Comments on: ER: A Day in the Life

By: ERP

ERP — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:44:44 +0000

It doesn’t matter how many hours you work - when you work an overnight (or at least when I work an overnight) and hour or two of sleep makes all the difference in being at a high level of funciton. I accept my overnights but that does not mean I have to like them. I am sure Mike that you bellyache about some aspects of your job.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 06:38:43 +0000

If you only work 30 some hours a week, as you said in one of your other posts, why do you need to sleep while you are there? Quit bellyaching, you chose this profession, deal with it, or find something else to do.

By: Kimmy

Kimmy — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 23:21:14 +0000

“Either cursing at EMS and being restrained by the police, or lying there with a respiratory rate of 5…”

Haha!! I think none of my own ER stories are as entertaining as the ones involving the ETOHers. I had one woman with a blood alcohol limit of 5 times Texas’ legal limit swear to me (once she extubated herself and finally sobered up somewhat) that she only had “one glass of wine” and that somebody “injected her with alcohol.” The real kicker was when she told me to please ignore the cases of wine she had in the backseat of her car — the one she was driving when she was found wrapped around a tree yet, amazingly, without a scratch on her body. (She had been intubated because of her violent behavior.)

By: Anissa

Anissa — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 21:57:37 +0000

Utter Nonsense? How appallling for you to describe your job as if it is a drive thru! You should be ashamed of yourself and should be banned from the health care industry - is a matter of fact I will find out who you are - where your from- and submitt this blog to the appropriate people who issue your liscense in the first place - these are “people” who look to you for care - not sarcasm disconcern for your what you do - godforbid you ever need er care - Your pathethic in the lowest form - get another job! Oh yeah if you can handle it!

By: ernurse

ernurse — Fri, 16 May 2008 20:57:27 +0000

How true! This totally mirrors my night experience in the ED. And like IVF-MD said, utter nonsense time IS the best time. Especially when you have the “excruciating” abdominal pain eating Big Mac with soda in the waiting room.

By: Nurse K

Nurse K — Fri, 16 May 2008 03:00:32 +0000

Utter nonsense time is the best time of the night! Last night’s notable chief complaint at 5:15 am was a young man with “poison ivy” with no identifiable rash and 10/10 pain from the “rash” that wasn’t there. What the Hell? Later, it was a chick who had pleurisy and wanted “droperidol” for it to “relax the lung muscles”. Also, I wrote in “stomach twitching” the same night. Not the stomach muscles, no, the stomach itself was twitching. Or something.

By: IVF-MD

IVF-MD — Wed, 14 May 2008 17:12:11 +0000

I love your site. Back in medical school Emergency Med was my original specialty choice and my 4th year electives include 4 weeks of ER at my med school, 4 weeks of ER at another med school, 4 week of PEDS ER and 4 weeks of Emergency Psych. That’s before I made the change to OB and later to REI. I still miss the excitement of the ER at times. My typical day seems so tame by comparison. I thank you for the chance to live vicariously through your wonderful blog!