What do your ER patients families say or do that irks you?

teeituptom, BSN, RN · Sep 21, 2005

like the illegal drug? you have gotta be kidding me

thats exactly what she said

She was just using that to refer to Narcs

Or maybe she was referring to her husband

Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN · Sep 21, 2005

However, it seems like some of these patients are actually disappointed when you can get a line on the first stick. Go figure.

I have noticed that, too.

Hellllllo Nurse, BSN, RN · Sep 21, 2005

I never say "I'm a hard stick."

I always say "This is a good vein here" and point to the one and only vein that anyone has ever been able to get on me.

popbob · Sep 21, 2005

a mom brings a child to the er at 1400, but states she the child has a doctors appt. in approx 1 hour. the child is in no distress, no fever, no nothing. just decided to come to the er for kicks.

chadash · Sep 21, 2005

Oh! I was one of those crazy moms! about 25 years ago when my son was a toddler, he had been sick for a couple weeks with an ear infection and was being treated with amoxicillin. He had so many, he was beginning to get lots of diarrhea from antibiotics. I changed his diaper and his stool was a deep red, so off we went (it was sat. to the er,just in case). The doctor tested it and came back smiling: red jello syndrome! :clown:

busykim · Sep 21, 2005

I have to agree with the other posters that it is soooo irritating when people come in at 9:00 pm and "haven't eaten all day" and now is an emergency! --- or the patient with abdominal pain that is eating an In and Out burger that her husband snuck in---ended up with chole dx. :rolleyes:

I also love the "I've been waiting for" (insert exaggerated time here)- I sometimes want to ask them if they had an appointment???

Then there is the patients wife that was miffed that she had to transport her husband back to his board and care (you mean I have to take him back???he came in by ambulance!) after explaining that we can arrange transport but she would have to pay for it- she was then miffed that she needed to fill a RX for him! You don't have someone that can go get this for me?? :angryfire

Then there are the family members/lurkers that give you dirty looks and complain loudly about the wait. Especially love the ones that complain when you are on the other side of the curtain with another patient or cleaning up a room to bring in another patient. They talk loudly just to make sure you can hear..... We had a wife the other night that was tired of the wait (pt was referred to ER from PMD for abnormal lab) We were slammed with serious patients...their nurse kept in touch and explained Doc would be there asap etc. After a while wife comes up to nurse's station and yells "so are you trying to kill him?" Everyone stops what they are doing and there's instant shock/silence--(we couldn't help but laugh after the fact) :roll

grace90, LPN, LVN · Sep 21, 2005

I'm a med-surg nurse, and I made a big dumb parent booboo last week when we brought my 4 year old daughter in to the ER after she ate her brother's Risperdal, all 7.5 mg's in the bottle at once. She was initially unresponsive when we brought her in, but after a couple hours she was coming out of it and starting to whimper and talk a little. She loves balloons, so for some dumb reason I had the idea that blowing up a latex glove into a balloon would perk her up and I was holding it in front of her trying to get her to look at it and play with it. Her nurse came into the room and told me to get rid of it immediately since she could possibly be allergic to latex and it would give her airway problems on top of the other problems she was already having. Oops! Shoulda known better! :smackingf :lol_hitti At least it wasn't the hospital I work at, it was a different one.

babynurselsa, RN · Sep 21, 2005

Well if she was allergic wouldn't she have already had a reaction to the gloves the staff had been weraing while caring for her?

jbird125 · Sep 21, 2005

What irks me is the very large sign patients pass on the way in:
"customer satisfaction is our number one goal"
Gee, I thought it was Airway, Breathing, Circulation, Disability,..........
QUOTE]
i agree, customers and clients are what my bank manager has, patients are what i get walking in the A+E door. In the UK we don't have private systems (everything is state owned) so i don't even have the joy of relieving the 'customer' of some of their hard earned cash!

Danianne · Sep 21, 2005

I am one of those patients too. I always say "I am really really scared of needles" but you wont find one peircing on my body also I tell them that I don't really have very good veins and when they don't listen to me I sit there and basically shake and pass out on them but I guess when it is my turn I will pay for it :rolleyes:

teeituptom, BSN, RN · Sep 23, 2005

I am one of those patients too. I always say "I am really really scared of needles" but you wont find one peircing on my body also I tell them that I don't really have very good veins and when they don't listen to me I sit there and basically shake and pass out on them but I guess when it is my turn I will pay for it

I like the ones who are afraid of needles, yet 50 percent of their body is tatooed, they pierced nipples, and pierced tongues and pierced genitalia.etc.

makes no sense to me

zaleah · Sep 24, 2005

"I haven't eaten all day."
After arriving by ambulance for a sore throat, "I'll need a cab pass home"
"I only had one beer" ETOH 269
"Are you the doctor, or JUST a nurse"
"I have to be otta here in a half n hour, can you hurry things up?"
" I have an apt with my doctor in 1 hour but I just couldn't wait"
"Could you write me a prescription for Tylenol?"
"I was not almost dead" after Heroin OD with a little Narcan.
"I just know I'm really sick and need to be admitted" walks in with suitcase syndrome.
" I never had to wait this long before"
there are so many more but just thinking about them makes me mad.
#1 that bothers me the most "I PAY YOUR SALARY"

Kaycee must be in Canada,

that is the most irritating---I Pay taxes you know!!!

"yeah, no kidding, so do we all, it's guarenteed, like death" is my favourite reply, only with a family I think can take the joke.