Vent here.....I should repeat that this is a vent....
I get really tired of non-medical, non ER nursing, etc., questioning our (ER RNs) compassion because we vent and complain in a forum, where patient confidentiality is still upheld..... but where we can vent to our hearts content...... How we feel about the ER system, our not so enjoyable experiences in the ER...... How we hate some aspects of our jobs.
Don't we deserve to be able to complain without our compassion being questioned? It's not like I have ever seen any ER nurse complain about legitimate Emergency Care....I really have only seen the bogus stuff we complain about that makes our job of taking care of the true illnesses harder. I also think that if any of these people who complain about our compassion were a patient in the ER and required our instant care yet we said to them....listen, I have a guy here with a hang nail so you'll have to wait cause his hang nail is just as important as your heart failing.....we would get a whole new attitude.
These people who accuse noncompassion do not have a clue....and it adds to the frustration. I just want to have them shadow me someday.....Where I'm resuscitating a 5 year old, push all kinds of drugs, intubation, comfort the family, chart like I'm writing a novel, need a pee break only to get some attitude from your other nonEmergent patient and their family that they have waited 2 hours for an update. You're standing there with that full bladder and holding back tears from the previous patient's room and as a nurse you should keep your composure. So, if we want to come in this forum and vent about our bad day and the loser who jumped you and you still had to stand their with a smile on your face, use therapeutic communication to diffuse the situation...God forbid PressGaney gets a complaint.....I think those non-medical, non-ER nursing people who complain need to back the heck off. There is no other specialty like ER nursing....And I think ER nurses ROCK!
i agree with angelfire and michigan if you are not a nurse or health professional and don't understand something written then stay out of it .this is a nsg forum.this is where we come to vent.
I have worked Er in the past. I have also worked many other disciplines. Often I have had to explain to patients, " I am your nurse. I am unable to give you what you want. I can only give you what you need". I spend more time explaining that this is not the Ritz Carlton, its a hospital. Big difference. Lord have mercy!
I prefaced this thread as a vent but knew there would be people who come in to make comments yet again. The site is Allnurses.com (Where nurses come together)....You know that coming into the site. When you preface a thread as a vent.....that's exactly what it is. Keep the comments coming. If others can't be respectful of this thread setup the way it is...shame on them.
Specializes in ED, Tele, Med/surg, Psych, correctional.
I agree 100%. This is a nursing site...and this section is specifically designed for ER nurses. So explain to me why there are patients who are not nurses even coming on to the site and reading our comments? Frankly, I think they have WAY too much time on their hands. Even if I am surfing the internet at home (when I have a spare 15 minutes..lol) the last place that I wind up is reading the blog of hairdressers or engineers. I mean why the hell would I even be interested in that crap. I would be completely unable to identify with the subject matter and would be instantly bored to death. Yet it seems time and again we are insulted by laypersons who "stumble" onto the site and read something they don't like and post "you don't care about the world" comments. You have to sign up to be able to post something. Why the hell are they registering on a nursing site for nurses? I think that in order to register you should have to provide your license number and prove that you are a nurse...because if you're not then you don't belong here...go find your own profession's blog site and comment there.
I will continue to talk about what I have been talking about I could care less if it's on the news or in the paper. We all know the media would paint the nurses as the devil anyway and the patient as the angel.
Anywho... Would you rather me get on a forum to discuss things with my fellow nurses or bottle it up and wait until I'm at work and unload while I'm there. Contrary to popular belief, nurses are HUMAN and we deal with things just like most everyone else. Sounds like the nonmedicals are just getting on this website to maybe gain insight and ammo for their next medical visit...
What would you do nonmedicals: You go to work at 7pm. A little 16 month old comes in cardiac arrest and dies despite your best efforts to revive her. You are responsible for comforting the family and trying to hold yourself together. If this happened to you, wouldn't you want to go home?? We don't have that luxury. We have to pick ourselves up by the bootstraps and keep on truckin. In that same night, you get a (listen to this TRAUMARN...) a drug seeker, here for his 3rd visit in a week for the same vague pain complaint that he's had for 6 months who picks up a chair and throws it at you because they didn't get their drug of choice. This is all before 10pm. Then, just as you think the night is settling down, you get a drunk guy that reaches up from his drunken stupor, smiles, and grabs and squeezes your boob with better accuracy than you could ever imagine a BAL of 400 ever having. And to boot, at 6am you get that ever infamous STEMI that looks like dookie and has a pressure of 80 palp.
Personally, I don't waste my time surfing, say lawer blogs or whatever, frankly because I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT IT.Why you guys do it is beyond me. YOU CAN'T PASS JUDGEMENT ABOUT SOMETHING YOU HAVE NO CLUE ABOUT. Give us a break and find something better to do with your time besides judging perfectly normal people dealing with stress is a perfectly normal way.
I agree 100%. This is a nursing site...and this section is specifically designed for ER nurses. So explain to me why there are patients who are not nurses even coming on to the site and reading our comments? Frankly, I think they have WAY too much time on their hands. Even if I am surfing the internet at home (when I have a spare 15 minutes..lol) the last place that I wind up is reading the blog of hairdressers or engineers. I mean why the hell would I even be interested in that crap. I would be completely unable to identify with the subject matter and would be instantly bored to death. Yet it seems time and again we are insulted by laypersons who "stumble" onto the site and read something they don't like and post "you don't care about the world" comments. You have to sign up to be able to post something. Why the hell are they registering on a nursing site for nurses? I think that in order to register you should have to provide your license number and prove that you are a nurse...because if you're not then you don't belong here...go find your own profession's blog site and comment there.
I will continue to talk about what I have been talking about I could care less if it's on the news or in the paper. We all know the media would paint the nurses as the devil anyway and the patient as the angel.
Anywho... Would you rather me get on a forum to discuss things with my fellow nurses or bottle it up and wait until I'm at work and unload while I'm there. Contrary to popular belief, nurses are HUMAN and we deal with things just like most everyone else. Sounds like the nonmedicals are just getting on this website to maybe gain insight and ammo for their next medical visit...
What would you do nonmedicals: You go to work at 7pm. A little 16 month old comes in cardiac arrest and dies despite your best efforts to revive her. You are responsible for comforting the family and trying to hold yourself together. If this happened to you, wouldn't you want to go home?? We don't have that luxury. We have to pick ourselves up by the bootstraps and keep on truckin. In that same night, you get a (listen to this TRAUMARN...) a drug seeker, here for his 3rd visit in a week for the same vague pain complaint that he's had for 6 months who picks up a chair and throws it at you because they didn't get their drug of choice. This is all before 10pm. Then, just as you think the night is settling down, you get a drunk guy that reaches up from his drunken stupor, smiles, and grabs and squeezes your boob with better accuracy than you could ever imagine a BAL of 400 ever having. And to boot, at 6am you get that ever infamous STEMI that looks like dookie and has a pressure of 80 palp.
Personally, I don't waste my time surfing, say lawer blogs or whatever, frankly because I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT IT.Why you guys do it is beyond me. YOU CAN'T PASS JUDGEMENT ABOUT SOMETHING YOU HAVE NO CLUE ABOUT. Give us a break and find something better to do with your time besides judging perfectly normal people dealing with stress is a perfectly normal way.
Kimbernurse: Oh you have no idea how much I agree with you and can honestly say I have been in your shoes. It does really suck how the nonmedicals surf.....and then judge. It's like you can't get away from the complainers even when you aren't working...... I mean I have to bite my tongue many times for the Ritz Carlton mentality in the ER, I shouldn't have to do it on a site that I "Paid" to beable to talk within a community of nurses, specifically ER nurses....and see some of the attitudes and judgements spewed our way. How dare they actually....it's shameful.
I once heard a patient in our old ER pull the curtain back of a patient we were resuscitating to ask one of the nurses doing compressions if he could have a cup of coffee when she was done there. Can you flippin imagine!
I think that people that come on a vent post and then tell the nurse(s) they lack compassion are ATTACKING the poster(s). Attaking another poster is not allowable per the terms of service of this board, and many are reprimanded and then banished for doing it. What about a labelled vent thread, makes it OK to attack those posting there?
I guess this thread got started in response to a response I made under a different topic. I retract the compassion statement if that makes you feel any better sometimes it is easier to write stuff out and hit send without my internal editor filtering certain things out. I didn't mean to bash anyone in particular but some of the things you read in here are pretty harsh, you have to admit.
On another note some of you also made assumptions about my experience in an ED based on my comment. Just so you know your assumptions were wrong. I am not an RN, but I do have almost 4 years experience working in both an ED and on an ambulance. I see these patients you rant about and I also see the attitudes of the staff, nurses, doctors, and support staff. I sometimes find their attitudes and demeanor in front of the patients to be quite undesirable. I've seen and heard things in front of patients that would make you realize why the complaint department has staff. I have no problem with ranting, but keep it out of the view and earshot of patients. I'm not saying this is not an appropriate place, but be ready for comments since this is an open forum and don't take it too personally.
I like this site and will continue to lurk here. You write your true feelings and I will continue to do the same.
nuangel1, BSN, RN
707 Posts
i agree with angelfire and michigan if you are not a nurse or health professional and don't understand something written then stay out of it .this is a nsg forum.this is where we come to vent.