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 ?

Specializes in Maternal - Child Health.

Ive never met a school nurse, but if I ever do, I dont know whether I will just tell her off about how little I think of her or just roll around on the floor laughing at her.

Oh please! Some idiot parent brings a child into the ER because scabies is going around, and it's the school nurse's fault!

Specializes in ICU, ER, HH, NICU, now FNP.

One thing you have to understand about school nurses - their hands ar tied behind their backs so hard that they cant SAY or DO anything!!!!!!!

They do things the rest of us have NO clue about - and the coordination based on state mandates is amazing.

They are Not ALLOWED to give a parent a diagnosis, they are only allowed to say "Your kid cant come to school with that rash". So what happens when the parent says "But we dont have a doctor"? The school nurse gives them a list of local physicians and also tells them they can go to the ER, but that it is not an emergency. So what happens? The parent realizes it is after office hours and the kid cant go to school the next day unless he has seen a doctor - so where does that parent take the kid? Yup....to the ER....

Dont rash on school nurses until you know what they do - If you work in the ER, I'd recommend you find one to go spend a day or two with so you aren't so ignorant about their abilities and restrictions. I felt the same way you did until I saw it with my own two eyes! Those nurses are not any less skilled or intelligent than the rest of us - but they are dealing with parents who may not be all that bright and set of rules that are designed to keep the school district from getting sued above all else.

Specializes in LTC, ER.
Oh seriously, YES! We have so many people come into L&D and get upset when a catheter is placed. They say, "Don't put that up there! You'll run into the baby's head with that thing and hurt it!" Really, and seriously, there are many women who don't know that there are two meatus' down there. One for baby's exit (among other things) and the other for urine!

I was shocked when I found out that people close to me didn't know that.

Really, if they are teaching anything in sex ed in schools, it needs to be some anatomy.

i honestly did not know that there was a urinary meatus and then the vag opening. i found that out when i took a&p for my lpn school. i was about 19 at the time, not sexually active, and it just never occured to me that there were 2 holes there!:imbar

The funniest thing I ever had in the ED was a guy dressed in a penguin suit..and I mean dressed as a penguin who could not get out of the suit. He was just passing and thought that a nurse would probably have a pair of scissors!!:chuckle

This is a wonderful venting tool!!! I'm so glad I found this!!! Let's see......I see so many stupid complaints, but there are some all time great ones. A mother presented at midnight, by ambulance of course with medicaid card in hand, on a school night, with her 6 year old. He had a loose tooth and she was afraid he might swallow it in his sleep. A 13 year old came in by ambulance and stated she was playing cards and as she was laying a card on the table she felt pain in her hand "for a second", but no pain now. I am REALLY cynical after 15 years of ER nursing. Glad to see some more nurses in my same frame of mind!

This is a wonderful venting tool!!! I'm so glad I found this!!! Let's see......I see so many stupid complaints, but there are some all time great ones. A mother presented at midnight, by ambulance of course with medicaid card in hand, on a school night, with her 6 year old. He had a loose tooth and she was afraid he might swallow it in his sleep. A 13 year old came in by ambulance and stated she was playing cards and as she was laying a card on the table she felt pain in her hand "for a second", but no pain now. I am REALLY cynical after 15 years of ER nursing. Glad to see some more nurses in my same frame of mind!
I'm here to save your butt, not kiss it!:banghead:
Specializes in ER!.

Pt showed up the other night c/o eye discharge. No pain, no itching, no vision changes. D/c thin and clear, sclera the lightest shade of pink detectable to the human eye, sort of like when I'm around my sister's bulldog for any length of time. I asked when this started, and pt replied, "Thirty minutes ago."

Who the **** goes to the ER for half an hour of eye discharge???? I do love my job, but often I find myself asking, how on earth did this individual come to the conclusion that his/her presenting complaint was an emergency deserving a trip to the hospital?

Specializes in School Nursing.
Another thing that is always fun is when parents bring their chidren in th ER because the School Nurse told them Strep is going around. Or that child had bumped his head playing and needed a CT. Its always amazing the things School Nurses tell these parents, while granted, it loses something in what the parent decides to tell you.

Another is when the school nurse tells the parents scabies is going around, and they all come to ER for exams. Rather than have the parents take a look for themselves or get some OTC treatment, they come to the ER because the school nurse told them too.

Ive never met a school nurse, but if I ever do, I dont know whether I will just tell her off about how little I think of her or just roll around on the floor laughing at her.

:lol2: Gee TeeitupTom.......How opinionated can you get ? You don't even have a clue about School Nurse's. How sad :confused:

It's really true that some have the chest pain thing figured out. They get admitted and an overnight stay with morphine. And the first thing they ask for on the floor after morphine is food. Some of them truly have cardiac disease, often from drug abuse, and get lots of morphine and turn a gorgeous shade of red-violent as they throw things and make demands to go and smoke or special requests from the kitchen overnight. And some do their best to drive you to making a mistake or "mistreat" them so they might have a lawsuit. It tears you apart wanting to ignore them in the ER and then walk over them as you care for truly deserving people who have a CVA or MI and badly need your time that is being stolen by the very selfish ones who have ruined themselves and God help them.

Specializes in Transplant, homecare, hospice.
I hope the ER staff didn't think me coming down with a KS was silly. I live alone and just have myself to depend on. They sure did help me out - the pain was unbearable.

Just a little anecdotal story.

I'm sure that they didn't. That's really painful and it really IS an emergency. Nothing silly about it at all.

Specializes in Hospitalist.
Here's another one...

20 y/o "Buffy" type sorority girl at an area university, comes in with the c/o "A bump down there and its tender", hx present x 2 mos.

External exam by the doc reveals nothing unusual or abnormal, as he palpates around she suddenly says "that's IT!"

He palpates again. "this?" he asked, with a slight flitter with his finger to make sure he was correct (never mind the WAY that happened)..

"yes, that" was the answer

He sat back, removed his gloves, took a deep breath, and said with every amount of composure he could muster...

"that's your privy parts. That's SUPPOSED to be there."

All I could think was...God bless her, some poor guy finally found it.

:rotfl:

You know you are an ER nurse if you've ever had to leave the room because you were about to laugh in the patient's face. I KNOW I would have to run out of the room for this one! I'm laughing so hard with tears running down my face that I can hardly type!:chuckle

Specializes in Hospitalist.
Roy, peanut butter works well too, better in my opinion. You just glob it in the hair and the oil from the PB makes the gum slide right out then you just have to wash the PB out.

But I would not recommend trying this on a dog, apparently dog hair is different the gum will still be stuck and the poor dog will be trying to eat the PB and will bite his own ear and THEN you have to clean up the blood too. (LONG story....ended up having to call my friend who is a groomer LOL)

I really don't think I can take much more of this. I need some poise pads and waterproof mascara and large boxes of Kleenex. You people are killing me!:chuckle

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