Emergency.RN

Let me guess, you don't work in an ER? I have to disagree with you on both of the points you're making here. Yes, maybe you could not wait one week to be seen. But the emergency room is for people who cannot wait one minute or one hour to be seen. If you can wait longer than 1 hour, whyare you not going to a minute clinic or Urgent Care? When wait times are over four hours it is because individuals choose to utilize emergency services for nonemergent conditions. And the truly sick, critical, or mentally ill suffer because of it. Additionally, I disagree with your comment that we should "expect patients to be demanding" Excuse me? Nurses are professionals and deserve to be treated as such. You are the one who chose to utilize the ER for a nonemergent condition and that is why you have a long wait time. Not the nurses fault. Life-threatening emergencies are seen first, plain and simple. I cannot speed things up for you, even if your "copayment is high"

Hi everyone, I work in a large, urban ED. I absolutely love emergency medicine, and like many of you, cannot imagine myself doing anything else. However, I have recently been left feeling burnt out with all the non-emergent cases we see. Its as if treating and caring for a patient who is actually sick, critical or unstable just doesn't happen anymore. What happened to these patients? Where did they all go? We are so bogged down with low acuity patients, who also seem to be the most entitled, mean, and in-your-face. It is discouraging to say the least, but I'm not sure where to turn from here. Emergency nursing is my passion. Are any of you experiencing this as well? What are you doing about it? What happened to the "emergency" in "emergency medicine?"