instanthuman

in my short time in the ER (just under 4 mos), i've had a load of pt.s come in that need a brain transplant (obviously), but the funniest was when medcom called in "we're bringing a 51 yo male in with chief complaint of "feeling weird". " we all laughed listening to medcom, and when the pt. rolled through the doors, it was confirmed...yep, he's weird alright! looked like he'd stuck in finger in a light socket, smelled like he hadn't seen a shower in days (think dirty ash tray and beer spilled on himself--we thought initially he'd been incontinent, but no, he made a faux pas and spilled a beer on his pants), with no specific physical complaints. homeless, but with a neon green trick lookin' cell phone which he couldn't stay off of long enough for us to triage him in and answer our questions. then decided that he didn't want to cooperate with the nurses and left AMA. he never even asked for food, meds, anything, just seemed to have changed his mind. what a freakin' waste of money and time. ugh. all i kept thinking that night was of that "just for men" commercial...."your BEARD is WEIRD". and it was.

thanks again for all of your replies. i really appreciate all of the information and opinions/experiences. what a great forum!

thanks so much! that was a very good and thought provoking answer...i will definitely research those leads.

blown out eyeballs and displaced long bone fractures get me a little bit queasy. not bad though. in nursing school i passed out in the OR observing a open prostatectomy, not because i was grossed out, but it was the first time i'd spent that long in a mask and i guess i got a little lightheaded. how embarrassing!

i recently transferred to the ER from another critical care unit in my hospital and asked one of the veteran nurses how many patients we see in our ER a year. he said, "they say we see 40000 patients, but actually we see 40 patients a thousand times." i almost peed myself laughing...but soon found out how very true a statement it was. it is frustrating, to be sure.

several times in the past month, we have had inpatients that have become critical moved to a monitored bed in the ER due to lack of beds/nurses in the ICU or stepdown areas. in reading up on EMTALA, it doesn't seem that the hospital has violated that law in particular, but i know for a fact that there is something really wrong here. can anyone point me in the direction to determine exactly what laws are being violated? patient safety is really being put on the backburner, IMHO, and that's not how i roll. TIA!!!