ER Etiquette

[VorFemme]

If someone tells you that they feel like they are going to throw up - get them a basin and don't "jerk" the elevator on the way up to the X-Ray department at 11 pm.  From the gleam in her eye, I'm pretty sure that DD made no effort to miss the guy's spit shined Army boots............and he took great care to run the elevator smoothly going down. 

If someone tells you that they have a history of penicillin allergies in the family and their mother calls later to report hives the size of a luncheon plate on their body in six places (they started out smaller and kind of joined up) - don't be shocked when she brings in photos "just in case" you think she was overreacting.

If your child is getting stuck for blood tests (suspected anemia due to being very pale skinned) - don't wait until the kid is over a year old to bring in their red headed pale skinned older sibling.  The doctor tore up the slip and decided that "pale" ran in the family.  (None of the tests showed anemia.)

[kherbert05]

You're likely thinking of hyperemesis gravidarum.

If you have an allergy to a medication, please don't get cross if you're asked exactly what happens when you take it. Some people have been told that they have an allergy to certain antibiotics because they had a bit of a jippy tummy after taking it. This may be a recognised side effect. Allergies are more serious. Giving you a different medication may be inappropriate and give you poorer treatment.

If there are alcohol gel rubs around, please use them. Hospital cleanliness is everyone's business, not just hospital staff. Also, don't give staff dirty looks when they prompt you to use it- you'll be the first to complain if your loved one ends up with a preventable infection.

I have no problem telling medical people what I'm allergic to and how severe it is. Most of the time medical people listen to me, and I answer every question as fully as possible. For most I know the medical terms because I've lived with most of the medical condition since babyhood. It is only the sedative thing that gets questioned. I've been told flat-out that the OTC medicine can't have the effect on me that it does.

 I know it isn't an allergy, just a wierd side effect. If they have to give me a sedative say for surgery - I want them to be aware that I might become combative. That it isn't really me yelling at them or trying to escape. I'm trapped inside and a monster takes over my body. I can't stop it. That is the only way I can describe it. It is like a night terror, when you fighting for your life but in this corner the real you is trapped and you know the whole thing is an illusion. I've also tried to fly off a 3rd story balcony on the OTC medication.

[penguinladi]

As a patient, one thing you can do to lessen the possibility of getting a medication you have a reaction to, do not take anything or allow anyone to give you IV medication without asking to see the INTACT package or vial to see exactly what they are giving you.  You have the right to refuse any medication or treatment, even though you signed a consent-to-treat form.  If you have someone in the hospital with you, have them write down the time and what was done (medication, procedure, tests, etc) and exactly what you were told.  Ask for things to be explained in words you can understand--if someone uses a word you do not understand, ask for clarification.  Good medical professionals will see this as an opportunity to educate you on what is happening.  Just because the nurse has "standing orders" from the doctor, this does not substitute for good assessment skills and doing what is best for the patient.

[Kimblee]

From the patient's side - please don't argue with me about my atypical reactions to medication and tell me they aren't possible. Really I can't take a OTC allergy med that people sometimes give kids on trips to make them sleep. It really makes me hyper - last time I decided I could fly off a 3rd floor balcony.

When I was given a sedative for surgery - I tried to punch out the RN and the Doc.

Pretty much every time I've been given a sedative I've at best spent hours crawling the ceiling at worst tried to hurt myself or others. Then several hours later I crash so hard people check to see if I'm still breathing.

On the flip side give me meds that have an upper effect - I'm crashed out asleep in no time flat.

(For some reason people are always telling me they want to see me drunk - No You Do Not)

Absolutely. I've ended up in the ER a few times this pregnancy because of complications of severe morning sickness (there's a fancy Latin name I can never remember). Anyway, I've learned that one anti-nausea medicine makes me extremely paranoid and gives me panic attacks. So I always tell them I can't take it because of these reasons. My husband usually tells them. What happens last time I'm in the ER waiting on a room? The nurse gives me this med, although we both verbally told her and wrote on the admission paperwork. I spent two hours having a panic attack severe that the only thing that kept me from tearing out my IV and running out of the hospital was my husband holding me and telling me it was going to be alright. DH flipped out, and the nurse claimed it was standard procedure to give that med. I was livid, once I was convinced that no one was coming to kill me or my baby.

Also, that same OTC allergy drug turns me into a hyperactive three year old, so I'm feeling you there.

You're likely thinking of hyperemesis gravidarum.

If you have an allergy to a medication, please don't get cross if you're asked exactly what happens when you take it. Some people have been told that they have an allergy to certain antibiotics because they had a bit of a jippy tummy after taking it. This may be a recognised side effect. Allergies are more serious. Giving you a different medication may be inappropriate and give you poorer treatment.

If there are alcohol gel rubs around, please use them. Hospital cleanliness is everyone's business, not just hospital staff. Also, don't give staff dirty looks when they prompt you to use it- you'll be the first to complain if your loved one ends up with a preventable infection.

Heheh.

When my cousin was having World's Most Perfect Niece-baby Evah(tm) I was manic with the alcohol gel machines. i used them, and made Cousin's other daughter (who is simmilarly mperfect, and was my responsibility until WMPNBE(tm) got herself born) use it too... and got told two or three times by non-hospital staff that those were only for doctors.

I ignored them. It seemed like a tiny action to perform to keep germs ion the bathroom from getting to that teensy little pink blob that we were all so desprate to see. (That was a long pregnancy, four weeks almost past the due date and she was still under 8 pounds!)

[Ambrosia Hino]

If someone tells you that they feel like they are going to throw up - get them a basin and don't "jerk" the elevator on the way up to the X-Ray department at 11 pm.  From the gleam in her eye, I'm pretty sure that DD made no effort to miss the guy's spit shined Army boots............and he took great care to run the elevator smoothly going down.

 

I was not aiming for him. That really was accidental...I just didn't feel sorry that I did it either...

If someone tells you that they have a history of penicillin allergies in the family and their mother calls later to report hives the size of a luncheon plate on their body in six places (they started out smaller and kind of joined up) - don't be shocked when she brings in photos "just in case" you think she was overreacting.

and don't argue with the sick kid's older sibling when they insist that yes, he really has already had chicken pox, this is something else...I got blamed by Dad for him getting chicken pox, so I definately remember it happening!

If your child is getting stuck for blood tests (suspected anemia due to being very pale skinned) - don't wait until the kid is over a year old to bring in their red headed pale skinned older sibling.  The doctor tore up the slip and decided that "pale" ran in the family.  (None of the tests showed anemia.)

see, you really should have scheduled his appointments for after I got home from school...

[Ambrosia Hino]

For the hospital staff:

don't assume that someone curled up in a ball for pain is faking...I had surgery the day before and once the meds from the actual surgery wore off, I was in excrutiating pain...the meds the doctor had prescribed me worked about as well as popping a TicTac for pain. Yes, I know the med that I given in the ER that night was technically weaker, but it actually worked.

If a patient comes in (me) repeated vomiting please, for the sake of other patients, remove them to a more private room. And don't accuse them of faking for attention (see VorFemme's post about the spit-shined boots )

oh, and if I come in, complaining of severe abdominal pain, and that I've been repeatedly puking my guts out, don't give me an IV of anti-nausea & pain meds, wait for me to pass out, then discharge me...without doing ANY tests to figure out what happened. Several months later, I got my gall bladder out - looking back on that particular night, I am 98% positive that I'd had a gall stone...one ultrasound could have saved me months of suffering with an earlier diagnosis

[VorFemme]

If someone tells you that they feel like they are going to throw up - get them a basin and don't "jerk" the elevator on the way up to the X-Ray department at 11 pm.  From the gleam in her eye, I'm pretty sure that DD made no effort to miss the guy's spit shined Army boots............and he took great care to run the elevator smoothly going down.

 

I was not aiming for him. That really was accidental...I just didn't feel sorry that I did it either...

I never thought that you AIMED for the boots - only that you made no effort/had no energy to turn your head away from those boots when his bumpy handling of the elevator (late night - he had to use a key to unlock it & was running it "manually" somehow).

Personally - I thought it might teach him to listen when someone told him that they were feeling woozy...........and believe it!

[Ambrosia Hino]

If someone tells you that they feel like they are going to throw up - get them a basin and don't "jerk" the elevator on the way up to the X-Ray department at 11 pm.  From the gleam in her eye, I'm pretty sure that DD made no effort to miss the guy's spit shined Army boots............and he took great care to run the elevator smoothly going down.

 

I was not aiming for him. That really was accidental...I just didn't feel sorry that I did it either...

I never thought that you AIMED for the boots - only that you made no effort/had no energy to turn your head away from those boots when his bumpy handling of the elevator (late night - he had to use a key to unlock it & was running it "manually" somehow).

Personally - I thought it might teach him to listen when someone told him that they were feeling woozy...........and believe it!

more like "no time"

[VorFemme]

If someone tells you that they feel like they are going to throw up - get them a basin and don't "jerk" the elevator on the way up to the X-Ray department at 11 pm.  From the gleam in her eye, I'm pretty sure that DD made no effort to miss the guy's spit shined Army boots............and he took great care to run the elevator smoothly going down.

 

I was not aiming for him. That really was accidental...I just didn't feel sorry that I did it either...

I never thought that you AIMED for the boots - only that you made no effort/had no energy to turn your head away from those boots when his bumpy handling of the elevator (late night - he had to use a key to unlock it & was running it "manually" somehow).

Personally - I thought it might teach him to listen when someone told him that they were feeling woozy...........and believe it!

more like "no time"

Then it was true poetic justice when he stood next to you and JERKED the elevator upstairs - because he did indeed "reap what he sowed" - in this case, he got to clean & polish his boots again.

[kitty_ev]

From the patient's side - please don't argue with me about my atypical reactions to medication and tell me they aren't possible. Really I can't take a OTC allergy med that people sometimes give kids on trips to make them sleep. It really makes me hyper - last time I decided I could fly off a 3rd floor balcony.

When I was given a sedative for surgery - I tried to punch out the RN and the Doc.

Pretty much every time I've been given a sedative I've at best spent hours crawling the ceiling at worst tried to hurt myself or others. Then several hours later I crash so hard people check to see if I'm still breathing.

On the flip side give me meds that have an upper effect - I'm crashed out asleep in no time flat.

(For some reason people are always telling me they want to see me drunk - No You Do Not)

Absolutely. I've ended up in the ER a few times this pregnancy because of complications of severe morning sickness (there's a fancy Latin name I can never remember). Anyway, I've learned that one anti-nausea medicine makes me extremely paranoid and gives me panic attacks. So I always tell them I can't take it because of these reasons. My husband usually tells them. What happens last time I'm in the ER waiting on a room? The nurse gives me this med, although we both verbally told her and wrote on the admission paperwork. I spent two hours having a panic attack severe that the only thing that kept me from tearing out my IV and running out of the hospital was my husband holding me and telling me it was going to be alright. DH flipped out, and the nurse claimed it was standard procedure to give that med. I was livid, once I was convinced that no one was coming to kill me or my baby.

Also, that same OTC allergy drug turns me into a hyperactive three year old, so I'm feeling you there.

You're likely thinking of hyperemesis gravidarum.

If you have an allergy to a medication, please don't get cross if you're asked exactly what happens when you take it. Some people have been told that they have an allergy to certain antibiotics because they had a bit of a jippy tummy after taking it. This may be a recognised side effect. Allergies are more serious. Giving you a different medication may be inappropriate and give you poorer treatment.

If there are alcohol gel rubs around, please use them. Hospital cleanliness is everyone's business, not just hospital staff. Also, don't give staff dirty looks when they prompt you to use it- you'll be the first to complain if your loved one ends up with a preventable infection.

Heheh.

When my cousin was having World's Most Perfect Niece-baby Evah(tm) I was manic with the alcohol gel machines. i used them, and made Cousin's other daughter (who is simmilarly mperfect, and was my responsibility until WMPNBE(tm) got herself born) use it too... and got told two or three times by non-hospital staff that those were only for doctors.

I ignored them. It seemed like a tiny action to perform to keep germs ion the bathroom from getting to that teensy little pink blob that we were all so desprate to see. (That was a long pregnancy, four weeks almost past the due date and she was still under 8 pounds!)

For real?! If you were in my hospital we'd be trying to squirt the stuff on you whenever you entered a door! It's cheap as chips (in comparison to treating infections) so it's mad to reserve it for only the doctors!

[Kimblee]

From the patient's side - please don't argue with me about my atypical reactions to medication and tell me they aren't possible. Really I can't take a OTC allergy med that people sometimes give kids on trips to make them sleep. It really makes me hyper - last time I decided I could fly off a 3rd floor balcony.

When I was given a sedative for surgery - I tried to punch out the RN and the Doc.

Pretty much every time I've been given a sedative I've at best spent hours crawling the ceiling at worst tried to hurt myself or others. Then several hours later I crash so hard people check to see if I'm still breathing.

On the flip side give me meds that have an upper effect - I'm crashed out asleep in no time flat.

(For some reason people are always telling me they want to see me drunk - No You Do Not)

Absolutely. I've ended up in the ER a few times this pregnancy because of complications of severe morning sickness (there's a fancy Latin name I can never remember). Anyway, I've learned that one anti-nausea medicine makes me extremely paranoid and gives me panic attacks. So I always tell them I can't take it because of these reasons. My husband usually tells them. What happens last time I'm in the ER waiting on a room? The nurse gives me this med, although we both verbally told her and wrote on the admission paperwork. I spent two hours having a panic attack severe that the only thing that kept me from tearing out my IV and running out of the hospital was my husband holding me and telling me it was going to be alright. DH flipped out, and the nurse claimed it was standard procedure to give that med. I was livid, once I was convinced that no one was coming to kill me or my baby.

Also, that same OTC allergy drug turns me into a hyperactive three year old, so I'm feeling you there.

You're likely thinking of hyperemesis gravidarum.

If you have an allergy to a medication, please don't get cross if you're asked exactly what happens when you take it. Some people have been told that they have an allergy to certain antibiotics because they had a bit of a jippy tummy after taking it. This may be a recognised side effect. Allergies are more serious. Giving you a different medication may be inappropriate and give you poorer treatment.

If there are alcohol gel rubs around, please use them. Hospital cleanliness is everyone's business, not just hospital staff. Also, don't give staff dirty looks when they prompt you to use it- you'll be the first to complain if your loved one ends up with a preventable infection.

Heheh.

When my cousin was having World's Most Perfect Niece-baby Evah(tm) I was manic with the alcohol gel machines. i used them, and made Cousin's other daughter (who is simmilarly perfect, and was my responsibility until WMPNBE(tm) got herself born) use it too... and got told two or three times by non-hospital staff that those were only for doctors.

I ignored them. It seemed like a tiny action to perform to keep germs ion the bathroom from getting to that teensy little pink blob that we were all so desprate to see. (That was a long pregnancy, four weeks almost past the due date and she was still under 8 pounds!)

For real?! If you were in my hospital we'd be trying to squirt the stuff on you whenever you entered a door! It's cheap as chips (in comparison to treating infections) so it's mad to reserve it for only the doctors!

Oh the nurses were very pleased, as was the doctor. It was other paitents complaining/

[kitty_ev]

Just returned from a trip to lovely Canada and while we were there we ended up making a trip to the ER for my brother. Silly twit had gotten himself a spider bite before we took off from the UK and it became infected resulting in a soft tissue infection causing his ankle to swell to the size of a melon and him being unable to put his weight on it. So off to the ER we went and unwillingly observed a few more things that should be in this thread.

1) If you are in a large group of people (say, more than 3 including the patient) there's not much point in all of you being in the ER. Particularly late on a Friday night when it's busy anyway. You'll get in everyone's way and take up seats that people who are actually sick could benefit from.

2) If you are part of the aforementioned large group and decide not to go into the ER, it would be better if you didn't spend hours and hours hanging around outside shouting, screaming, playing with wheelchairs and getting in the way of vehicles ferrying patients to hospital.

3) Being a patient doesn't automatically entitle you to a wheelchair. If you are not a patient you certainly aren't entitled to a wheelchair. I observed some people in the aforementioned large group (I should mention that they were in their late teens/ early twenties) grabbing the hospital wheelchairs to play with outside. One of the group grabbed the last one as an elderly man went to fetch it for his elderly wife who was clearly unwell and holding on to the wall in the entrance. The young man who took the wheelchair saw the elderly man and the sick elderly woman and still ran off with the chair to play with his friends outside. Fortunately it wasn't long until security reclaimed the wheelchairs. They didn't move the group on though, they kept smoking and shouting loudly outside the building.

[Eisa]

When the wait is longer than you expected, don't scream at everyone in the waiting room [the last time I went to the ER with stomach pain and black stool, I was in the waiting room after they ask you what's wrong with you but don't have a room yet--and I could hear this person SCREAMING at everyone associated with the hospital about how they had to wait. Hello, everyone had to wait. Obviously, there's nothing really, really wrong with you that you get to go ahead of EVERYONE else. Sorry.]

When your patient comes up, throwing up blood, tells you that she's just had surgery that day and her pain medication is making her nauseated and that just sitting up/standing makes her throw up...PLEASE try to not then put her in a big dentist-like medical chair! [That also happened to me. I'd just had a tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy/septoplasty, and my pain meds were too strong. I was throwing up so much, I started throwing up blood. The ER people were nice, but they also put me in a chair for hours. It was horrible. Throwing up practically clots of blood was not pleasant. At least then I got a shot of Demerol. ]

If your patient tells you that it's difficult to get blood from her as her veins disappear, don't ignore her. She's had to go through this a lot. She knows what she's talking about.  [Had that happen a lot of times, where they just don't listen to me, stab me a bunch of times, and then "have to call in an expert." I told you my veins are hard to find!]

[kitty_ev]

If your patient tells you that it's difficult to get blood from her as her veins disappear, don't ignore her. She's had to go through this a lot. She knows what she's talking about.  [Had that happen a lot of times, where they just don't listen to me, stab me a bunch of times, and then "have to call in an expert." I told you my veins are hard to find!]

I hear you! Happens to me all the time. I know I'm hard to bleed- I've had enough blood tests to prove it and I know where my relatively good veins are. I also know that while most people have veins accessible in certain places, I'm not one of them. Please don't "have a go" on the off-chance you'll hit something venous- it wastes your time and mine.

[hyzenthlay]

The ER is the last place you want to get medical care if you have a choice. They are busy, they are rushed, they are in the mindset to stop bleeding and restart hearts.

This is not a great environment in which to discuss chronic conditions, or determine long term treatment options for the nagging problem you never treated until it was too late. Nor is it where you want to be if your problem can in fact wait an hour or two and there is so much as a single Urgent Care facility open.

And yes in that rushed environment you may have to be pretty forceful, because sometimes they are running on auto-pilot so as to treat all the people that may be this close to death.