Nursestories

Posted on January 24 , 2010

Violence in the ED rss

After reading an article in the Medscape Blog about violence in the emergency department, it made me realize how much we are exposed to verbal and physical abuse from patients. From the intoxicated, to the psychotic, to the homicidal and to the plain ‘I’m fed up of waiting in the waiting room 1 more minute’ type of person. About 3 years ago, our staff was the victim of a series of physical assaults.

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Posted on January 24 , 2010

Triage instinct – part 2 rss

On Sunday evening, around 19h15, a forty something year old man shows up in triage by ambulance because he had some sort of weakness during the morning. He’s an American Indian who came from up North, escorted to the hospital because of a medical appointment he had to attend the next day. During my physical evaluation the patient didn’t show any signs of distress and didn’t complain of any symptoms. After the paramedic gave me her report she handed me and EKG strip in which she didn’t seem to know what it meant, but for me it seemed at first glance quite alarming, except it didn’t fit the patient’s asymptomatic state.

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Posted on January 24 , 2010

Triage instinct – part 1 rss

A colleague of mine once told me, ‘‘when a nurse tells me that she’s good doing triage, I know right a way that she’s wrong.’’ 

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Posted on January 21 , 2010

Old couples in the ER rss

Not long ago we received a couple in their eighties who were in an MVC. The husband ended up having a spine fracture, but the wife was fine. Because she had alzheimer and her husband was her caregiver we couldn’t send her back home by herself. So during the five day hospitalization of her husband we kept the wife in the ED so they could both return home together at the same time.

That situation reminded me of another similar story that happened the previous year where an elderly man was brought to the ED for confusion. We had to put him on soft restrains while we’d investigate his situation. His wife, who was about the same age as the patient, around 80 years old, was at his bedside and would attend his every needs. Although she wasn’t desoriented the way he was, she did have some sort of mild dementia. Every 10 minutes she would come at the nursing station to request help for her husband. Several times we explained to her that since her husband was going to spend the night in the hospital it would be recommended for her to return home, get some rest and come back the next day. But she wouldn’t hear it.

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Posted on January 20 , 2010

I will never understand rss

I will never understand how a person can bring himself to do certain things that for me are simply unimaginable. One night we get a call from the paramedics announcing that they’re bringing a guy for suicidal attempt by stabbing himself multiple times to the chest and testicles. Those few words are enough to make us imagine so many things. To remove a testicle you have to cut through the meat, that can’t be possible in terms of pain toleration. The patient most probably stabbed himself ince in the area.

Well, the patient arrives wide awake chanting praises to the Lord. He admits having swallowed all of his psychiatric medication and he brought his 12 empty bottles to prove it. Both of his wrists were slashed, multiple stab wounds were found on the abdomen and chest, including a succion wound on the left lung, and finally the complete removal of his scrotum, brought to us wrapped in a plastic container.

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