Not that I pay much attention to it I just noticed that the old crusty ER tech has gotten over 5000 hits on this here blog. Well shit everyone, thanks. Now compared to what any social media star gets in their corner of the internet 5k is nothing. For CRT 5k is a nice round number and it might mean that some people out there get what it's like or at least want to know what it's like working in a dynamic environment such as an ER.
I will say that not all my tales come from the same ER or even in the same region of the country. One thing that I have learned is that when it comes to an ER much everything is the same. Yeah..yeah there ARE slight variations here and there commonality is the thread that holds it all together whether it is in a urban inner city hospital or a 3 bed rural ER. At now 47 entries and over a measly 5000 hits have I run out of things to say?
Hardly.
I have attempted to show what kind of personalities work in and come to an emergency room. I've said many times that there is often a very fine line between care givers and patients in ANY emergency room. Sometimes the line can be blurred. One thing that I have learned in all the regions and ERs that I have worked in is that a truly great ER has fantastic team work.
For all my grumbling (trust me there is a ton of it) about my current job at Inner City Trauma Center we have great team work day in and day out. We have to or we'll get crushed. Sure those clip board nurses often get in the way we still manage though despite the tsunami of humanity we see in any 24 hour period. When I worked at a hospital out west (or was it back east...hell I forget) I worked in a ER where there was a bunch of glory seekers. People who would not get out of their chair for a cup of ice or pillow for a patient, hold on though when a code/cor-0 or hot trauma/trauma-cor came in through the doors then they would fly off that chair like they had a rocket strapped to their asses. It could have been great there it was not because of a culture of indifference.
I do not mean to paint a bleak picture of our healthcare system. My purpose is now to paint a landscape of what it is to work in such a place like an ER. To that end I endeavor with each key stroke.
For all of you who have read this so far thanks, I appreciate it. Frankly I'd write here whether or not anyone read it. Keep checking it out I still got more to come.
Friday, January 23, 2015
Sunday, January 11, 2015
Forty six
Beats the hell outta me.
I pulled this patient out of a mini van curbside outside the main entrance of the ER. His chief complaint was bilateral lower leg pain secondary to falling off a ledge 10-15 feet in height. This patient landed on both feet and does not complain of pain anywhere else. Pt denies striking head on ground and has negative LOC. Pt cannot stand on his own feet and cannot ambulate so naturally I load him onto a stretcher.
I'm thinking that this pt has a good story and wheel him back to the triage nurse. The triage nurse is non-plussed and insists that I put this patient in a wheelchair and put him into a waiting room. I ask the nurse to at least order xrays on his lower extremities, hell I even say please. The nurse becomes upset with me and tells me to "just go". I would have ordered xrays but as a Tech in this hospital I don't have access to ordering diagnostic tests or anything else for that matter.
I'm not taking no for an answer and grab another more level headed nurse on the way out to the waiting room and ask her to order xrays bilat lower extremities on this patient who is in obvious distress. This nurse says "Absolutely no problem" and I wheel the patient on over to radiology.
Lo' and behold this patient has multiple lower extremity fractures which include but not limited to broken calcaneus, multiple fractures of tibia and fibula bilat and a nice small fracture of one of his femurs. Needless to say this patient is a candidate for trauma. After a call to the charge nurse to tell her what I got I grab yet another stretcher and put the patient on it and we wheel on over to the trauma bays. Naturally while I am going over to trauma I run across the triage nurse who ordered me to put the pt in a wheel chair and put him into a waiting room.
She throws a minor shit fit in front of the patient and several other folks. I get told that she's the nurse and I'm just a tech and I better follow her orders without question, now put this pt in a wheelchair and put him in the waiting room at once! She also tells me to expect a write up by the end of the day. Once she's done I tell her to go ahead and write me up because this patient has a laundry list of leg fractures and the trauma attending and the charge nurse wants this particular patient in trauma now. The discussion ends there.
The triage nurse walks off without another word and the pt and I head on over to the trauma bays. This being a dynamic urban environment the patient who has been very stoic to this point says "Fuck that bitch, thanks bruh."
I pulled this patient out of a mini van curbside outside the main entrance of the ER. His chief complaint was bilateral lower leg pain secondary to falling off a ledge 10-15 feet in height. This patient landed on both feet and does not complain of pain anywhere else. Pt denies striking head on ground and has negative LOC. Pt cannot stand on his own feet and cannot ambulate so naturally I load him onto a stretcher.
I'm thinking that this pt has a good story and wheel him back to the triage nurse. The triage nurse is non-plussed and insists that I put this patient in a wheelchair and put him into a waiting room. I ask the nurse to at least order xrays on his lower extremities, hell I even say please. The nurse becomes upset with me and tells me to "just go". I would have ordered xrays but as a Tech in this hospital I don't have access to ordering diagnostic tests or anything else for that matter.
I'm not taking no for an answer and grab another more level headed nurse on the way out to the waiting room and ask her to order xrays bilat lower extremities on this patient who is in obvious distress. This nurse says "Absolutely no problem" and I wheel the patient on over to radiology.
Lo' and behold this patient has multiple lower extremity fractures which include but not limited to broken calcaneus, multiple fractures of tibia and fibula bilat and a nice small fracture of one of his femurs. Needless to say this patient is a candidate for trauma. After a call to the charge nurse to tell her what I got I grab yet another stretcher and put the patient on it and we wheel on over to the trauma bays. Naturally while I am going over to trauma I run across the triage nurse who ordered me to put the pt in a wheel chair and put him into a waiting room.
She throws a minor shit fit in front of the patient and several other folks. I get told that she's the nurse and I'm just a tech and I better follow her orders without question, now put this pt in a wheelchair and put him in the waiting room at once! She also tells me to expect a write up by the end of the day. Once she's done I tell her to go ahead and write me up because this patient has a laundry list of leg fractures and the trauma attending and the charge nurse wants this particular patient in trauma now. The discussion ends there.
The triage nurse walks off without another word and the pt and I head on over to the trauma bays. This being a dynamic urban environment the patient who has been very stoic to this point says "Fuck that bitch, thanks bruh."
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