If you’ve ever been to an ER, most likely the first healthcare person you saw was a triage nurse. I have the sometimes unfortunate luck of being this person. Not that all the people I meet are unpleasant, I actually feel like I’m helping some people. But for the most part it often seems like a stage for a drama. You see if I walk through the ER lobby, and the persons sitting, waiting to be seen, don’t realize who I am, I often see them laughing, eating, or just sitting around like a normal person. However, the second I call “Susan Smith” said patient becomes the weakest, or semi- unconscious patient, in the most ‘pain’ I’ve ever seen. The person I just saw getting Doritos and a Pepsi out of the vending machine is suddenly having “nausea and vomiting” so bad they need to see the doctor now.
I actually witnessed a person come through the front door of the lobby, YELLING—-”I Can’t BREATHE, somebody help me!!” When the shocked greeter (not a medically trained person) asked what we could do to help, the person became so irate she SCREAMED again— “I can’t BREATHE, I’m having an anaphylactic reaction.” Let me pause to say, if you aren’t a medical professional, and you are perhaps worried that we weren’t reacting quickly enough A- if you can scream, you are breathing, and B- she waited 10 seconds before screaming again, “I’m driving my self to the other hospital were they’ll see me.” By the time I came out of the little triage room where I was with another patient, she was gone. I wanted to say good luck! The ‘other’ hospital has twice as long of a wait.”
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March 18th, 2009 at 5:36 am
I too, have the role of triage and I too, have to played witness to some of the scenes enacted by our wanting patients….
“How’s long is the wait?” were the first words out of the man’s mouth as he arrived in the department.
“That depends what the problem is, sir. What has brought you down here this evening?” I enquired.
He swept his arm around the waiting room and answered my question with a question “Are all these people waiting to be seen?”
“Yes sir, we are the only place open at this time of night and they have all arrived within an hour or two of each other. There may be some delay in being seen depending on what the problem is?”
He placed both hands on the counter and leaned forward “So answer the question moron, how long is it going to be before I can see the doctor?”
So I told him.
What followed was a monologue of frustration and anger in which my parentage was questioned, my masculinity was scrutinised and my professionalism and the profession of all nurses world wide was commented upon. This was accompanied by lots of shouting, arm waving and finger pointing.
Aggression through frustration and pain in Accident and Emergency wards has been a big problem for many years and is, according to some authors on the increase. So dealing with aggressive or violent patients is a major challenge. If staff recognise that waiting times are a contributory factor, then recognising the people who are affected by this would be useful in preventing violence (Lee, 2001). UK nurses are bound by a code of conduct and a duty of care. We have little control over who we treat at what time. Therefore, the way in which we behave in response to violence is becoming more important, especially as the number of incidents is on the increase.
Trouble is that all this theory is easier said than done. So why does waiting make us so angry?