A Craigslist rant from a triage nurse revisited

[trisomy55]

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This is re-hashed from a 2005 post I stumbled across... hilarious

http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/por/67309047.html

 

[EM_Rebuilder]

nice..

wish they would show this on CNN... problem is, if they did, the media would be talking about 'getting to the bottom of this' in that the 'terrible' nurse that wrote this needs fired, rehabed, and never take care of a patient again.


If only the general public could figure it out...

 

[spyderdoc]

I like this one too:

http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/sfo/301345524.html

 

[WallowaWanderer]

The post about drug seekers seemed well written, but the one written by the nurse seems a little grating to me . . . I mean, we all have annoying patients but if you get that worked up about them then it makes you crazy and it's hard to enjoy your job. Just my opinion.

 

[Jeff698]

I'm all about the note to drug seekers. Let's just dispense with any notion of an acute process or any time consuming workup to diagnose your chronic pain. It only slows down our eventual negotiations, however brief they may be, about what you really came in for.

Take care,
Jeff

 

[docB]

I know it's just Craig's List boilerplate but the

it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

at the bottom just cracked me up.

 

[brianmartin]

Similarly, do not tell me that little Shantiqua is ‘bleeding bad' with her 1cm cut,

I detect underlying racism from this RN. And for some reason reading her rant makes me sympathize more with her patients than her. She sounds like a grade A beotch who has an overblown sense of importance.

 

[Powdermonkey]

I detect underlying racism from this RN. And for some reason reading her rant makes me sympathize more with her patients than her. She sounds like a grade A beotch who has an overblown sense of importance.

I think you might have not ever worked in a hospital, especially in the ER. Crap like "my stomach has been hurting for six months","my chest has been killing me for weeks","my tooth hurts", etc, routinely come in. Mostly by ambulance since they have medicare/tenncare (here in TN). Waste of the EMS services and they usually just get sent to triage or to fast track anyways with the stupid complaints. It will make more sense once you get down into the pit. Trust me.

 

[WallowaWanderer]

I think you might have not ever worked in a hospital, especially in the ER. Crap like "my stomach has been hurting for six months","my chest has been killing me for weeks","my tooth hurts", etc, routinely come in. Mostly by ambulance since they have medicare/tenncare (here in TN). Waste of the EMS services and they usually just get sent to triage or to fast track anyways with the stupid complaints. It will make more sense once you get down into the pit. Trust me.

I have worked some (but less than many on this forum) in the ED both before and during medical school and I still think that "Another RN's" post is unprofessional due to it's attitude of arrogance, use of obscenities, and general lack of compassion. Would you want this person taking care of youor your mother? If you ran an ED, would you want this person to be your charge nurse? There's lots of frustrating patients in the ED but that's not a secret to anyone considering the profession, so I think it's weird when people who choose to work in the ED then complain about it every day. Maybe this guy just had a bad shift and was blowing of some steam, but he is certainly representing us ("the people who work in the ED") in a very public place.

"Yes, I know what’s going on tonight. I’ve seen your exact symptoms hundreds of times. I order your X-rays, labs, ECG, and then read/interpret them (and you) before deciding where you’re sent."

There are lots of smart RN's out there, but I did not know that they recieve formal training reading films and EKG's. I've seen ED's use NIPs, but haven't seen any EDs rely on RN's interpretation of the actual tests ordered.

"2) Lose the weight, stop smoking, take your damn psych meds, and take care of yourself"

If you are looking to work with these people, I would suggest avoiding the field of medicine all-together - and especially the field of emergency medicine

"I mean this guy had been dead for 15 minutes and the family only focused on driving to the hospital. Did they pull over and call 911 in an area where the average response time is 5 minutes? No. Did they do CPR? No. Did they expect me to single-handedly yard this 265 lb guy out of the car, into a wheelchair, back to the ER, do CPR, code him just like on TV, and make a miracle happen? Yes! Yes that’s exactly what they expected. I sat there with my fingers stuck in his throat where his pulse should have been and said “He’s dead, he’s been dead for 15 minutes. What is it that you expect us to do?” We argued over his blue/gray corpse for about a minute before I reluctantly took him back to the ER and started the rain dance."

Have a little compassion.

 

[Annette]

Have a little compassion.

Ahh, idealism. I vaugely remember that.

See the medicine sucks thread. If you don't develop a thick skin, you won't survive. That RN describes feelings that most physicians/ nurses have had at one point in time with different patients. Sick humor helps people cope.

 

[leviathan]

Have a little compassion.

I think s/he had compassion for that dead corpse they were about to sadly go and flog for 1/2 hour in the trauma room...

 

[WallowaWanderer]

If you don't develop a thick skin, you won't survive.

It seems to me that thick skin is what this person DOES NOT have.

 

[McGillGrad]

I detect underlying racism from this RN. And for some reason reading her rant makes me sympathize more with her patients than her. She sounds like a grade A beotch who has an overblown sense of importance.

Sounds like you have limited real life experience.

 

[paramed2premed]

Sounds like you have limited real life experience.

I dare say there are plenty of people with extensive experience who prefer not to work with petulant and whiny coworkers.

By the same token, the perspective of a person who does NOT have such experience should not automatically be discounted.

 

[edinOH]

I detect underlying racism from this RN. And for some reason reading her rant makes me sympathize more with her patients than her. She sounds like a grade A beotch who has an overblown sense of importance.

I'm detecting underlying sexism on your part. Why do you assume this RN is a female?

For those of you who think you are too good for these kind of emotions, come work in my ED for one week and then tell me the observations made in those rants aren't dead on.

 

[McGillGrad]

You are talking about something totally different.

Life experience proves that stereotypes are generalizations about proven patterns of behaviors. Idealistic notions are crushed when people enter the real world and see that there is little truth to the snowflake theory of humanity.

Idealistic people end up burnt out and jaded in life. Realistic people roll with the punches.

I dare say there are plenty of people with extensive experience who prefer not to work with petulant and whiny coworkers.

By the same token, the perspective of a person who does NOT have such experience should not automatically be discounted.

 

[da8s0859q]

I detect underlying racism from this RN. And for some reason reading her rant makes me sympathize more with her patients than her. She sounds like a grade A beotch who has an overblown sense of importance.

Oh hell, you're one of them.

 

[Annette]

Oh hell, you're one of them.

😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆

Seriously, the RN in the rant most likely maintains a professional demeanor while at work, but the frustration and anger has to come out at some point. Frustration that people don't seem to have simple common sense, that people have unrealistic expectations of medicine, anger that you can't help someone beyond help.

 

[Ceez]

I detect underlying racism from this RN. And for some reason reading her rant makes me sympathize more with her patients than her. She sounds like a grade A beotch who has an overblown sense of importance.

you're catching a lot of heat for this comment, but i actually agree with you and this did cross my mind when i read the RN's report. It's not our job to question why people came to our ER. Most people don't know about the 3hr window for stroke tx. It's our job to treat everyone to the best of our ability.


And that triage nurse needs a nice long vacation...

 

[bartleby]

In regard to skin thickness, if you don't cultivate it, you won't last long in medicine, let alone EM.

As far as the Triage Nurse post goes, somewhere in the midst of gallows humor, sarcasm and joking around there's a line which separates healthy venting from the mean-spirited vitriol of someone who's in the process of burning out and needs to either A) go sit on a beach for a couple of weeks or B) find a new job until you can figure out what's what again. I fear that the RN poster is well over the fence into the latter category.

I get as frustrated as everyone else about the BS that we have to deal with day in and day out, but I think that a distinction needs to be made amongst the people who are "not sick and simply ignorant" and "not sick and manipulative/malicious/hostile/etc...". While I also get a kick out of the "therapeutic wait" occasionally and think that part of the past was amusing, there are some other darker things in there.

I don't care if they were driving a dead guy in for an hour. The wrong thing to do is argue with the family and make them feel that they were responsible for their loved one's death. Is the person ultimately non-viable as a resuscitation and deserving of a brief code to document the absence of signs of life? Perhaps. The general judge, jury and executioner attitude of this RN is troubling and the fact that this person cannot feel compassion for the family of a dead guy suggests that he or she needs a break from working in healthcare.

I shouldn't have to remind you that nothing gets your name in the newspaper or ass hauled into a deposition faster than telling family that someone who is really alive is dead. That's one thing we should always at least try to get right. : )

 

[brianmartin]

I'm detecting underlying sexism on your part. Why do you assume this RN is a female?

Because most nurses are female?

For those of you who think you are too good for these kind of emotions, come work in my ED for one week and then tell me the observations made in those rants aren't dead on.

The rants may be accurate but the response to them is completely overblown.

Oh hell, you're one of them.

One of who? The people who see the job for what it is?

Seriously, the RN in the rant most likely maintains a professional demeanor while at work, but the frustration and anger has to come out at some point.

See, I doubt the RN in the rant maintains a professional demeanor at work. I see nurses every day (and we all know who they are) who simply cannot chill out. Doctors too. These are the people who let things get to them. The people who are far too obsessed with everything being perfectly correct all the time.

I think you might have not ever worked in a hospital, especially in the ER. It will make more sense once you get down into the pit. Trust me.

Sounds like you have limited real life experience.

Get down "into the pit" eh? Actually I work full time in the ED.

See, this is the problem with the whiners. They're jealous of the people who can take it in stride. "You couldn't possibly work where I do. It's so ANNOYING. How could you not be ANNOYED all the time like I AM!?"

Guess what, I see the same drug seekers, heroin addicts, pt with their typical headache, URI sxs as you do. Those patients enter my brain for a while...then leave. When I think back about my day, I remember the guy with gallstone pancreatitis, or the lady with the cystic teratoma. Not the random crazy/annoying/sleeping/drunk/whining person. Whatever. It just doesn't bother me that much. I suppose it's different for an actual attending doctor, for whom those patients could mean missed revenue and wasted time on paperwork. But usually it's just a few patients causing a problem, not the whole department.

I think there are some personalities in medicine, certain people who are so insecure or depressed/anxious/angry all the time, that they have to put down their patients in order to feel good about themselves, and I think the RN who wrote that craigslist rant is one of them. They cause issues and drama and I much prefer to work with the people who maintain a good attitude and just let it roll off.

 

[Pelivar]

Because most nurses are female?

The rants may be accurate but the response to them is completely overblown.

Get down "into the pit" eh? Actually I work full time in the ED.

See, this is the problem with the whiners. They're jealous of the people who can take it in stride. "You couldn't possibly work where I do. It's so ANNOYING. How could you not be ANNOYED all the time like I AM!?"

Brian,

I agree with you and the triage nurse. I just finished a shift as an attending in a busy community hospital full of whiny ass pain seekers, whiny nurses and a couple whiny doctors. I can't stand the complaining from any of them.

Their are times when I am very frustrated with my patients and just want to tell them to F*&^ off. I think it is one of the toughest part of EM to become more thick skinned while staying in touch with helping people. You need the think skin to deal with the manipulative drug seakers and the abusive consultants. However, I do agree that people like the nurse are likely overly sensitive and I would not want her at my front door. Then when I talk to the dead pts family I have to spend an extra 2 mins explaining to them why we waited 5 mins to start the code. One of my colleges went ape **** the other day when a consultant asked about insurance and it ruined his entire shift (and he was probably still fuming at home). My life is too important to me to let work affect me at that deeply emotional level. I can't help it at times but that kind of anger only hurts me. It's a tough job (but worth it to me).

 

[McGillGrad]

Taking my quote out of context is a charming characteristic

Irony, brainmartin is thy name!

Here you are whining about supposed whiners. Do you not sense the hilarity of it all when you are complaining about people not letting water roll off of their duck-like backs?

If you had cooled your hot head for one second before posting, you would have understood that my comment is about differentiating between the naive academic view of the 'have's vs. the have not's' and the realistic patterns that created those stereotypes in the first place.

See, this is the problem with the whiners. They're jealous of the people who can take it in stride. "You couldn't possibly work where I do. It's so ANNOYING. How could you not be ANNOYED all the time like I AM!?"

Guess what, I see the same drug seekers, heroin addicts, pt with their typical headache, URI sxs as you do. Those patients enter my brain for a while...then leave. When I think back about my day, I remember the guy with gallstone pancreatitis, or the lady with the cystic teratoma. Not the random crazy/annoying/sleeping/drunk/whining person. Whatever. It just doesn't bother me that much. I suppose it's different for an actual attending doctor, for whom those patients could mean missed revenue and wasted time on paperwork. But usually it's just a few patients causing a problem, not the whole department.

I think there are some personalities in medicine, certain people who are so insecure or depressed/anxious/angry all the time, that they have to put down their patients in order to feel good about themselves, and I think the RN who wrote that craigslist rant is one of them. They cause issues and drama and I much prefer to work with the people who maintain a good attitude and just let it roll off.

 

[canjosh]

Yeah, ya'll get back to me after you've worked several years in a non-academic ED. 100% of the people I currently work with feel essentially the same way that nurse feels. It doesn't mean we hate our jobs, or dislike all of our patients. We simply acknowledge that we live in a truly jacked up world, and the ED is the nexus of all the badness in our society. I think most people in the ED are absolutely frustrated by the customer service aspect of medicine nowadays. The ED is supposed to be about saving lives, is it not? It is not really like that most of the time, so people get frustrated.

I think that nurse's 7 'rules' at the bottom of his/her post are right on...