Wonder what your patients are thinking in the ER while you’re busy doing your rounds?
Funnyman Brian Regan visits the ER and comes away with strategies on dealing with the ‘moaning mystery patient,’ what he thinks about the pain scale, and of course, the one thing about the ER that must be the “biggest oversight in the solar system.”
Enjoy, nurses! And thank you for all you do!
Emergency Room Part I
Video Credit: Ledsalad
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Hummm, don’t really see this as funny. Too many nights in ER, maybe?
Kind of agree Nora, The number of pts that think saying 10 gets them more faster is too numerous to count. Especially when they are sitting there eating their chips and drinking a soda!!!
I love it when a patient has a room full of company just chatting away, and the nurse asks if they are in pain, “yes”. The pain level? “10″. Amazing. If I was a level 10 I think I would be huddled in the bed and may snap at anyone who speaks to me!
People that rate their pain a 10 while conversing and chatting and laughing with friends and family drive me nuts. They don’t have clue! A 10 is just having had your knee replaced with NO femoral block and your leg is in a CPM not adjusted correctly for short people – now that’s a 10!!
The pain scale is the biggest waste of time. The family helping with hair and make-up, really?? got a hot date right after this? I would save a 9-10 for body parts torn off or chemical burns such as lye.
when I hit the ER and asked 1 to 10, I don’t know what to say; since I have worked oncology and hospice and seen a lot of pain. My never seems to compare to my previous patients.
RN
Registered Nurse
Nora, agreed.
Student
Nursing Student (you can change this when you graduate!)
I know that it’s hard to listen when patients seem to abuse the high numbers, but in nursing school they do teach you that pain is a personal experience. Only the patient has the authority to rate his or her pain. Maybe different people react to their pain differently, but because of cultural differences and different pain thresholds, the nurse has no right to say that a patient’s pain is not what he or she says it is.
Also, I was a patient, and was told that 10 was having my head go through a meat grinder. I don’t know where that visual came from, but think about how you phrase the pain scale. I say, “On a scale of 0 to 10, 0 being no pain, and ten being the worst pain you’ve ever had, where would you rate your pain?”
Think about the line. “The worst pain you ever experienced” Maybe some people have not experienced as severe pain. Maybe a patient is in the worst pain HE ever had, but is able to talk or other things. Pain is measured according to the patient’s report, not on the basis of the nurse’s observations.
Also, some cultures value different pain behaviors. Maybe a patient is doing what is socially expected in his or her culture, but is in actuality in severe pain. Maybe even 10 out of 10.
RN
Registered Nurse
Seriously weak. Old cliches and only funny to someone who doesn’t work in healthcare…maybe
LPN
Licensed Practical Nurse
You guys need to lighten up. Personally I think this pain scale is a bunch of BS. I have been a nurse for almost 33 years. It always used to be easy to tell how much pain a pt was in just by observing and talking with them. They are clueless as to how we explain pain scalle to them.
On another note, I have never had much tolerance for pain at all and my husband has a very high pain tolerance. What he explains as a 4/10 is probably is 8/10 to me. We just need to stop judging people as we do just because we are in healthcare and work in ERs.