What was the MOST ridiculous thing a patient came to the ER for?

And did you have to treat them?

I am just curious. Your stories always seem to either crack me up or shake my head in amazement.

Thanks for sharing ?

I'm with you - actually our hospital has a number you can call for the ambulance w/o going through 911 and I've told my family to call that # instead of 911 because it takes too long to answer questions for a dispatcher who knows nothing about our small town.

I've called 911 to report a fight between a man and a woman in front of our local theatre ... the dispatcher needs to know the street address, the nearest cross street, etc., . ..

All I have to do when I call the hospital is say "in front of the theatre" and they know where to go.

Also, I live barely a mile from the hospital, so I too would drive before I called the ambulance unless there was some way I couldn't drive or be driven.

steph

I will never forget calling 911 for my Dad, who I thought was having an M.I. After giving the dispatcher explicit directions to our home, I sent my daughter outside to watch for them. She watched as the drove past the first cross street, then back up, came down it, then went down the wrong street, then another wrong street, despite my daughter flashing our front light off and on (you could see everything becuase of the circular roads and the lack of many homes). Thank heavens my Dad was alright.

911 is one of the best systems every instituted. It is some of the dispatchers and some of the firemen that need a little work :rolleyes:

Grannynurse :balloons:

and do you have to treat them?

I am just curious. Your stories always seem to either crack me up or shake my head in amazement.

Thanks for sharing :)

The latest one was My head is shrinking. It has shrunk 25% in the last year and my doctor says I'm not crazy

Specializes in ER, ICU, L&D, OR.
[ QUOTE=teeituptom]Now really. Do you expect anything else from Nursing Home nurses. Granted there are a few that really love their work and really love the elderly.

All the rest Ive met are losers who cant cut it working anything else.

i SUGGEST WHOMEVER WROTE THIS REPLY SHOULD REALLY TRY WORKING IN A NURSING HOME FOR AWHILE. IT TAKES SOME REAL SPECIAL PEOPLE TO TAKE OF THE ELDERLY. AS FOR BEING LOSERS, I DO BELIEVE THAT AN RN IS AN RN IS AN RN................I WENT FROM WORKING IN OPS/RECOVERY ROOM/ SURGERY. TO WORKING AS A DON. YOU WOULD NOT BELIEVE THE REGULATIONS COMPARED TO HOSPITALS ETC......TRY IT SOMETIME...........AND WHAT WE FIND AS NURSING HOME NURSES IS THAT "HOSPITAL PEOPLE" FEEL OUR RESIDENTS DO NOT NEED TO BE TREATED.....WRONG......THEY ARE STILL ALIVE BREATHING AND STILL NEED TO BE TREATED......HOW INSENSITIVE.....NURSES THAT FEEL THIS WAY AS ABOVE STATED....GET A GRIP WHAT HAPPENED TO CARING??????????????

One, I will never work om a mursing home.

Two After 3 decades of seeong what kind of condition nursing home patients are sent to us in and reviewing the records they send with the patient, I feel justified in my assessment of nursing home care. or lack thereoff.

ex.. Elderly pt with altered LOC, no vital signs documented and a fever of 104 in acute urosepsis, did the nursing home ever give any Tylenol, of course not.when was the last time the foley was changed, by the look of the foley forever. Pt covered with bed sores and incontinent of stool with old dried feces still on them.

the list can go on endlessly, my judgements are based on pbservations over a long period of time. As far as caring, I do care. which is why Im the king of reporting nursing homes to adult protective services for neglect, harm, and just plain old poor care.

i have a great aunt that will be thrilled to hear that hiccups can be cured with gambling!

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: still chuckling... heh heh... vegas nerve...

fab: Don't be so quick to say that's ridiculous. As someone who suffers from endometriosis, before I was dx'd, it was really scary when I would get cramps from it. I would pass out eventually, but I would also be in about a 9 of 10 to 10 of 10 amount of pain until that time. My parents had to keep the pain relievers from me because I would get delirious and they were afraid I would accidentally OD, trying to get some pain relief.

I often check the tele to see if my cramps showed up on the news. I swear they are 3.9 on the rector scale.

Sherri RN

Travis Air Force Base, California

I don't like rodents running through my kitchen, so i sure as heck don't want them running around in my colon.

They snap the teeth off. I've heard they duct tape the gerbils in other versions.

woman 16 weeks pregnant had unprotected sex last night with someone who smoked pot and wanted to know if the baby would get any of it and if so could we "clean her out please"...

OK - dumb question - I understand that you can't refuse to treat someone in the emergency room. Can you refuse to see an obvious non-emergency like the hangnail?

No, the ER is not allowed to turn anyone way regardless of emergent or non-emergent. The ER I work in has been termed the after hours clinic. People come to it because no co-pay is required like the clinics.

no the ER can not refuse to see any person who presents to them regardless of emergent or non emergent.

I have discovered, in my town at least, that people come to the ER because the ER requires no co-pay like the clinics do.

we had a lady come in over the weekend presenting with what she initially termed "marbles in her uterus" that turned out to be two wooden eggs (yes, the size of small chicken eggs) inserted in the lady parts by pt and her partner that were for purposes of sexual gratification?!?! The eggs could not be removed except to be extracted with forceps by the MD.

AND.....MEDICAID is being billed for this, of course!!!!

when a patient came in and thought her xiphoid was a tumor... LOL

Specializes in ER, ICU, Infusion, peds, informatics.
no, the er is not allowed to turn anyone way regardless of emergent or non-emergent. the er i work in has been termed the after hours clinic. people come to it because no co-pay is required like the clinics.

actually, what is required by law is a medical screening exam. once the doctor, or his/her appropriate designee (apn, pa) examines the patient and determines that an emergency medical condition does not exist, the er may discharge the patient without treatment. rns are not permitted to do the medical screening exam, so triage doesn't count, unless the md/pa/apn is present in triage (i have heard of some hospitals doing this to try to increase the patient flow). flat-out turning people away doesn't happen very often, mostly because we know they'll be back-- some have no other choice besides the er for their health care. it would just back things up even more to have them check in again and go through triage all over again.

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