I'm tired ok? Really tired. The last couple of days have been killers. The kind of days where it is chaos. You don't know what chaos really is until you work in ER. The phone is ringing, the call lights are going off. Someone is screaming, an old person is calling nurse. Bed 2 wants something for pain, bed 4 wonders whats taking so long. Bed 5 wants something to eat. Bed 6 some footies. Bed 7 just vomitted. Bed 8 has to go to the bathroom. I have to call report on bed 9. Bed 10 needs an IV. Has anyone done an EKG on bed 11 yet? Surgery is on line 2. They want to come and get bed 12. Bed 13's packed cells just arrived. Bed 14 needs a cardioversion. Bed 15 is crying about something. Bed 16 needs to come off the backboard. Bed 17's family wonders what is taking so long to get a room. And on and on up to room 30. An alert red alarm was just announced (fire alarm) and the lights are flashing and the bells are ringing. There are two ambulances coming and two people in hall beds. Its 2 pm and I haven't been to lunch. I have to go pee. Someone fainted in the main lobby and their on their way to ER...and on and on and on....til 7 hours later when I finally drag my sorry butt out the door.
I need to have a couple of glasses of wine and put on my pirates hat...har. Yo ho ho...yup I've finally lost it folks.
6 comments:
Burn-out , you need to take time out .
I'm not in the medical field - but I've had to use our local ER a few times. I have never, while in the ER: asked for footies, asked for a drink, asked for food, asked for a blanket, etc. Why do people ask for this crap? You're in the ER for a (supposed) medical emergency. Why would you need any of this stuff? I don't get it.....
Great description of a typical shift in most ERs. Not enough staff to deal with this craziness, yet the nurses are expected to effectively provide safe care in the madness of this environment. Many patients are very rude and impatient and cannot understand what else is going on around them. And people wonder why ER nurses burn out....
We were having a day like that, recently. I was standing over an evolving CVA patient pushing something or other and the moans and bells and everything were going off. The patient's son, late 50's, his mom lying there, probably dying, asks me, "Do you ever get used to this?" "Yeah, you do but then you begin to decompensate. I'm on the other side of that, now". He never said another thing to me. The next day I thought about what I said. Might've instilled a little unease in the guy, reckon? His mother's caregiver? Shouldn't have asked me.
If u hate ur job get a new one....maybe at a docs office, 9-5 and quit ur complaining
"You don't know what chaos really is until you work in an ER." Congratulations on having such a sheltered life. I've worked in an ER, understand that you are saying, and empathize. But child, you don't know the meaning of chaos.
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