Current Events > Why are ER docs so rude/fucked up?

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/4tgfwt/whats_your_worst_experience_with_a_doctor/

just looked up that old thread and I am shocked at all those horror stories.
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Granted Ive only been to the ER once for pink eye but I cant say ive had that experience

Anecdotes from reddit yada yada
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i love askreddit. endless reading material
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I imagine when your job is literally "drop everything and be perfect or dude gon die" it's probably pretty easy to get both very stressed and very arrogant
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Panthera posted...

I imagine when your job is literally "drop everything and be perfect or dude gon die" it's probably pretty easy to get both very stressed and very arrogant

This.

Sorry to hear about your mom. My dad actually went through something similar a few years ago. Doctors shrugged off the spot on his lung telling him it was nothing, and it turned out to be cancer. When they discovered that, it was too late. Doctors should have been monitoring your mom's lung too. It amazes me how they can so easily shrug things like that off.

Damn that is depressing.
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The ED is a very fast paced environment where you could be dealing with anything from a 7 year old with a dog bite to a 20 year old Type 1 diabetic with diabetic ketoacidosis or an 80 year old transferred to your facility from a community hospital with acute ischemic stroke. There's also a lot of discussion with the other floors of the hospital if you plan to admit patients to a particular service and communication with family in the waiting room after you just lost a patient.

I've worked with ER docs and they deal with a lot of ****.
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bump
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Went to the ER twice for my father who had a stroke, and then for low heart rate, they were perfectly fine to us.
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I do security in the ED, most Nurses and Doctors aren't intentionally dicks there, but they're under a lot of stress. whether its from being overwhelmed with in patients with the common cold, or having to perform immediate operation on the incoming trauma bus. Nearly half of the patients who come in past 10pm are drunk or on drugs. A good majority of them are homeless and just want to admit themselves so they have a roof over their head for the night.

Its a very fast paced environment, and not an easy one. Sometimes there's just simply to many incoming patients (with all different medical emergencies) for the amount of medical staff to worry about each and everyone of your little complaints, like getting a blanket or some non emergency.

I'm guessing just the stress of their job gets to them. I mean I've never had a rude ER doctor, and I've been to the ER a LOT. People calling the ambulance when I had a seizure while walking down the street...I don't really blame them since grand mals look freaky as fuck, but I would've expected the medical personnel to realize that I wasn't in any real danger from a simple seizure :<
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Only time I went to ER everyone was super nice to me.
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Idk man but my friend was an ER nurse and she said its because you're dealing with some really sick and hurt people like car accidents, heart attacks, strokes, and stuff and then you get yelled at by some people who are there to score meds or small things like a stomach ache from constipation as if they are the most important person in the world.

Its really stressful for them but she left for pediatrics or something
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RebelElite791 posted...

Granted Ive only been to the ER once for pink eye but I cant say ive had that experience

Anecdotes from reddit yada yada

You got lucky. From my experiences as an intern they treat people horribly if you come in with something that isn't serious. They feel you should have gone to urgent care and not the ER.
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Er doc I had when I broke my arm was fantastic. Even while dealing with a problem patient at the same time. She was crying he wouldn't help her while also yelling at him to stay away when he would try.

My understanding she broke something as well, so get needed to reset the bone. Which hurts.
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i've worked in an ER, its chaotic hell. there are the bad cases, like people literally bleeding out in the lobby, but the vast majority of cases are assholes looking for cheap pregnancy tests or a note to skip work. everyone in the ER is constantly under pressure to move to the next patient; and lots of hospitals are instituting bullshit time limits to attempt to speed up the process when in reality it just increases the stress.
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@XXHornDogXX posted...

I do security in the ED, most Nurses and Doctors aren't intentionally dicks there, but they're under a lot of stress. whether its from being overwhelmed with in patients with the common cold, or having to perform immediate operation on the incoming trauma bus. Nearly half of the patients who come in past 10pm are drunk or on drugs. A good majority of them are homeless and just want to admit themselves so they have a roof over their head for the night.

Its a very fast paced environment, and not an easy one. Sometimes there's just simply to many incoming patients (with all different medical emergencies) for the amount of medical staff to worry about each and everyone of your little complaints, like getting a blanket or some non emergency.

@monkmith posted...

i've worked in an ER, its chaotic hell. there are the bad cases, like people literally bleeding out in the lobby, but the vast majority of cases are assholes looking for cheap pregnancy tests or a note to skip work. everyone in the ER is constantly under pressure to move to the next patient; and lots of hospitals are instituting bullshit time limits to attempt to speed up the process when in reality it just increases the stress.

Do you think EMTALA is a net positive?
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My mother in law is an ER RN in Atlanta. She works the night shift, and has to deal with countless amounts of junkies and addicts who show up just to try to get drugs, and often get violent about it when refused just so they can get arrested for a meal and a warm bed to sleep in for the night.

To deal with that day in and day out, on top of other real emergencies that come through the door, I couldn't handle that myself.
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Manocheese posted...

@XXHornDogXX posted...

I do security in the ED, most Nurses and Doctors aren't intentionally dicks there, but they're under a lot of stress. whether its from being overwhelmed with in patients with the common cold, or having to perform immediate operation on the incoming trauma bus. Nearly half of the patients who come in past 10pm are drunk or on drugs. A good majority of them are homeless and just want to admit themselves so they have a roof over their head for the night.

Its a very fast paced environment, and not an easy one. Sometimes there's just simply to many incoming patients (with all different medical emergencies) for the amount of medical staff to worry about each and everyone of your little complaints, like getting a blanket or some non emergency.

@monkmith posted...

i've worked in an ER, its chaotic hell. there are the bad cases, like people literally bleeding out in the lobby, but the vast majority of cases are assholes looking for cheap pregnancy tests or a note to skip work. everyone in the ER is constantly under pressure to move to the next patient; and lots of hospitals are instituting bullshit time limits to attempt to speed up the process when in reality it just increases the stress.

Do you think EMTALA is a net positive?

i think that no law is perfect, and that every law has unintended consequences.

the idea with that one is to force hospitals to at least make the attempt to treat the uninsured, instead of juggling them between hospitals while they die (which some hospitals still do...).

but because of it (at least in part) people abuse the hell out of the ER, even when it would be much cheaper and easier to either go to a fucking drug store or just go to a doc-in-a-box or a general practice doctor.
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MabusIncarnate posted...

My mother in law is an ER RN in Atlanta. She works the night shift, and has to deal with countless amounts of junkies and addicts who show up just to try to get drugs, and often get violent about it when refused just so they can get arrested for a meal and a warm bed to sleep in for the night.

To deal with that day in and day out, on top of other real emergencies that come through the door, I couldn't handle that myself.

I work overnights in the ED too so its pretty much this or extreme trauma cases like gunshots or car crashes. Due to the law, the hospital has to "treat" everyone who walks through the door no matter what, and lots of homeless, drug addicts, and EDP's abuse this. Some of these people have been to the ED for every night for years, and each and every day is a story with them. I could go on with stories, but this is the real struggle in the ED.

It's like the cops, the job is stressful.
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Sexypwnstar posted...

Went to the ER twice for my father who had a stroke, and then for low heart rate, they were perfectly fine to us.

it's the truth, though the most recent time i went to the ER was because of Strep Throat in high school.
given some medication to take over 8 days after they took a swab of the tonsil to confirm the problem.

cleared right up (even felt better after day 2).
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yep i'm sure all of those stories are true
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