Short, sweet, and to the point....things you should never do to the triage nurse:
1. Return to the triage window after you have been discharged to yell at me "your doctors here suck" when you don't get the drugs/treatment you wanted. By the way, much MUCH classier when you do it in front of the patient I'm currently triaging. Thank you SO much.
2. Expect the triage nurse to drop everything to take report on your ambulance patient that lives two blocks away and comes in every two weeks for yet ANOTHER infected PICC line. Yes, you ride on an ambulance. That does not mean that every person you bring to me requires the Trauma Team Reception. Sorry I'm not terribly concerned that the pink/warm/dry middle-aged person with a patent airway needed to come in via EMS instead of the local taxi service. Frankly, I could have gotten a better report from a cab driver. You're in triage. Wait your turn.
3. DO NOT stand your uppity, snooty self--as the visitor, not the patient--next to me and state that I do not care about what your significant other is telling me, especially about their medical history. If I didn't care about, or need, the information your boyfriend was telling me, I'd say so. I'm a big girl. Therefore, keep your snide remarks to yourself. Or better yet, keep yourself parked in the waiting room. I didn't call YOU back.
4. If you are unable to get your loved one out of the vehicle you drove them to the ER in, maybe you should have considered the EMS route. They are quite adept at transporting patients that can't move very well, due to an EMERGENCY. DO NOT expect me to pull a bed out of my pocket, throw my triage nurse cape on, and single-handedly lift your loved one out of the car in 2.3 seconds. It takes me a minute to round up some reinforcements and equipment. Patience.
Thank you. Keeping these little things in mind may keep the evil, eye-rolling triage nurse at bay; replaced instead by a warm, kind-hearted, fully-understanding angel of a healthcare servant....yeah, right. That'll be a cold day.
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2 comments:
Oh, my dear... All too funny, as I sit here... in the triage booth.
Reminds me of a little tirade of my own I blogged a while back when I was at (DUN DUN DUN) the other place.
I have to add, on the "bringing in your own patient" front...
If the patient you need help unloading from your own vehicle is unresponsive and cold and fairly well rigor mortised, your "I think he might be dead" is likely to raise an eyebrow or two. There's no 'think' about it. Really, people.
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