bgrana23

I'm curious if anyone can shed some light on my recent ER visit three days ago...I realize this forum isn't used for medical concerns of patients but as a nursing student I thought who better to ask than experienced nurses. I went to the ER because I suspected a PE (I've had one last year) and I was immediately seen by the nurse and physician. I had an EKG right away and the nurse started what I thought was an IV in my hand but I believe it was only the catheter because she didn't connect it to anything. She drew my labs from this site and didn't flush the catheter when she finished. Next, I went in for a CT chest w/contrast and the CT tech said verbatim, "This might hurt a little," as she forcefully flushed the catheter in my hand that had collected blood in it after having my labs drawn. I instantly pulled my hand away and winced in pain but she did apologize for having to "force" it. When it came time to push the 100 cc of contrast through my vein I experienced excruciating pain in my vein from my hand up to my elbow. I was in tears and my arm and hand are still very tender 3 days later. I have a very high pain tolerance so I was surprised that a simple diagnostic test such as a CT would cause that much pain. Afterwards, my arm showed signs of blanching and some edema. Should I be concerned or was this just a fluke incident?

We have a suggestion box in our break room so I will definitely add the idea of implementing a policy to guide our actions for off hours. I got caught up in my emotions and didn't even consider this idea so thank you for your insight and for being honest

I work in a diagnostic center where I register patients and draw their lab work. On this particular Saturday, a patient came in and handed me an order without a dx code. In order for me to print out specimen labels, I have to register a patient first. However, with our system, we cannot go any further with the registration process if our dx code column isn't filled in. I assumed the facility where the patient obtained his order from was not open on a Saturday but it's my job to properly register patients for insurance purposes so I called the number on the order and I was directed to follow the prompts on the recording in order to reach the ordering physician. About 5 minutes later I received a phone call and the physician asked me if I was the woman who called and left a message. I answered, ''Yes.'' I stated what the issue was and his response was, "Are you stupid? In all of the years that I've been on call I have never had to respond to such a question. Why are you calling me? This is NOT an emergency! Use whatever dx code you want! This is NOT my patient!" After about a minute when I couldn't get but two words in, I finally gave up, apologized, and said, "I'll call back another time." I followed the prompts on the answering service correctly, but I did not anticipate that another doctor other than the ordering doctor, might be on call. I did let my supervisor know and I also told the patient to disregard any bill he might receive due to a registration error on my part after the conversation I had with the on call physician.

Recently, I was treated very poorly by a physician. I had to take a minute to myself and fight back tears. Then, anger set in. How do I handle this? One employee said,"Do not let that one unfortunate scenario jade you." This isn't the first time I've been mistreated though. I've been working in healthcare settings since I was 18 and I've had nurses and doctors belittle me on more than one occasion. What is the appropriate response for these situations and how to do I keep my feelings from being hurt when spoken to so harshly? I am a first year nursing student and now I'm terrified to go into clinical in fear of these type of personalities.