1. Ambulances for clearly non-emergent conditions (my personal most notables are of dental pain and a "possible UTI" but I know they're used for far more silly complaints than that. Just the two I've seen myself).
2. Chief complaint of fever, yet they have not so much as taken a temp at home, and if so, even taken tylenol or ibuprofen
3. Mom who brings in all 3 kids because they all have colds at the same time.
4. I'm allergic to tylenol, ibuprofen, codeine, aspirin, hydrocodone, oxycodone, morphine, and zofran. All of them have caused anaphylaxis.
5. The patient that claims their police report PROVES their medications were stolen.
Old people drop-offs. Especially non-English speaking demented old people drop-offs. This is when family decides they need a break from Mom or Dad, so they bring them in with some fabricated complaint I.e. Chest pain (really? So your mom is non-verbal at baseline, how exactly did she express this complaint to you?) or some vague complaint like "she's not herself" and then they turn around and leave. Now we have no way of obtaining more info, the poor confused patient gets poked and prodded on a hunt for some non-existent source of the symptom, and if nothing is found we have to try to track down family so we can discharge the patient. Family has no car, will not be home Til tomorrow, etc. Poor demented Mom gets stuck in the ER hallway to await discharge getting progressively more confused and agitated,... I get that it's very challenging to be a caregiver to an elderly family member (my parents took in 2 of my grandparents, not easy at all) but this is just cruel.[/quote']
Yes, the ole I know if I take em to the er I will get emergently placed nursing home.
Or, the other end of the spectrum, the minor with mental illness that gets brought in by EMS or police and you can't locate parents. Or if you do, you have to wait 8 hours until they get off of work..
However, I was talking to a fellow ER nurse about this. She said "yeah, when they say their pain is '100 out of 10,' I always chart that in a free text note. That way if we discharge them with a pain that is 'still' 9 out 10, we have reduced their pain by over 90%."
The pt who comes in and cleans out my supplies. Peroxide, took all the disinfectant wipes out today and put em in biohazard bags. ***
I had a family member ask "do you have any of those footies?" I get a pair out of the locked cupboard in the room. Since the pt is barefooted I assume they are for said pt. Well, you all know what happens when you assume--the family member takes her shoes off and puts on the footies.
"you know, it's this little white pill..." no, I don't.
Yet if you asked them their brand of cigarettes, they would never tell you "oh, you know, the ones with some tobacco wrapped in white paper with a filter on the end." They will tell you the brand, the size, the flavoring, etc. etc.
I got written up once for telling a patient "You spend $600 a month on medicine- chemicals you put into your body to keep you ALIVE -and you don't know the names of them or what they do??? If you can memorize every cable channel and when your favorite programs are on- you can learn about your meds."
I think I've been doing it too long, the pt ridiculousness barely even peeves me anymore. I just expect them to not know the name of a single med they're on, except of course "Dilaudid 6mg three times a day, Soma 3 times a day, and Ativan 1mg four times a day, then... Some little white one, and a purple pill and a couple more...." They only ever know the names of their *awesome* meds, not the ones keeping them alive.
Now I'm more annoyed by staff.. Like midlevels ordering blood cultures on everyone for any complaint, docs and MLPs CT scanning everyone who walks in the door without any talk about risks of radiation, and my biggest is when people deny a febrile pt a warm blanket! The poor sucker is shivering and suffering, the body temp is set by the hypothalmus, not a damn blanket.
I think I've been doing it too long, the pt ridiculousness barely even peeves me anymore. I just expect them to not know the name of a single med they're on, except of course "Dilaudid 6mg three times a day, Soma 3 times a day, and Ativan 1mg four times a day, then... Some little white one, and a purple pill and a couple more...." They only ever know the names of their *awesome* meds, not the ones keeping them alive.
Now I'm more annoyed by staff.. Like midlevels ordering blood cultures on everyone for any complaint, docs and MLPs CT scanning everyone who walks in the door without any talk about risks of radiation, and my biggest is when people deny a febrile pt a warm blanket! The poor sucker is shivering and suffering, the body temp is set by the hypothalmus, not a damn blanket.
Oh yes! One that gets me every time is "I can't take the blue pill - I am allergic to it, but I have no problem taking Dilaudid and Morphine. The blue pill will kill me though". Have no idea of said pill's name or what kind of pill.
Old people drop-offs. Especially non-English speaking, demented old people drop-offs. This is when family decides they need a break from Mom or Dad, so they bring them in with some fabricated complaint I.e. Chest pain (really? So your mom is non-verbal at baseline, how exactly did she express this complaint to you?) or some vague complaint like "she's not herself" and then they turn around and leave. Now we have no way of obtaining more info, the poor confused patient gets poked and prodded on a hunt for some non-existent source of the symptom, and if nothing is found we have to try to track down family so we can discharge the patient. Family has no car, will not be home Til tomorrow, etc. Poor demented Mom gets stuck in the ER hallway to await discharge getting progressively more confused and agitated,... I get that it's very challenging to be a caregiver to an elderly family member (my parents took in 2 of my grandparents, not easy at all) but this is just cruel.
I work in a small 8 bed ER, and these types of bogus CC have us constantly potentially grid locked for when the REAL Emergency rolls through the door, either by EMS or private vehicle. There are so many idiots out there....
Sassy5d
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