Your least favorite patient.

madwife2002, BSN, RN · Mar 6, 2005

The one's who take notes but smile to your face

Kingbandit · Mar 7, 2005

The ones I hate are th 10/10 migraine c photophobia and nausea who in triage is eating Doritos and drinking Coke. When called on must be assisted to the triage chair or requests a WC then sent back out to waiting back to laughing and eating/drinking. I know pain is what they say when they say it is. BUT come on I may be a new nurse but I already have an attitude towards this type. I know the true Migraine people are out there but they are the rare person.

Cletus · Mar 7, 2005

The ones that weigh 400+ lbs and are helpless, would someone please tell me who is shoveling the food to them? We had one in our ICU with a 5lb bag of M&M's hid in a fat crease. (And the doc couldn't figure out why her blood sugar was going up!)

mdslabod · Mar 25, 2005

The man who rushed his sleeping child in to the ER at 4 this morning because she had a fever then yelled discrimination because I triaged someone with chest pain first. :angryfire

Some days you get the bear. Some days the bear gets you.

Anna57 · Mar 25, 2005

My least favorite is definitely the "had this back pain for 4 years, just cant handle it anymore!" It is now 3am Sun Morning.

Name droppers also get me, especially when I am in triage.

My husband had back pain, Big man, in fetal position, crying back pain. Progressed to numbness in both feet before I would take him to our ER. We sat there for 2 hours (new nurse in triage that did not know me), charge nurse came walking by and said "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" told him, he said "why didnt you let us know you were here, we would have gotten you right back." Not my thing..... he had back pain for goodness sake!

After XRay, MRI, 3 herniated disc. HMMMM.... maybe I should have let him come in a little sooner. :rolleyes:

teeituptom, BSN, RN · Mar 26, 2005

I like this one that came to triahe the other night, A long time FF of ours with chronic back pain, She wanted to get back really fast and added to her regular story that she was developing numbness and incontinence over the last few months and then to accentuate her point, she proceeded to pee all over the patients chair while having her BP checked, And says, " you see, you made me wait too long"

That shut triage down for a bit while things got cleaned up.

Of course she was taken straight back. Cant have her peeing all over the waiting room. Well exam, and MRI ruled out any problems. She left mad because the doctor refused to give her all she wanted and because we didnt offer her anything to wear and she had to drive home in wet pants.

squeakykitty · Aug 4, 2008

Bump! This is an interesting thread.

Altra, BSN, RN · Aug 4, 2008

OK, I'll refresh the thread.

My least favorite patient is the young adult male whose mommy accompanies him to the ER for his non-urgent complaint -- sore throat, n/v/d x 1 day, etc.

Mommy wears herself out asking for washcloths, more meds, change of position, etc. for her totally ambulatory son with good vital signs.

Creeps me out on many levels. Wrong, just wrong.

northshore08 · Aug 4, 2008

Loved reading over the old thread...things never change, do they?

My least favorite is teenage girls hyperventilating at school--big drama, takes up too much time for the ED staff and the EMS unit that had to bring them in.

My other least favorite is the upper/lower GI bleed.

Toquay · Aug 5, 2008

The 18 yo that has a "pharmocologic misadventure" that gets ****** off and curses out staff because we messed up their "high" with narcan. Doesn't matter they were circling the drain before the narcan, they are 18 and "can do whatever they want!" I wish we could tape these events, so they could see how close to death they were.

Toq

lupin · Aug 5, 2008

Oh, so many favorites! Let's see.

My-Primary-Doctor-is-the-ER-doctor patient

Mean Drunk (male or female)

Redneck trash-talking woman (the type that think snapping their fingers gets them attention)

The oh-so-popular misdiagnosed bipolar(actually borderline personality disorder)

The I-want-my child-to-seize-from-a-fever-so-I-didn't-try-tylenol mom and subsequent 4-10 other siblings she brought in "for a real quick check".

The comatose OD who we have to peel off the ceiling after about two hours.

The either deaf or dumb "huh?" patient who says "huh?" after every question I ask them in triage, including what they're in for.

Last (but not least) the People who have no medical history but are on insulin, BP meds, have a big CABG scar on their chest, and of course, are on benzos and narcs.

TraumaNurseRN · Aug 5, 2008

I like this one that came to triahe the other night, A long time FF of ours with chronic back pain, She wanted to get back really fast and added to her regular story that she was developing numbness and incontinence over the last few months and then to accentuate her point, she proceeded to pee all over the patients chair while having her BP checked, And says, " you see, you made me wait too long"
That shut triage down for a bit while things got cleaned up.
Of course she was taken straight back. Cant have her peeing all over the waiting room. Well exam, and MRI ruled out any problems. She left mad because the doctor refused to give her all she wanted and because we didnt offer her anything to wear and she had to drive home in wet pants.

Peeing your pants is not an emergency it's stupidity...lol...And I know as well as everyone else who works in the ED that these frequent flyers learn from the assessments we repeatedly do that and s/s we ask about this trip in will be the chief complaint the next time in. She was probably asked at some point for her back pain and loss of bowel or bladder control.....with a true spinal cord injury we see it....but these chronic narc searchers it is just a quicker pathway from triage to a bed.