1. Please fill out the triage form completely. We specially like it when you fill out the part that says "reason for coming to the hospital" as it prevents us from having to use our magical ESP powers to determine if you have chest pain or just a hangnail.
2. Do not disturb the triage nurse while she is with a patient. She is giving the patient her full attention. When you get into triage, YOU will get her full attention. Wait your turn.
3. Unless you are on fire or in full arrest, you can wait just three seconds for the triage nurse to acknowledge you before you start shouting at her. Believe me, if you shout at her near the end of a difficult twelve hour shift, she is liable to shout back.
4. After you have been triaged, please take a seat in the lobby and do not come to the triage desk every five minutes asking "When am I going to see the doctor?" Like we told you the first time, you'll see a doctor AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. No, we don't know exactly how long that will be.
Rules for the treatment area
1. Answer the nurses' questions honestly and completely. If you lie we WILL find out.
2.Do not go to the nurses' desk every five minutes asking how long it will be before the doctor sees you. We don't know. Again, unless you are on fire or in full arrest, please accept that there are probably patients in the ER who are sicker than you. Yes, I know you FEEL like the sickest patient in the ER; so does everyone else. However, the nice gentleman down the hall with a Sat of 70% trumps your earache.
3. Do not act like it's the end of the world when I tell ou I need to draw some blood. You knew it was coming. If you will sit still and follow my instructions, I will get the blood with a minimum of pain and difficulty. If I have to chase you across the room and hold you down, there will be no such guarantee. Nobobdy likes having blood drawn (inclucing me) but it's a fact of life that sometimes it has to happen.
4. I'm sorry that you have to stay on a stretcher in the hall. I wouldn't like it either. However, all of our rooms are full. The only other option is for you to continue waiting in the lobby. Your call.
5. Family members, please do not assume that I am going to abuse mawmaw if you leave the room. If I ask you to step outside while I draw blood or place a foley, please do not get all huffy about it. The rooms are small and you are in my way. Don't take it personally. I promise not to smother your loved one with a pillow while you are gone. The nursing staff is not your enemy.
6. If you have a complaint of abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting, you may not have anything to eat or drink. So don't ask.
7. Lastly, please remember that we nurses are only human. You can look around and see when we are very busy. Please take that into consideration. If we forget to bring you that extra warm blanket or another glass of water, don't blow a fuse. Please just assume that maybe we were busy saving a life next door.
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Please tell me I'm not the only one who has felt this way from time to time!
AMEN !!! I wish everybody who either works in an ER or is a patient or family member in the ER can read this !!! antibiotics cannot cure your VIRUS. tough it out in 7 - 10 days you will feel better. thank god other people feel the same way
I wish we could dispense Tylenol in the waiting room- I think a lot of people would feel better and go home before their waiting time was over. Seriously.
I'm the triage nurse, I open my door and yell John Doe and before I can get the person into my office, Joe Blow asks me when is it his turn. I look at the list Joe, is about 6 down. I ask what's wrong, he tells me SOB. I then realize he's the guy that's was smoking at the back door when I got to work 5 mins ago. So I tell him to go smoke some more and then I will get to him in a few minutes.... which he did. I was being sarcastic. Of course when I did triage him his O2 sat was 98% on RA, he was not wheezing....his NOSE was stopped up!!
I am totally unhappy with the pregnant people who call the ambulance at a whim ( which we pay for ) just to have a cramp diagnosed as a UTI, when the significant other just didn't want to get up , drive her in and then wait in the ER.....
I floated down to the ER a couple of years ago and was made the triage nurse on a very busy night..Thank goodness had had some experience in both med surg and cardiac care. Room was full of sniffles, drunks and mostly wackos....Got to the point if one more mother of a kid with a cold said one more snide remark within ear shot, I was ready to fire back....Finally, in comes a drunk who had been in a fight, agitated, with blood dripping down into his eyes...He started to give me slack so I said, Listen, whatever the problem is you WILL treat me like a lady...Everyone in the room was quiet....With security standing by, since he had originally refused to be treated, he looked up through his bloody mess , and slurred, You sure are a good looking woman...Hows the chance of you and I getting it on...The entire waiting room and security cracked up....
And, fYI, I had never been beaten up, spit at, shoved up against a wall or stabbed UNTIL I became an OB nurse....
But PLEASE you wonderful ER people ( cause I love to float there- I think delivery nurses have some of the same personality traits going on because we are always waiting for something unexpected)....WHAT is the thing about you and pregnant patients????
I have seen you people handle gunshots, stabbing and a zillion other things, but as soon as a pregnant person walks in, I can still be on the phone and she is turfed up there quicker than I can take the elevator and you guys are GONE as soon as she gets there...Cracks us all up sometimes....:chuckle
"But PLEASE you wonderful ER people ( cause I love to float there- I think delivery nurses have some of the same personality traits going on because we are always waiting for something unexpected)....WHAT is the thing about you and pregnant patients????
I have seen you people handle gunshots, stabbing and a zillion other things, but as soon as a pregnant person walks in, I can still be on the phone and she is turfed up there quicker than I can take the elevator and you guys are GONE as soon as she gets there...Cracks us all up sometimes"
:roll :roll :roll :roll :roll
Well put! I've worked in ERs for over 10 years and have witnessed this phenomenon more than a few times! Some of our hardest, toughest ER nurses have a meltdown at the thought of delivering a baby in the department--and the docs are even worse!!!
.......but some of us will meet you in the ambulance garage with a precip kit.......
It's not so much that it's the pregnancy that gets us seasoned ER RN's in such a rush to get the patient up to OB, it's the fact that it is one patient that we CAN directly turf to somewhere else! I've done many "outside deliveries" in the ER, but if a patient presents for anything short of severe SOB due to asthma, etc. that we HAVE to take care of emergently, and they are more than 20 weeks pregnant, OFF THEY GO! One less patient to deal with! Every little bit helps!
Just curious, why aren't doc's offices opened past 5 pm-ish, anyone know?
I used to work ER long time ago, had the same sentiments as those being expressed on this thread -no your cough that you've had for 6 months doesn't take precedence over the trauma that just rolled in the door and yes it could be a few more hours, deal with it or leave, and no your temper tantrum isn't going to get me to move any faster.
Actually some psych nurses are just as bad. My mom used to vent at the dinner table. Never was a problem until I started bringing guys home for dinner. Shocked, grey faces and an "excuse me please" were the best reaction. The worst was the guy who ran out of the house and threw up in the bushes. (Something about a patient using the staff coffee urn as a urinal and the discovery being made the hard way).
To this day my sister or I will say something over dinner and completely gross our significant others out, and we will be like "What??!!":confused:
I can appreciate the frustration here. I have felt that way myself but it didn't come off as the mild rant you may have desired...And I wouldn't send it to patients because they are not as educated in the ways of the ER or any other place. The rest really don't care...When I am there for my baby, all I care about is my baby..
I think that all nurses in the ER know your main priority is your loved one, but that does not give you the right to trample over other patient's rights. Being concerned for your loved one does not mean all common sense can go out the window. Anyone should know enough not to come into another patient's room to ask questions and if there are a million people in a patient's room, it should be obvious that the patient in that room is very sick. We do the best we can to get all of our patients treated ASAP, unfortunately, sometimes people just have to wait. Heart attacks and asthma attacks have to come before week old rashes. People who are fixing to die have to come before people with a UTI.
One of our PAs says something a lot that I don't really agre with, but I certainly think he has a valid point...If you're well enough to come to the desk 20 times to see how long you have to wait or you're well enough to tell me you need to get out of there ASAP because you are going to the movie, dinner, etc...you are well enough to wait your turn just like everyone else. If you feel well enough to ***** about the wait, you're well enough to wait. Be glad that you aren't sick enough to have the entire code or trauma team at your bedside.
I don't think anyone was serious about sending a list of rules to patients...it's just a shame that people cannot figure out the common sense things fir themselves.
WHAT is the thing about you and pregnant patients????
I have seen you people handle gunshots, stabbing and a zillion other things, but as soon as a pregnant person walks in, I can still be on the phone and she is turfed up there quicker than I can take the elevator and you guys are GONE as soon as she gets there...Cracks us all up sometimes....:chuckle
Where I work, it is a hospital policy thing. If they are over 24 weeks and present to the ER with an OB complaint, they are to go directly to the LDRP unit. The ER Docs don't want the liability for one thing; and we are usually short staffed as it is - so we do not have the staff to tie up with a delivery.
I'm sure you are well aware that OB nurses get sued more than any other type of nursing ... and with all the things that can go sour with a delivery - I'm not to proud to say that I would be afraid I would miss something that a seasoned LDRP nurse would notice right away. It truly is safer for the patient. (both of them!) As for sticking around after we transport ... for what? I'm going to get out of your way so you can do your thing!
Please tell me I'm not the only one who has felt this way from time to time!
Every little bit helps!
soniblvn
33 Posts
AMEN !!! I wish everybody who either works in an ER or is a patient or family member in the ER can read this !!! antibiotics cannot cure your VIRUS. tough it out in 7 - 10 days you will feel better. thank god other people feel the same way