What do you hate seeing the MOST in the ER!?

Dixielee, BSN, RN · Apr 16, 2012

Mean drunks! I actually like having patients who really have an emergency and need help! It's the drunks that the cops found behind the dumpster who are too drunk for the drunk tank that make me crazy! We get the privilege of hanging the banana bag, cleaning them up and enduring their abuse, only to have them sober up enough to curse us as they exit AMA! Don't let the door hit you on the butt on the way out, buddy :)

That is what pushes my buttons!! All of them :)

The impatient frequent flyers in triage who complain that everyone else is going back before them. They have had back pain for 40 years and should go back immediately!!

Thanks for letting me vent, I feel so much better!

LalaJJB · Apr 16, 2012

The same person 4 days in a row with the same complaint that doesn't constitute and emergency (sniffles, afebrile, negative influenza, clear chest xr, etc)... and when they are d/c'd they think it's adorable when they say "bye bye, I'll probably see you again soon! haha!" :down:

~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN · Apr 16, 2012

Mine really depends on my mood that day. Somedays I love the drunks, somedays I have no patience for them. Somedays I am in a total trauma mood and other days I rather be back in the hole and let everyone else deal with the traumas. I am a pretty personalble person so I tend to get a long with my patients well. I did have a drunk regular call me the C word the other day (first bad name a patients ever called me lol) and I had no patience for that, in fact the cop asked me if I wanted to borrow his tazer and I had to really think on that one. I had a gal last night that while talking to her I wanted to jab my eye out and when I left the NP was telling me she wanted to as well. Probably the ones I dreed every time though are the ones that just reek for whatever reason. They can be nice people and all that but it takes all I have not to vomit while being in there and then I can't get the smell out of the room.

Most days though I go through my shifts leaving happy and without having any problems or anyone that really got under my skin. My Co-Workers are really great too with our Frequent Flyers if there is one we just aren't really in the mood to deal with, they will usually switch up or do some of the stuff for you and you do some stuff with them and our docs are pretty great too in working with us.

Music in My Heart · Apr 16, 2012

I hate seeing drunks and tweakers.

Kids make me sad.

Parents who have kids and are simply teaching them to work the system make me sad.

Repeated "I'm going to kill myself" threats or repeated pill swallowers make me nuts.

Blatant abuse of the system is probably my hottest button.

Futile cases make me sad, frustrated, and occasionally angry - for different reasons.

Jerks of any flavor, regardless of why they're there... Illness and injury are no justification for being a butthead.

Nothing much bothers me regarding acuity... I just do what I can do... either we save them or we don't.

Pneumothorax, BSN, RN · Apr 17, 2012

girls who come in for pregnancy tests.

thelema13 · Apr 17, 2012

I have a tough time dealing with kids that are crying that are unable to be consoled. Worst is a kid in sickle cell crisis. I will pass that patient off every time, even if I have to pay someone. Can't do it. Won't do it.

The patients that abuse the system, waste resources, demand unnecessary diagnostic tests until they glow in the dark, and the ones who are really sick and we are trying to save their life, but they won't drink the mucomyst to hopefully save something of their liver, or the parent last night that refused to sign consent to transfer her kid out to All Children's for a collapsed lung due to a spontaneous pneumo. "Does he really have to go? Will he fly, I won't pay for that. Can you let me speak to the doctor at the other hospital so I can ask if this is really necessary? I need to ask my sister really quick, she's a pharmacist." WHO CARES, YOUR KID IS ACTIVELY DYING!

Ugh, people sometimes make me want to crawl into a hole and never speak to another human being.

LalaJJB · Apr 17, 2012

I need to ask my sister really quick, she's a pharmacist." WHO CARES, YOUR KID IS ACTIVELY DYING!

That's the worst! The situation is terrible... and when they throw in "my sister is a pharmacist" or other such healthcare professional, that irks me to the core. Sometimes I wish there were ways around the ingnoramus parents to get the care the child needs.

glutton4punishment · Apr 17, 2012

If I am well rested, I can usually handle all of the annoying crap like drunks, frequent flyers, kids, traumas, etc....

However, I *******' can't stand it when the family is there and they start telling me about all their own health issues. Or the sister makes a comment every time I do something, "oh, my veins are so bad, they had to stick me 3 times!" Or when they run out to the nurses station every time their loved one sniffles. AAAAAHHHHHH. That drives me CRAZIER :)

brainkandy87 · Apr 17, 2012

Kids, no doubt. I'm terrible with kids. I can handle doing anything on them.. foley, IV, etc. That doesn't matter. However, I cannot talk to kids or console them. I just don't know how to do it. I think I was born without the "love kids" gene.

Altra, BSN, RN · Apr 18, 2012

The "surprise" diagnoses of cancer ...

The flank pain for which CT scan shows that yes, you do have a kidney stone ... but also hey, look at that mass in your liver.

The n/v x few days which is presumed to be gastritis until ... hmm ... creatinine of 3.5 ... which leads to discovery of renal carcinoma.

hiddencatRN, BSN, RN · Apr 18, 2012

Mass casualties. When we're told to prepare for multiple victims from one incident at once....I want to go hide in a corner somewhere.

Abuse is rough- especially when you hear through the grapevine later on that the baby with the long bone fracture who supposedly broke it rolling over was sent home with the parents by child services. Because then you not only wonder what the point of child services is, but also when you're going to see that baby again in worse condition.

Sexual assaults, not only because they suck emotionally but because they are incredibly time intensive patients with all the evidence collection and coordinating with the police and social work and immunology to get prophylactic HIV meds etc.