LoriLeahRN

I work in a rural hospital ER, which is affiliated with a larger hospital about 30 miles down the road. Whenever we get phone calls from them, the caller inevitably says something to remind us of our "country bumpkin" status such as....." Hi this is ______, from down here at the main hospital....blah blah blah blah......" So one night, we were extremely busy, every bed full, 10 patients in waiting at 0400, squads bringing new ones as soon as one gets discharged.....you get the picture. Phone rings.....unit clerk says...."it's a nurse call from out of town, right down there in the vicinity of the "Big House" " I am the lucky nurse who is between tasks at the time. The call went something like this.... me- "Hi, this is Lori, may I help you?" Caller- "yeah......I've got these uhhhh.....bumps.....uhhhh.......all over me....down there....." me- "okay...." caller- " I was just wonderin' if they might be them there uhhhhhh.......general warts.....my wife has 'em too.....down there......." me- "well, sir, we are unable to diagnose things over the phone, that is something that you would have to be seen for.....blah blah blah blah...." caller- "well.....I uhhhhhh.......cheated on my wife about a year ago and now these here uhhhh...bumps have started coming out...uhhhh....down there..... and I just wanted to know if it was them there general warts......" by this time, the Doc is standing there near me and is overhearing parts of the conversation, so I excuse myself and tell the Doc what's going on, explaining that this person had called the ER at the "big house" and had gotten transferred to us because they were "too busy to take the call" The Doc says to tell the patient that it is a dire medical emergency and they should go right away to the NEAREST emergency department to be seen..... We never heard back from the patient, nor did we see him.

Will have to agree with the majority here, folks. Start out on M/S tele, learn your skills and pay your dues, your future ER coworkers as well as your patients will appreciate it and respect you for it, and you'll be glad you did! Good luck!

I work in a rural area, we have 3 RN's in the ED (I know, lucky us!) On med surg, there are 3 RN's and 3 techs, in CCU one RN for 2 pts and watching the tele for the floor. My first hospital job 13 yrs ago we had ONE RN in the ED, one for the floor with 2 LPN's one RN in the unit and one LPN in long term care. I lived in a city for awhile and really liked my job, but found most nurses were "pigeonholed" in their specialty. They didn't know how to cope with anything outside of their specialized area. I worked a tele floor there and we took some overflow from the orthopedic floor one night, nobody had any clue how to deal with the patient's broken hip. Kinda made me glad that I had that broader knowledge base. Of course, when I moved back home, I went back to work for the same hospital for a short time before deciding that I was gonna try driving a few miles to a larger hospital. Those nurses treated me like a country bumpkin, just assumed that because I'd come from a rural hospital that I knew nothing. So guess what, I went back to the country. Different hospital, though. I'm pretty happy there, though, people are a lot nicer.

I do that too, then the only time they need stuck again is if Doc decides he wants blood cultures or later on for a second set of enzymes.....but if they have a fever when they come in, I go on and draw the bc's with the rest of the rainbow anyway.

-Don't pick up a piece of gravel out of the parking lot, then later put it in your urine specimen cup and tell me that you've "Just passed that kidney stone" that you're here seeking pain meds for because you've had every non vital organ in your abdomen removed already.....(True story)

I'm in southeast Ohio. I'm an RN in the ER. I've worked on the telemetry floor and in the ICU before settling into ED...I love it.