User Post: 5 Things You Should NEVER Say to a Nurse

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  Posted by Victoria M Sat Jul 25, 2009 1:40pm PDT

  WHAT TAKES SO LONG?

  1) People who use the ER as a place for: free meds/pregnancy tests(Public aid) vs. paying $2 for Motrin or a generic EPT in the pharmacy.

  2)People who have something bothering them for 3 MONTHS and decide, yep, today's the day I'm gonna go to the ER.

  3)I have a sore throat and I need an STD test

  4) I have a toothache(no dentists in the ER, folks), my baby's teething and has a fever of 99.9(normal!)

  5) I got into a car accident, have nothing medically bothering me, but I want to sue, so I'm coming to the ER to get checked out.

  All the stupid crap that comes to the ER is what makes ER times so high. If you're having acute (NEW) pain, chest pain, abdominal pain, shortness of breath, dizziness or a possible broken bone, BY ALL MEANS, come to the ER.

  Toothaches are for dentists to handle. STD's--county clinics. Pregnancy? P.A.S.S. Teething? Call your pediatrician. You pay big bucks to have a doctor. Maybe you should bug them after hours to keep yourself from bogging down an already busy ER with common sense stuff that is NOT AN EMERGENCY. Don't go to the ER with nothing bothering you, just because you were in a minor accident. You think the ER doc is going to send you for a full body scan?

  I love my job and I love helping people, but the number of completely helpless people is getting out of control. Gone are the days where people actually stayed home and took Tylenol for the flu and exercised common sense. People forget to call their doctors, forget to ask a pharmacist if there's anything over the counter, don't bother with Urgent Aid's or minute clinics...let's call an ambulance to get there faster(doesn't work!). Our priorities are people having heart attacks, strokes and severe respiratory and GI problems. If you have the flu, you will be waiting for a while. If you come in with a mosquito bite and ask to be tested for West Nile(TRUE STORY), you'll wait even longer!

  I have people ask me all the time, "why is it taking so long?". My response is that everyone deserves better than drive-thru medicine and the ER is not Burger King where you get to have it your way, right away.

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  Posted by Victoria M Sat Jul 25, 2009 1:47pm PDT

  PS--If you're alert enough to complain about the nurse asking how "we" are doing? Complain about smoke on their clothing(I'm not a fan, either), complain about the waiting, or the tests taking too long or other superficial crap, YOU SHOULDN'T BE IN THE ER EITHER and are contributing to the problem. If you are really hurt or sick, you won't give a damn about the weight of the nurse or how she asks you if you're feeling better. I never loved anyone as much as I loved the nurse that brought me a pain shot for my dislocated shoulder. I never looked at a watch or clock waiting to go for a CT scan for my kidney stone. And I sure as hell never dreamed of giving crap to an overworked nurse who had an agency nurse call off and now has twice as many patients, hasn't had a break all day.

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  Posted by jennifer p. Sat Jul 25, 2009 8:54pm PDT

  People that say these things to nurses are a bit on the clueless side and any healthcare professional knows this type of patient and also knows how to deal with it. You don't take it personally and you have confidence in the fact that you do your job well, that's enough. I've worked side by side with nurses for 13 years and have tremendous respect for them. None of the ones I am proud of have attitudes like those in this silly article. Get over yourself.

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  Posted by John H Sun Jul 26, 2009 8:55am PDT

  Great post! I am a nurse (eww, a male nurse who even wears pink) and I am married to a nurse. Now I am a nurse practitioner and all the patients wonder, "Aren't you too old to go back to become a doctor?". I agree with some of the above posters and can understand the smoking nurse arguement. I think nurses should treat the patient on an equal intellectual level and I think the patient should understand the nurse brings something to the interaction that can not be learned by the patient on a website and television shows. After nearly 30 years, you will not find a patient I have cared for that felt they were not cared for in a caring, professional yet personal manner that respected their dignity, pain and needs.

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  Posted by Thomas Sun Jul 26, 2009 9:43pm PDT

  Nurses do deserve respect for what they do, yet I have little tolerance for Nurses who dont listen to what your trying to exlplain. As a patient I know my body better than anyone, my health keeps me in and out of the hospital. When I give a helpful comment I have found some nurses to try just to prove me wrong and I end up suffering the pain. Torn skin from Pic lines to blown blood veins in my hands arms. I D have watched Doctors treat nurses without respect a lot but to this day I have never disrespected one of the trusted ones, who aid me back to health.

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  Posted by Sue Mon Jul 27, 2009 4:17am PDT

  Nurses are usually not shown appreciation,and like it has been said they think the dr. is no.1 and you are just a side kick. But you roll with the punches. Twenty-five years ago was different,people seemed to care more about one another.

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  Posted by Dana Tue Aug 25, 2009 9:14pm PDT

  I just graduated nursing school, and I can say for sure that no one knows what it is like to be a nurse until you have walked in their shoes.

  I also feel that those who are getting up tight about what nurses are saying need to chill, if your a nurse then you understand the comments and they are not intended to me harmful or malicious, you have to have a sense of humor or nursing will eat you alive. Spend a day with a patient who is FULLY capable of walking, toileting and washing themselves, YET they refuse to do any thing and get sick pleasure out of ringing their call light 20 times in an hour for stupid crap...or even better I loved the day I took on a patient who hit and pushed me of and spit their pills at me or the geropsych who constantly screamed nurse and wanted a pain pill for every thing under the sun and needed constant attention....see how stress quickly mounts? add a patient or two like that on with about 10 or more patients and see the stress set in.

  I'm a nice person and will do every thing I can to help even when their an ass, but some days their is only so much s--- you can take.

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