Silliest Non-Emergency?

P_RN, ADN, RN · Apr 12, 2006

Not an ER nurse but I worked for a family practitioner and on Mondays we would get people who had been sick on say SATURDAY, come in feeling great but wanted to know if they had been really bad sick on SAT. then. I hated MONDAYS.

Meerkat · Apr 12, 2006

Not an ER nurse but I worked for a family practitioner and on Mondays we would get people who had been sick on say SATURDAY, come in feeling great but wanted to know if they had been really bad sick on SAT. then. I hated MONDAYS.

OMG! LOL:uhoh3:

sherichance · Apr 12, 2006

Not an ER nurse here. But I was in the ER a few weeks ago for some lower right quad pain, ouch!!

I seen a gentlemen come in, who looked in his late 20's, with a young girl, that looked 17 and said he wanted to be tested for STD's so he could have with his girlfriend. (?)

That was the silliest thing I have ever heard of needing to be seen in the ER for. ER visits are not cheap. I wanted to tell him to wait until Monday and go to the clinic downtown where he is not going to waste nurses time and spend all that money for the ER.

That's just me however.

Pepper The Cat, BSN, RN · Apr 12, 2006

I"m not a ER nurse, but go floated to the ER during the post-SARS time, when our unit was still very slow.

I had a couple bring in their 8 day-old baby because she hadn't "pooped" in 12 hours! :rolleyes:

Another guy, (mid-20s) came in because he "had a cold" and "could feel himself breathing".

ktwlpn, LPN · Apr 12, 2006

I was not working and my mother was the patient...She had cancer and often went septic-it was a busy Saturday evening and because she was always so stoic she got triaged to the end of the line (over and over ) We'd had a bit of a snow and ice event (like a half an inch) so in between the numerous "slip and falls" I watched a young woman come in with her boyfriend and complain of symptoms of a UTI-with the express purpose of obtaining a pregnancy test...By the time my mom was actually seen the waiting room was empty-everyone else had been discharged-except her....She was admitted.....

Katnip, RN · Apr 12, 2006

I had a woman who had eaten chicken for dinner the day before and thought she now had bird flu. No symptoms, just the chicken eating.

Columnist · Apr 12, 2006

I have two to contribute....

My paramedic brother-in-law once responded to a call of a "man choking." When he arrived, he found the "patient" clearing his throat repeatedly and saying, "I have a hair stuck in my throat, and I just can't get it out."

Another time, as an observer in the local university emergency room on a Saturday night, I saw a young (early 20s) woman come in with a barely apparent case of hives. She said she'd been itching off-and-on since last Weds, but apparently it became an "emergency" at 9:00pm on Saturday. Sheesh!

annmariern · Apr 12, 2006

20 year old female student called 911 for abdo pain. Turns out it was period pain.

Katnip, RN · Apr 12, 2006

Ok, ok. I've got one.

Two teens, a boy and a girl, both 17 and they'd just had sex for the first time. Called an ambulance because the girl was "bleeding down there."

17 year old girl called an ambulance because she had a pimple and she had prom that night.

That was two, but they're both true.

ShockerGirl · Apr 12, 2006

I dont know if you guys watch Jay Leno, but last night he had stupid 911 calls or something along those lines, and one girl calls in and says "oh my gosh my dog has been stolen! she was in my car, and my doors are locked! i dont know where she is or how she got out but she was stolen! i always have her with me!" then you hear "oh,....oh wait, wait, wait....i think i left her at home today" :lol2:

TazziRN, RN · Apr 12, 2006

ERs can't turn anyone away without a screening exam by a physician, so we have to see everyone that shows up, regardless of how silly the complaint.

I once had a 15-yr-old girl come in during night shift asking for a pregnancy test. It took several rounds of "Why do you think you're pregnant" to finally get the answer: she had "done it" three times with her boyfriend and she just HAD to be pregnant, right?

A sad one: a mom brought in her teenaged daughter because a neighbor was going around saying the girl had slept with all the guys in the neighborhood, and the mom wanted us to do a pelvic exam to prove she was still a virgin. The was way back before the laws about seeing everyone who came in. I had a long talk with the mom and finally asked her "Do you really want to put your virgin daughter through a pelvic exam just to prove she's a virgin?" She finally calmed down long enough to realize that this was not the wisest course and took the girl home.