Patient and family priorities

[hiddencatRN]

Sometimes I find patient and family priorities frustrating. Had a patient in the other night, and as we were triaging the patient, the parent wanted to know "aren't we going to do anything for their pain" then "Can I have some water" and then "when can I feed them" and "Can I get some water?" This was all before we'd even gotten their names in to the system. I understand the concern about her child's discomfort, but she asked for water twice and we hadn't even completed triage. They'd literally just been dropped off by EMS, placed directly in a room, and there were two nurses and a doctor at bedside doing assessments and getting the patient's name, birthday and medical history.

"Ok mom, I'm in the middle of assessing your child's mental status post fall, but let me go grab you that water now."

[Hagabel]

Quick suggestion..move to NZ!

Since I have been here , yes I have been shocked by some practices but here pts wait for 6-9 hrs to be seen on busy night and never complain, well hardly ever.

I think part of it is that it is free and they will wait as needed, and also we are very proactive at giving out pain meds in w room, doing ivs, bloods etc out there and some of them never make it back to the ED (except urgent care cubicle) and are then dc'd. Obviously your level 2's do!

And I have discovered whilst they do have pillows everywhere, as long as you offer a cuppa tea and an egg sandwich(again depending on NPO status) everything generally is ok. These stations are dotted around the ED so family help themselves and we also have St John's volunteera who are great at fluffing and puffing.

And people here say thank you!!!! And they have no tvs, just magazines.

I love it and find it very refreshing after 9 yrs of ED abuse in US.

:)

[Roy Fokker, BSN, RN]

I love the people who complain about the wait time. Usually a few facts helps issues ("The national average wait time in the ER is about 4 hours" or "yes, it takes 2 hours for the contrast to travel from your mouth to your colon. Human body still works the same way today as it did 10,000 years ago")

But sometimes I'm tempted to say "Well, you're free to leave and pursue this as an outpatient and get it all wrapped up in about a weeks time" ...

It's the same old thing: "You aren't the ONLY patient here today. I mean did you NOT SEE the waiting room when you walked in?"

or coke instead of the apple juice we gave her.

Anybody get called into Manager's office for pt. complaint: "I asked for 6 cubes of ice in my glass of water. He brought me one with 10 cubes in it" ??

*raises hand*

Seriously, you can't make this **** up!

cheers,

PS: I think I was more upset with my Manager that s/he would even MAKE this an issue worth addressing!!

[tech1000]

I had a 1013 the other day (13 year old boy, slightly mentally challenged) and he rang that code blue button ovvver and ovvver and over again! Not like we can take it off the wall or unhook it. Not that this is that relevant.

I also had a pt who had an elevated BP (she has HTN and was out of her BP meds). Her fiance showed up and our greeter called to see if he could come back. One of our docs was in the room so I said he could come back in 5 minutes. The greeter called me right back and said, "Can you talk to this guy?" He said, "I'm not just her friend, I'm her FIANCE and I HAVE to be back there RIGHT NOW!" I wanted to say, "I don't care if you're her HUSBAND since you don't count for anything when you're her fiance, you'll come back when I say you can since you aren't the pt." I was nice and firm. Then, at the time of her discharge, her BP was 180/90ish and he wouldn't let me discharge her until we took care of her BP. She had an Rx for her meds. She was fine. But his uncle was a lawyer. I had to call security to get him to leave the room so we could talk to the pt.

I wanted to warn the girl that she's making a big mistake marrying this guy...