Whats your biggest pet peeve working in the ED?

Specialties Emergency

Published

Id have to say my biggest pet peeve is when someone hands you a medicaid card as they pull it from their Louis Vuitton handbag with bling on their hands after having rolled up to the ER in their Mercedes Benz! After that I'd say when someone comes to the ER for a UPT. Dont they know they are available at the dollar store now adays?

Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.
Oh wow! Sounds like you work with a bunch of ***holes! I hate people like that, know-it-alls who really end up being the most uneducated idiots you've ever seen. They are so quick to judge others whom have a higher degree or more experience because they are secretly miserable with their own lives, whether its because they never went back to school and wish they had or they are just plain jealous of something that person has... It's awful working with people like that. You just want to knock some sense into them and say, "Hey, you want to act like you're in his/her shoes, then put in the work that they did and get those initials after your name. Then you can talk."

It's definitely the minority of people and it's only occasionally that they act like this. The person who referred to the doc as an idiot is a very hard worker and is something with whom I want to work. However, sometimes the filter is missing between her brain and her mouth.

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Me: Dr, little girl in room 5 is here with 4 days of fever at home, with history of febrile seizures. Mom gave weight appropriate dose of ibuprofen about 30 minutes ago but she's still got a high fever. Can you write me an order for XYZ mg of tylenol?

Dr: I don't know how much she weights.

Me: I do and calculated for 15 mg/kg. Here's her weight. XYZ is just shy of 15 mg/kg of tylenol, rounded for ease of measurement.

Dr. orders XZY mg minus 1 mg (I'd rounded to get a nice, even ml amount, his dose would require 5 decimals to give exactly) AND orders a dose of ibuprofen for her.

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Specializes in ED.

My "working-in-the-ED" pet peeve this week is dealing with the floor. I am seriously getting so sick of doing their jobs for them, calling to give report and they act like they are too busy after 3-4 calls, and them deciding that it is perfectly ok to write us up for not "'properly dating and timing" an IV site with the correct sticker. Seriously. I am not going to put MY initials on an IV that the paramedic started in the truck. It isn't MY site.

Here lately we are having to do print and put a lot of protocol / order sets on the pt's charts that are admits but yet not ONE single box is appropriate for the ED to complete - it is ALL stuff done on the floor one they get there (re: TEDs, SCDs, foleys, etc).

I've gotten a write up "attempt" from the floor recently because I didn't treat a 210 BS - I did not have an order for any insulin, the pt was NPO, and the K+ was 2.2. My NM and I sat down and I refused to sign anything with that QRR. It was ridiculous.

I just very sick of the floor thinking that all we must do down in the ED is sit around and eat cheese puffs! The patients just do not quit coming if we are busy. We don't get to "divert" sick people when they are sick like the floor does. They don't have 2-3 hall patients on top of their room patients like we do but yet we never do enough to suit them. I am not saying they do not work hard. I am just tired of a lot of floor nurses getting their scrubs in a wad because we didn't do XYZ but we DID get that patient stable enough to come up there.

As far as the patient pet peeve goes, I'm very tired of seeing the same azzhats day after day complaining about their wait and saying "I just saw 4-5 people go back that aren't as sick as I am." Oh really? Where did you go to med school?

I do work triage / front desk quit a bit and I am pretty good about explaining the whole fast track process / acuity thing and diffusing that but I still get sick of *those* people that try to tell me how to do my job.

Oh! And I am sooooo sick of seeing able-bodied people WALK through the door and grab a wheel chair and suddenly become totally incapacitated right before my very eyes but yet they can yell at their kids and text and stand up to get a Mt Dew out of the vending machine. I even ask them how they go to the ER and 9 times out of 10 they say they drove themselves. I just don't get it.

I'm so glad I have a few days off. The past 3 have been H E L L

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I just got home from work. Can't complain and call it a 'pet peeve' more of a laugh.. The Pts that are brought into a room.. You haven't even taken their temp and their family bum rushes in 'What's the matter with them? Are you going to keep them?'

I had an easy shift.. Minor issues that got the big ole work up but after line/labs/liter/blanket they were pretty much set for me except checking on them and vitals.. But I got a kick out of the family members tonight.

I guess the highlight was the LTC tele report of 'agitation' at 9 pm. I asked when it started they said 6pm. Are they throwing things? Striking? Yelling? Nope, just telling staff they want to leave. ;)

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When parents don't know their kids birthday

When a kid is brought to er for a fever, parents have not given Motrin or Tylenol and guess what the kids temp is 36.7. Why ru here again?

The wait complaints

Pts that co SI but when u get them back to a safe room they state that they r not suicidal but are just looking for a bed tonight...

And my favorite... Is dr whatshisname here? (Pcp) o yes actually ur doctor has no life and waits around in the er for you to become ill. Seriously??

Pts that return to the er for the tenth time for the same thing and don't ever follow up with a provider.

Pts that are just plain rude. Hello I'm trying my best to put a smile on and take care of you but you being an a hole doesn't help!

Thanks for letting me vent!

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Specializes in Emergency.

Consult docs that don't bother to read orders placed by the other consult docs. Everything is in the system CPOE so it's not like they can't see 'em.

How many ns @ 75ml/hr do we need? And exactly which of this plethora of bp meds ordered actually gets administered?

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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.
And my favorite... Is dr whatshisname here? (Pcp) o yes actually ur doctor has no life and waits around in the er for you to become ill. Seriously??

People call their PCP on a Sat. evening, PCP tells them to go the ER. Pt gets there and says "Dr. Smith told me to come here and he wants to know right when I get here--call him right now." 5 minutes later: "Did you call Dr. Smith yet? He's expecting you to call him about me." 10 minutes later you tell the pt they will be putting in an IV and then they will get a CT of the chest. "Well, did you talk to Dr. Smith about this? He has to order everything." Ugh...

Meanwhile, after the workup, the secretary pages Dr. Smith. He was so eager to hear about his pt's condition that he takes over an hour to call back. No skin off my back that it took so long to call back, but I kinda want to tell the pt what kinda commitment Dr. Smith has to the pt. (Of course it's our fault that the pt has a long stay in the ER.)

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People call their PCP on a Sat. evening, PCP tells them to go the ER. Pt gets there and says "Dr. Smith told me to come here and he wants to know right when I get here--call him right now." 5 minutes later: "Did you call Dr. Smith yet? He's expecting you to call him about me." 10 minutes later you tell the pt they will be putting in an IV and then they will get a CT of the chest. "Well, did you talk to Dr. Smith about this? He has to order everything." Ugh...Meanwhile, after the workup, the secretary pages Dr. Smith. He was so eager to hear about his pt's condition that he takes over an hour to call back. No skin off my back that it took so long to call back, but I kinda want to tell the pt what kinda commitment Dr. Smith has to the pt. (Of course it's our fault that the pt has a long stay in the ER.)
...and these PTs think that they are supposed to go right back to a room ahead of everyone else because the PCP sent them, or because the PCP "called ahead" and told someone all about them they think they are supposed to be a direct admit and want to know how long it will be until they are moved to a room upstairs.
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Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.
...and these PTs think that they are supposed to go right back to a room ahead of everyone else because the PCP sent them, or because the PCP "called ahead" and told someone all about them they think they are supposed to be a direct admit and want to know how long it will be until they are moved to a room upstairs.

Oh jeez, I forgot about that..."Dr. Smith told me to come in, so I know he called ahead and ordered a room for me." Although occasionally, the doctor did actually tell the pt they would be a direct admit and that fact did not get conveyed to admissions and whomever else needs to know. It that case it is still the ER's fault though.

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Specializes in LTC, Family Practice, Meg/Surg.
Probably already mentioned but mine is "i can't swallow pills" and they're over the age of 6. Seriously? How do you eat? And yeah that's what i ask them.[/quote']

I'm 28 and can't swallow big pills... I usually chew my food before I eat it. I don't know about you. Call me a baby but I think it's more of an anxiety thing from choking as a child.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Emergency, CEN.

I know some places have all private rooms, but I'm tired of hearing "I need a private room."

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Specializes in Emergency.

I'm 28 and can't swallow big pills... I usually chew my food before I eat it. I don't know about you. Call me a baby but I think it's more of an anxiety thing from choking as a child.

You're still swallowing a bolus of food after it's been chewed. And yeah, I chew my food. Sometimes I even cook it first and use cutlery.

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