You've Arrived; The ER has opened it's double coded doors to you and you are here; Whether by choice or circumstance is really no longer important because you have arrived. (Remember I would not say welcome) - Your experience is going to follow an order not of your choosing. This order does not normally change in dynamic. The ONLY thing that can change your impending circumstance is who you are going to be blessed with as your ER Doctor, Nurse or Tech. In a perfect world, one might be able to cancel out the actions of the other but we all know, that's not reality. And this is where perception divides; Your perception and the perception of the ER staff. Guess whose perception is most important? YOURS.
You are triaged; This used to mean; We are going to talk with you and try to figure out a little bit about what is happening to you before we take you back into a room in the ER. It used to mean we would take your vitals,(blood pressure, pulse, temperature & oxygen saturation) listen to your story and either put you in a waiting room because your symptoms were less acute than perhaps someone else and we had limited bed space or take you directly to the back. We would have taken our time, made you feel at ease (again this is all dependent upon the RN you happen to be blessed or cursed with) - we all know what that means. If not let me make it a little more vivid. You could have the RN who made eye contact. An RN who took the time to touch your hand and tell you "it's going to be okay", one who smiled at you with what I call the "comfort not condescending" smile. Or you could be cursed with the Trige RN that makes it apparent before you even open your mouth, that "they" are very "busy", that "you" are impeding on "their" time (remember we nurses do get paid, so it's never really our time to begin with) they are as cold as a steel stretcher and have obviously forgotten why they wanted to be a nurse in the first place. The differences between these two types of nurses will be obvious within seconds of your arrival.
Triage is a place that starts the ER experience for every single patient whether you walk in through the front doors or you enter on a backboard with an EMS unit. All ER experiences begin with triage. HOW you are treated during the triage process begins YOUR perception of your ER reality and it's impact is BIG. Really big.
As you are brought into the big ER house you will notice immediately a bunch of people running in what will appear to be unorganized circles. Believe it or not, we know exactly where we're going and why we're going there but we are all moving at different paces, treating different diagnosis's, people and circumstances. You may see a couple of nurses sitting, and you think "they couldn't be too busy, could THEY?" but remember patient.........we are in the age of computers and all of our charting is now done on a computer. Our ability to stand before you and with you with a clip board as we paper charted, which allowed us to be present "with you", has been removed and replaced with computers. Sitting does not equate to "not busy." Remember, perception. Your reality. Our reality.
An " unknown person" walks into your room, and says something along the lines "here's a gown, please get undressed from the waist up." Dear patient, you have a right to ask why. "Unknown person" places a band on your arm; Dear patient, you have a right to ask what the band is for and to check to make sure it's YOUR name on the band". "Unknown person's" are human beings, errors are made, help us not make one with you. You are then tucked or not tucked into a cold hard stretcher and the curtain is pulled by the "Unknown person" who still remains nameless because they have not introduced themselves. Dear patient, any staff that has contact with you, not only should but are required to tell you who they are so that you know the role they will play in your life. Yes, Dear patient; the ROLE they will play in YOUR LIFE, Pretty powerful stuff. And then your Casper "Unknown person" (Do they even really WORK there?) Disappears. How's the experience working for you so far?
Tomorrow; Was your perception reality? Is your reality what you deserved? Perception ALWAYS has reality's back.
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