Blog Feed: Code White in ER

Subjective pain scales are useless in the ER

Published on 2011-11-21 23:17:00

Strictly subjective pain scales are of no use when used to triage patients in the Emergency Department. Almost every person who sits down at the triage assessment desk rates there pain an 8-9-10 on a 1-10 scale. They do this because they know that if they rate their pain at greater than 8, then they cannot be screened out as non-emergent and requested to accept financial responsibility for at least SOME of their visit. Nurses are discouraged from using non-subjective pain scales on adults, [..] > read more

Slow ER Doc's

Published on 2011-09-07 06:43:00

Is there ANYTHING more frustrating to an ER nurse than a Doctor who can't make a decision? Ordering tests one at a time, so that the patients sit in the rooms for hours before you even have results, and then once everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) is back, still no answer!! Patients angry because they're tired of waiting, families up in your face constantly for answers you can't give them, and more and more patients piling up in the waiting room because you can't get anyone admitted or discha [..] > read more

A generation of tough love, the only cure for an entitled society

Published on 2011-04-24 05:55:00

I've been talking to friends lately about the abuse of medicaid in the ER, and what could be done to fix a system that not only allows people to abuse it, but encourages it. While we were talking, we realized that so many of our friends and fam > read more

Long ER Wait Times are Getting EvenLonger

Published on 2011-01-07 16:40:00

There's nothing more stressful as a nurse, than to walk into work in any ER in the country and be met immediately by angry gazes from patients waiting to see the doctor. It sets the tone for your entire night, and when it starts out that way, i > read more

Happy ER Nurses Week!!

Published on 2010-10-18 02:15:00

Just a quick note to all my friends in the trenches. I hope you have a fantastic week, I salute you, and I appreciate you. Here's to you (holding up my cold beer) !! > read more

Compassion Failure? You bet, it's caused by Hydrocodone.

Published on 2010-09-05 02:09:00

Is the whole freakin world addicted to Hydrocodone. Would there even be any need for an ER anymore if it weren't for drug seeking people who bombard the ER 24 hours a day looking for their next fix. How many ER's a day are these people vi > read more

Crack rocks on the corner, or Vicodin in the ER : Pushing Drugs is Pushin Drugs

Published on 2009-12-15 03:35:00

I read this news article that was published in the SunSentinel.com. It was written in 2003, but is just as relevant today, if not more so, than it was at that time. It discusses the amount of Medicaid funds that are spent yearly on prescription pain > read more

Sometimes NO is the right answer.

Published on 2009-12-07 23:54:00

I worked with a Doctor the other night who handed me a discharge chart with a prescription for Hydrocodone and Flexeril attached to it. The discharge diagnosis was a sprain, and his words to me were "I know they're just seeking, but I just want to g > read more

More stuff they don't want us to talk about publicly.

Published on 2009-11-24 06:32:00

This is a news story that every person who pays taxes in this country should have to read. Also every person who thinks it 'wrong' for nurses to lament over frequent flyers, drug seekers, and ER abusers. 9 patients made nearly 2,700 ER visits > read more

Good Lord!!

Published on 2009-11-24 05:52:00

Just posted that last entry, and when I previewed it on the blog, guess what's in the add just to the right of it? A pharmacy advertising Tramadol by mail. I think I'll go throw up now. > read more

Nurses afraid to blog?

Published on 2009-11-24 05:50:00

I have a friend who's had a blog of his own for a very long time. It was completely anonymous on his site, no name, no contact information. It was the kind of site that ER nurses love to read, and to be honest, only an ER nurse would find amusing. He > read more

The Witching hours!

Published on 2009-11-20 20:35:00

Why is it that after 3:00 in the morning, you are just about guaranteed that any patients arriving in the ER are going to present with one of two things? #1 A truly life threatening situation. Lots of blood, big heart attack? > read more

My Super Power

Published on 2009-11-18 02:43:00

Some of my friends play a game where they get to make up their own super powers. I've decided what mine would be if I had a super power!! It would be to pull a ER bed out of my ass! Or, perhaps even better, to have a phermone that mimicks the effe > read more