If I'm ever unlucky enough to end up as a patient in an ER, there's one rule I will make sure to follow no matter how much suffering I'm in or what my blood alcohol level is. This one rule is so simple and obvious that I don't understand why everyone just doesn't follow it. Respect your nurse. That's it! Simple as that.
Even if my nurse was the nastiest grumpy b*tch, I would still suck it up and be super nice to her or him. Why do patients always seem to forget that no matter how fast and how much of a pain medication a physician orders for your excruciating pain, it is up to your nurse how soon you will actually get it. And, no matter how nice and thankful you are to your doc, it's not him or her who's going to change your diaper after your explosive diarrhea gets the upper hand. Oh, and you know when your nausea all of the sudden magically goes away (probably because of that medication the nurse advocated to the doc for you to get), and you get hungry? Super-huge-mega hungry because you haven't eaten in a couple of days? It's one thing for a doc to cancel your NPO order but it's another for your nurse to take time to hunt down a sandwich and some apple juice for you. Maybe even make you tea. Two sugars and two milks on the side? Sure, I'll see what I can do.
Yes, if I were a patient I would not suck up to my doc. I'd rather spend whatever energy and presence of mind I had left at the moment to suck it up and be extra nice to my nurse. Here are some of the things I DEFINITELY wouldn't do as a patient:
- talk on my cell phone the entire time a nurse is triaging me;
- have a social conversation with my friend while my nurse is trying to assess me;
- ask my nurse to make me tea, especially when I can see that all hell is breaking loose in the department and my nurse is running around like a chicken with its head cut off (heck, I didn't even know you could get anything other than water in ER until I started working in one);
- let my family members just sit there without moving aside while my nurse needs to maneuver herself and get creative around them while taking my blood (it might be fun to watch but it's MY vein that might have to be poked several times just because the nurse had to crouch in a weird position at an awkward angle);
- go around asking multiple nurses and any other staff including housekeeping the same question over and over again hoping for a different answer after my nurse has already answered it for me;
- ask why the patient who's bleeding profusely from his head gets seen by a doc before me - I arrived half an hour before him with my cold symptoms;
- let my boyfriend spoon me on my stretcher in the hallway;
- tell my nurse I only had one shot of tequila when my fancy dress is covered in vomit and I'm slurring my words.
Like I said, no matter how grouchy or unpleasant my nurse is, I will do my best to be in her or his good books. I would strive to be the patient that gets the "she's nice" line at the end of the nurses' report during shift change. And if my mother absolutely insisted on visiting me while I'm in an ER, I would tell her to pick up a box of chocolates on the way to the hospital. Us, nurses, we love chocolate. Especially at around 5 PM when our feet are on fire and our blood sugar levels are approaching zero. Chocolate = happy nurses = happy patients.
No comments:
Post a Comment