later to have it removed.

Anyway, it wasn't like they had to literally pick me up out of the floor! They just had to steady me when I got up. The more I thought about it while I was in the hospital the more it made me mad:angryfire I was just wondering what should I have done? I figured it really wasn't worth saying anything about but I hope she doesn't treat other patients that way. That was totally out of line and down right rude! What would you have done?

The rest of my hospital stay was great. The nurses and aides were awesome and very sweet:redpinkhe I really appreciated them and everything they did. I left a review of my stay and commended them for being so helpful and compassionate. That ER nurse sure could learn some bedside manners from the nurses on the floor I was on:madface:

Thank you all for the well wishes :heartbeat...I wish one of you could have been my nurse instead of Nurse Cranky. Oh well, we live and learn. I am going to do as advised and send a letter addressing my concerns and I will send it to her as well as Vito suggested.

I am feeling better thankfully and can't wait to get this surgery over with so I can get on with my life and not be bothered with it during school.

Thanks again all. Much appreciated.

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, ED.

In your letter, be sure to include the positive experiences. The nurses and aides on the floor that were good to you deserve a little stroking.

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I will certainly give the nurses and aides on the floor the praise they deserve. They were so sweet and I couldn't have asked for better They were so understanding about my illness and the nurse was great about explaining things to me because she had gone through a similar situation not long ago. The aides were second to none and always popped in to see if I needed anything. If I could treat them all to a cruise to Jamaica, I would in a heart beat! As for Nurse Cranky...well...I would treat her to an anger management class or two.

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Specializes in ER, TRAUMA, MED-SURG.
Thank you all for the great advice. I was so stunned and ill that I couldn't respond. I should've puked all over her shoes!:barf02:I will certainly report this. I don't want anyone else to be treated by this woman. I would hate to think that she would treat an elderly person or even a child in this manner. She should have just followed the old rule...If you can't say anything nice then don't say anything at all. I really wish I had puked on her shoes though:devil:

That's one thing that always sticks out in my head. It makes me wonder how other people that can't or don't say anything get treated or talked to.

And, you were right, next time aim for her shoes!! Give her something to be rude about!

Anne

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Specializes in ER, TRAUMA, MED-SURG.
In your letter, be sure to include the positive experiences. The nurses and aides on the floor that were good to you deserve a little stroking.

Virgo - you're right about that. If I get mad enough when I'm in that position to complain about the poor care someone gave me like in her position, I always try to point out positive aspects too. I don't want the "powers that be" to look at me, and just think "well, she's never happy about anyone", or "she always gripes about everything and everyone". I try to let the people that give me poitive experiences or whatever know it, and the people that get my complaint also get the complimentary ones.

Anne

I hope that made sense to you - like if I'm a patient in the ER and get admitted to telemetry and the ER nurse is a real witch but the tele nurse is friendly or attentive... I let the tele nurse know I do appreciate his/her good care.

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Specializes in ICU.
I will certainly give the nurses and aides on the floor the praise they deserve. They were so sweet and I couldn't have asked for better They were so understanding about my illness and the nurse was great about explaining things to me because she had gone through a similar situation not long ago. The aides were second to none and always popped in to see if I needed anything. If I could treat them all to a cruise to Jamaica, I would in a heart beat! As for Nurse Cranky...well...I would treat her to an anger management class or two.

It's good that you're willing to praise or threaten, depending on the situation. Years ago, when my wife spent over an hour sitting in the waiting room of the ER before being treated (at the facility where she happened to be a manager of a different department), I was less than pleased. Seeing her rock back & forth, moaning in pain from what was later diagnosed as an ovarian cyst, left me MUCH less than pleased.

Being the shy, quiet (!) sort of guy that I am, once things were settled down with my wife, I wrote a letter to the President/CEO of the hospital network, kindly offering to relieve his patient burden. All it would have taken was to have spread the word among the EMS community that the hospital had dicked around with the wife of a local paramedic, and many medics would have been willing to reroute non-emergent cases to other hospitals. It has happened in our area before, and it was meant as a serious threat.

Amazingly enough, he responded appropriately.

On the other hand, when I was in the same facility years later for some elective surgery (which I, being the "manly man" pain-avoiding :cry:WIMP:cry: that I am, had been delaying for years), I made it a point to include the name/department of every employee I ran into who did a great job. This included everybody from pre-op nurses to the Patient Transport guy who wheeled me out to the car when I was being released. I wanted to make sure that great performance was recognized.

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You are awesome CrufflerJJ! :yeah: I would have loved to see the look on the CEO's face when he got wind of that!

It's amazing to me how crass some people can be in the ER. I would never in a million years expected that to happen to me. I don't know who dumped in her cheerios but that ER nurse had a bad attitude. She was just a down right sourpuss. I feel sorry for anyone who has to come into contact with her on any level.

I am going to let them know how much I appreciated the floor nurses and aides. Like I said, they were the best and so sweet and helpful. They deserve any recognition coming their way and more.:redbeathe

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