Astounding rant from an ER triage nurse: Emergency Room Manners.
To review:
1) Don?t be an asshole
2) Lose the weight, stop smoking, take your damn psych meds, and take care of yourself!
3) Its not our fault or responsibility that you?re sick/injured. In fact, it?s probably yours.
4) Folks that arrive dead usually stay dead
5) It?s not like on TV
6) Years of patient abuse have (clearly) left us all a bit burnt out and jaded, so. . .
7) Don?t forget your manners when you come to my ER : )
Wow. Couldn’t have said it better myself. (Warning, actual ED language).
Rants like this pop up every so often. I’ve seen similar ones posted in several ER’s (pulled down before JCAHO comes of course). I think they serve more of a commiseration or venting purpose than anything else, since it’s unlikely many patients are going to read it and sympathize or change.
While this triage nurse admits she’s jaded, she seems much more jaded than any I’ve worked with. Putting up with BS is part of the job, it’s not going to change. Most people who work in ER’s learn to let it slide off, bitch a little every so often and move on to the next patient.
I remember in residency there was sort of a saying that went something like “If you don’t like headaches, don’t go into neurology. If you don’t like abdominal pain, don’t go into GI. If you don’t like pelvic pain, don’t go into OB/GYN, etc, etc”. There should be a line “if you don’t like inappropriate BS, don’t go into emergency medicine”.
Damn, I think she was on triage when I took my 21 yo EMT son into the ER last fall. She took out her feelings for the other patients on him. If she thinks she sees BS she should ride with him for a while.
Led to one of the very few letters of complaint I’ve written to a hospital. I made a point of saying good things about everyone else, though. They deserved it.
Sounds like she needs to find another line of work, for her own mental health.
Maybe a quieter job in one of those wart-burning, yadda, yadda, general practice offices.