It's not my emergency
Man, people get mad when they think they have an emergency and you don't react in the way they want you to.
At part time work we spend some of our time in triage. Whatever. Four hours a shift I can surf the net uninterrupted and get paid, I'm cool with it, and it certainly isn't worth complaining about, as it's not going to change. It's fun to see what people come into the ER with anyway.
People come in with earaches, headaches, fevers, cough, and colds. And we wonder why the system is broken.
One guy came in with a nose bleed. He told me it had bled a lot, and he wanted to be seen. As an informative aside, I said, "Just so you know, the wait is quite long this evening." He looked at me like I had lobsters coming out of my ears and I wondered if he had noticed that the entire waiting room was full. He began lecturing me about how he was bleeding and he was just in for the same thing and he was under the impression he was fixed, but now it's bleeding again and blah, blah, blah. When people raise their voice to me, that's what I start hearing. His wife butted in, "They won't see him with all this bleeding?!" I said, "It's not that they don't want to see him, but patients with life threatening emergencies are seen first." "But...but he's bleeding!" she blurted. I looked at him and asked him if it was still bleeding. He removed his paper towel and angily said, "I don't know! ...well, it looks like it's stopped for now. But I can't wait, I'm going to another hospital." "Which one?" I asked, "Because I know that they are all busy tonight." I was legitimately trying to be helpful, but he wasn't hearing it.
He stormed out without being seen.
We had a young guy come in who had chest pain. It didn't fit the bill for anything cardiac and, andas with the last guy I informed him that it would be a long wait. I just don't want people expecting to be seen anytime soon when there is just no chance. His wife butted in too. "But he has chest pain!"
At this point I was getting good at saying "Yes, I understand, but patients with life threatening emergencies are seen first."
I think they only would have been happy if I leaped through the triage window, put the patient on my back and ran him into the ER.
So they waited and kept giving us the stink eye, as if my inactivity proved that they should be getting seen. I don't actually do the triaging, I basically give people bracelets and look pretty. It wouldn't matter anyway, staring me and the triage nurse down won't get you in faster.
Also, it's going to have to pretty spectacular for me to get excited about it. Nose bleeds don't count.
At part time work we spend some of our time in triage. Whatever. Four hours a shift I can surf the net uninterrupted and get paid, I'm cool with it, and it certainly isn't worth complaining about, as it's not going to change. It's fun to see what people come into the ER with anyway.
People come in with earaches, headaches, fevers, cough, and colds. And we wonder why the system is broken.
One guy came in with a nose bleed. He told me it had bled a lot, and he wanted to be seen. As an informative aside, I said, "Just so you know, the wait is quite long this evening." He looked at me like I had lobsters coming out of my ears and I wondered if he had noticed that the entire waiting room was full. He began lecturing me about how he was bleeding and he was just in for the same thing and he was under the impression he was fixed, but now it's bleeding again and blah, blah, blah. When people raise their voice to me, that's what I start hearing. His wife butted in, "They won't see him with all this bleeding?!" I said, "It's not that they don't want to see him, but patients with life threatening emergencies are seen first." "But...but he's bleeding!" she blurted. I looked at him and asked him if it was still bleeding. He removed his paper towel and angily said, "I don't know! ...well, it looks like it's stopped for now. But I can't wait, I'm going to another hospital." "Which one?" I asked, "Because I know that they are all busy tonight." I was legitimately trying to be helpful, but he wasn't hearing it.
He stormed out without being seen.
We had a young guy come in who had chest pain. It didn't fit the bill for anything cardiac and, andas with the last guy I informed him that it would be a long wait. I just don't want people expecting to be seen anytime soon when there is just no chance. His wife butted in too. "But he has chest pain!"
At this point I was getting good at saying "Yes, I understand, but patients with life threatening emergencies are seen first."
I think they only would have been happy if I leaped through the triage window, put the patient on my back and ran him into the ER.
So they waited and kept giving us the stink eye, as if my inactivity proved that they should be getting seen. I don't actually do the triaging, I basically give people bracelets and look pretty. It wouldn't matter anyway, staring me and the triage nurse down won't get you in faster.
Also, it's going to have to pretty spectacular for me to get excited about it. Nose bleeds don't count.
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