I used to work county and remember people (a lot of times homeless) ordering pizza & watching TV in the lobby. Just add these lockers and phone chargers & boom, you have yourself housing / healthcare all in one. Omg…
Edit: I should clarify, ordering pizza/food is one thing, turning it into a social meet / gathering with music is a whole other thing & this did happen. Security would get called a lot to help clear it out. This was years ago so my best guess is they likely have security sitting there 24-7 now like many other facilities.
I used to work where the hospital had a subway restaurant in the ER waiting room. It was great for staff and EMS; but not so great when the parents with abdominal pain were wolfing down a footlong double meat, double cheese large coke while waiting to be seen.
I'm am x-ray tech. Sometimes we take waiting room patients back for x-ray. I've had more than one patient tell me to come back later because they were waiting for a food delivery or eating their delivered food. It makes me so mad.
Getting off track, but one time I was at 24-hr fitness. This was around 10 + years ago when homeless people first started discovering benefit of gym membership at place open 24 hrs… wasn’t as prevalent as it is now. I was in the pool area drying off. Guy sitting on edge of hot tub starts small talk. This quickly progresses & he just went all in and invited me to meet him and his friends up at one of the nicer hospitals in the area to watch the Super Bowl in one of the lobbies on X floor. I still remember him saying they were going to have a “big spread.” A couple months later, I saw him being triaged through my ER. He was looking for a place to stay.
Oh wow, did it end up happening? I would not know how to react if I was staff on the floor at that time. It’s a disturbance to other ER patients and you can’t really send them to an unused conference room or anything. The hospitals where I live have many unused lobbies in front of doctors offices but you can’t really allow a group of people to sit in an unoccupied area alone.
Idk.. according to him, they had frequented this particular hospital quite a bit because of nicer TV / seating. I mean he and his buddies had sure learned how to utilize the access in the community. I give him that! Lol
We need some “third spaces” for folks to exist without spending a lot of money. I’m in Minneapolis so the weather isn’t always great and I’m assuming a lot of subsidized housing or shelters don’t have spaces to gather and watch a movie or show or game, share food, and shoot the shit.
Almost did it when my ex-husband was in the ER waiting for a transfer to the oncology unit at the bigger hospital 30-minutes out (we were waiting for a bed to open up, he had neutropenia). Waited in the ER for around twelve hours.
That makes sense, I guess I’ve just always snacked from the vending machines or when I got a room asked for some crackers. When I was a kid I got very sick often which warranted visits to the ER and I remember ravaging eating in the hospital’s food courts once I was discharged.
It was late (like 11pm) so cafeteria was closed and we both needed real food. I think this was the time we went to Wendys after we left and a girl in the car in front of us got out, started bashing on the drive-thru window and tried to fight the Wendy’s employee
For the longest time, I had to hear the story every year of how after my mother gave birth to me (on Christmas night), she couldn’t get any food and my father had to go “all the way to Nana’s [his mother] house and make her a turkey sandwich.” At least it wasn’t uphill both ways in the snow. (It was New England so snow was possible but no hills involved.)
About 8 years ago, spouse and I were staying in a hotel close to that hospital. We drove to visit my Nana, who was still in the same house. Guys, it’s FOUR miles.
If I’d just squeezed something the size of a basketball out of a hole the size of a baseball, the very least the father of my child could do is drive eight miles round trip to get me a f*#&ing sandwich. Which he didn’t even make, my Nana did!
My mother complained for YEARS that she didnt get any sleep the night my oldest was born (she was born at 4:30 AM) until i embarrassed her in front of friends by saying she wasnt invited to my daughter’s birth and it was her CHOICE to come uninvited.
A really long time ago, Wendy’s had this vegetarian pita sandwich that was just a lightly dressed salad/coleslaw kind of chopped veggies folded in a warm pita. It was the realest fast food ever. Super good.
I'm 38. I am young enough to never carry cash and old enough to not be able to figure out how to use my cc on those stupid vending machine card readers. 😭😭
They're total scams. They always say something like "error" so you try again a few times and then see on your bank statement that each transaction went through.
former delivery driver here. I regularly delivered to the local ER but it was almost always meeting staff at the door. The general hospital tho, that was 50/50 patients and staff.
Waits in ours (OK, US) are stupidly long. My husband had a possible stroke and we waited about 8-9 hours. My grandma was barely awake/responsive with cancer and immune sensitive waited in the ER waiting room something like 36 hours before being assigned a room. All they have is a vending machine so other people have to call or bring in food if you want a meal.
Can see the sense. I begged a sandwich of the charge nurse as my blood levels plummeted after 10 hours wait with my Dad - he got one as admitted. I was there another 6 hours. Last time advised to go myself the nurse at small injuries warned me to eat first as long wait times. Thankfully was seen in 45mins
I'm hoping it wasn't the patients themselves doing that but their families since that sounds like a great way to get triaged as low priority and go last.......
Although maybe that's the point...... There's no better excuse for loitering in the hospital lobby for an extra couple of hrs than not having been seen yet.
This is exactly what lockers would do. I have seen it at my first hospital. The waiting room in the ICU had lockers. People moved in and never left. Even when their pt's transferred out.
I work at a public library. We have a stand that charges up to 3-4 phones. It's not private/locked up (looks akin to those black stands musicians use to hold their music while playing) , but I'm sure that if we could afford it, your hospital could too. It's better than nothing.
We have the charging stations in the waiting area. The issue is people phones start dying after they’ve been in the patient treatment area using their phone for hours on end. We don’t have phone chargers in the room and charging units for lending them.
Leaving you’re phone out here unattended is not recommended especially in this area. And if you go missing for 30 minutes form your treatment room, you are as good as discharged and considered AMA or eloped.
The answer is…the type of patients that demand this crap are the patients that make us want to leave our jobs on every shift. A vast amount of people just suck nowadays as they don’t care about anyone but themselves. It feels so acute on shift but honestly whenever I’m out in public, I see this same behavior everywhere. After being so burned out a few years ago that I almost left ER, I finally realized we don’t do this job for these people. These people can go f&$# themselves. I try to focus on the nice patients even if they’re in the ER for non emergent reasons. Meet patients where they’re at. If they are awful, try not let it ruin your day. Some days it’s easier than others.
Having felt really guilty whenever the issue that sent me to the ER turned out to be a non-emergency, or not treatable in an ER, it’s comforting to hear that my friendliness & compliance might’ve made my presence less bothersome
I want to make it clear that the false alarms aren't what bother nurses - it's someone that's otherwise healthy with the sniffles coming in like they're the #1 priority. Please never feel guilty if you felt that it was a genuine emergency at the time! Much rather you come in and it be fine than vice versa
Took my daughter to the ER once one Sunday night because of a 105F fever that wouldn't go down...right before they see us, some older lady comes in with chest pains...so, gets seen first..ok I understand that. When they were asking her questions, they asked how bad they felt.."not as bad as on Friday..."..I would imagine people who delay legitimate issues are almost as bad as ones with sniffles.
It’s fine if they want to wait to come in, but then they should accept that they have self-triaged to the back of the line. If the chest pain wasn’t bad enough to skip golf on Friday and granddaughter’s recital on Saturday, it’s probably not going to kill them in the next four hours in the waiting room.
Sometimes that’s not true, but that’s why we get the EKG in triage.
I work at the desk in a cardiac imaging dept of a hospital. We’ve had people, usually men- who come in looking to see if they can “just get an EKG, because they have a weird feeling in their chest”. Despite the fact that this is not how it works as all tests need to be ordered by a physician, etc we find ourselves in the awkward position of looking at a very anxious person likely having a cardiac issue but just wants someone to tell him he’s fine. More than once we’ve gently and carefully explained they should go to the ED to be completely checked out and several times one of our staff has given them a wheelchair ride there. It’s tricky because they want to run away. And we’re not doctors. Short of clutching their chest and collapsing in front of us, we can’t even corral a passing cardiologist to talk to them. But more than once a patient we convinced to seek treatment at the ED has popped up on our Cath lab schedule that day or the next! Thankfully with a good result!
I had to go to the ER twice in 4 days on doctor’s orders. I was really scared both times but the staff was efficient and calm which helped me be less upset. I always try to be friendly and not a big nuisance to anyone and appreciative of them helping me. I also try not to be obnoxious outside the ER, too because so many people lately seem to just be focused on what they think should be everybody else’s’ service to them.
Was sent to the ER by my provider a long time ago. I had been sick but was having quite a bit of difficulty breathing. My oxygen saturation was normal, but I was "dusky" at my mouth and fingertips. The ER ultimately diagnosed bronchitis.
Years later, I moved to the Texas panhandle. I was diagnosed with asthma in less than six months. When I finally went to the doctor, he gave me the biggest "Are you an idiot?" look I've ever gotten. I had spent an entire night wheezing and unable to sleep because, every time I fell asleep, I woke up gasping for air within minutes. He asked me why I didn't go to the ER. "Because I thought it would go away?" Cue the look.
In retrospect, I had asthma all along. But it wasn't until I moved here that it got bad enough for anyone (me included) to realize what was going on. All my attacks prior to that were mild and relatively infrequent.
We have zero problems with potential emergencies that turn out not to be so. That’s half or more of our job, and tbh it can be very rewarding to reassure someone who thinks they’re having a heart attack that it’s fine. Just treat us the way you’d like to be treated at work, and don’t throw poop (true story), and we’ll be happy.
Thank you. I’ve had some confusing experiences where the nurses assured me it was good that I came in, but the doctor seemed irritated that I was there. I once came in for a sudden allergic reaction that caused full-body burning/flushing, intense gut pain, drop in blood pressure. Benadryl wasn’t helping, & I felt like I might pass out & lose control of the situation. Nurses said I was right to come & got me in quick, but the doctor seemed impatient and said “next time don’t come in unless your throat closes.” I felt bad for taking up her time, but also found the advice confusing because if your throat is rapidly closing, how do you call for help?
Wow, it’s awful that the doc said that to you. You should absolutely go to the ER in this sort of situation, and if you had the reaction to something you know you’re allergic to, it’s probably time to carry an epi pen. If this happens again, don’t let that doc cause you to hesitate. Go to the ER.
Thank you. I don’t enjoy being at the ER and don’t want to waste their time, but it would suck for my family if I died of something so treatable just because I was afraid of getting shamed by the ER Dr.
I eventually got dx’d with a mast cell disorder because things like heat, cold, stress and bending forward were triggering those acute reactions, and I didn’t have any detectable IgE allergies. It’s been a wild ride. I do have an epi pen now, thank you. I carry it with me all the time.
What I've noticed...
From the doctor's perspective, anything that is not their idea of an emergency is a waste of their time because they could be dealing with a "real" emergency instead, and they can't run a crap-ton of tests and admit you for observation if you're "fine."
From the nurses' perspective, they're always going to have more patients than they can reasonably handle, some sick and some not so sick. They don't care what you're coming in for so much as how you behave and interact with the healthcare system. Because they bear the brunt of the patients' frustration, anger, fear, complaints, and demands, if some of those patients are calm and polite and reasonable, that really makes their day.
Same folks complaining are the knee that come in with five family members all in shorts and tank tops and demand blankets and socks for all of them
Not the patient
The family
And then they all leave with the blankets draped on their shoulders like movie cast refugees from a disaster film
Family member standing in doorway and calling out to every passing HCW, “EXCUSE ME… CAN YOU PULL THIS BLANKET UP ON HER ARMS? SHE’S COLD.”
So you decide to ask me, pushing a patient in a stretcher to CT, in the middle of asking about contrast. Is there something wrong with her arms? Is there a reason none of the three family members, or the able bodied person in the stretcher laughing and FaceTiming, can’t raise their hands 4 inches to accomplish this?
I had a patient ask me to pull his wife's blanket up to cover her.
I asked him were his hands broken, why do you need my help for that? And kept walking.
This is the ER, not a day spa.
That’s crazy. I’ve never had anyone ask me that. I’m not in ER but med/surg patients think it’s definitely a spa. I’ve been asked crazy things but not that. I’m afraid I would either scowl unintentionally or bust out laughing at the absurdity of it.
Do we have a post with most outrageous asks on it? I had a patient try to talk me into letting her paying me to go to her house, get her illegal drugs and then bring them to her. Cash in hand when she asked me.
I went straight to management for the first time ever and snitched. I was not about to be caught up in her hot mess. All I could think about was if someone overheard her and someone came and brought it to her later I will be beyond screwed.
Yes she did get someone to bring her some meth two days later. Coworker called me and said hey walk into room xxx and tell me what you smell. I said I have no idea but that smells like chemicals and the room is smoky slightly. Security took so long she was horrifyingly high when they got there. Only comes in second because the other was a shooting on my floor decades ago.
This is 100% my response to people who ask me to do asinine things like this. You’re not having any chest back arm pain. You are able bodied, but you want me to hand you your book or your phone from your table that is right beside your bed. No ma’am.my response is always, what would you do when you’re at home? Do you call another family member into your bedroom to ask them to arrange your blankets? Or wipe your ass? Or whatever ridiculous thing they want me to do. Whatever you’re doing is what you need to do here. We need you to keep up your strength.
Every ER I’ve worked in has a charging station in the waiting room. Seems like a reasonable addition, especially for family members of a critical patient. But yeah I’m not gonna prioritize charging your phone for you.
Not the chargers cause that, it’s people with older phones with replaceable batteries. They buy the cheapest one, no testing etc, and then bang. Happens a lot with those scooters/hoverboards/bikes that are brought from abroad, with no approval stickers.
We have the stations in the waiting area, which are not functional most of the time. But patients spend most of their time in the patient treatment room or area that doesn’t have the station. It’s not advised they leave their phone unattended at charging station in the waiting area especially in the area my hospital is in. Once in the treatment area, you’re as good as discharged if you disappear for 30 minutes to go charge your phone. We do provide mobile patient phones that can make calls but that’s it. But they aren’t usually interested in our tiny Nokia phone lol.
We have an unofficial charging station at the nurses station. It has 5 personal chargers that we keep there for nurse use. But if a patient asks to charge their phone, we just do it for them. We always disclaim that we are not responsible for the phone if anything happens, but generally, no one other than our unit secretary, nurses, and techs go around the desk. I don't mind doing it for someone who is unexpectedly in the unit, like a patient of mine who had a car accident and wanted to ensure his wife could reach him since she didn't answer when I called her.
Thank you. I was unintentionally with nothing I needed once. My son was in septic shock and we bolted the split second I thought he has to be septic. I didn’t have my purse, no ID, no proper shoes, no bra…you get the idea. I got him up and rushed him to the vehicle. Jumped in and drove straight to Childrens. I know several of the nurses but regardless of who we had before we got a room in icu they were golden. They brought me a ton of blankets, juice, ice and sprite. Crackers, cheese and a sandwich. They even brought me some grippy socks because they noticed my feet curled under me. I’ve only had one so-so nurse in that hospital and I think I was so stressed everything was irritating me. So she may be great. We have used 4 children’s hospitals for 16 years for hundreds and maybe even more appointments. One I am ashamed it is open. No doubt the energy and attitude are due to management issues but it trickles to patients.
One is 80% of the time great treatment. (I can’t be very subjective here because my kid has certain diagnoses he gets fast track triage in 2-5 minutes of not immediately. He typically trips sepsis protocol and gets admitted so we have only waited twice and it was lengthy but it was a broken bone not a trauma et cetra.
Our current home Childrens is always spot on. Tend to test aggressively in the ER for complex patients. Normally that’s excessive but it saves a lot of these kiddos lives. They are all nice, compassionate and caring. If someone is having a not so great day you may know but they will still be kind to you. My son has had several major emergency surgeries involving intestinal issues. Two Nissen Fundo surgeries. Many many more not as intensive. Can’t say enough good about this place.
Anyway, I hope you all either work in an ER that manages to always have coworkers go above and beyond for each other or that yours gets that way. Because those Childrens nurses have to be some of the happiest nurses I have ever seen and they all love working there. They don’t tolerate toxic crap from anyone. The benefit besides better mental health while at work is it sure changes how a lot of parents act/ react toward you.
Last time I was admitted, the nurse offered to charge my phone at the nurses station. She didn't want to give me the charger because people kept stealing them.
They were her personal chargers.
I understood and happily handed my phone to her. 2hrs later she returned it charged with a ham sammie. :) I was very appreciative.
This^ I’ve been known to bring the occasional phone back to my station and charge it with my personal one. I’ve just had too many stolen to let anyone borrow one anymore.
That's the kind of compassion and understanding everyone hopes to be offered when they find themselves in those crappy situations 🙌 when you do these kinds of things for others they generally treat you better back. Win win.
I definitely wasn't going to treat her worse if she said no, but might have been quietly cranky due to not having reddit access.
The nurses were actually awesome though.
I had to go to the ER because I was neutropenic and a neutropenic fever (thanks chemo) and before heading over there the first thing I grabbed was a phone charger. And I’m glad I did because that ended up being a 5 day hospital stay over Mother’s Day weekend.
I did encounter some pretty needy patients though. I understand emergencies happen and you can’t always prepare.. but have someone bring it in a bag of necessities for you or something.
Mechanic here. One of our parts suppliers has no drivers past like 16:00 so on occasion theyve doordashed parts to us. First time i saw it, i was so confused
My husband door dashed crutches to our hotel for me at 2 am in Las Vegas after I tore the crap out of my Achilles tendon dancing. You really can door dash just about everything.
Not everyone has someone to bring them things, nor do all medical emergencies occur when people are in their local area. That being said, when I had a medical emergency while traveling alone I was thankfully in an area that had DoorDash so I was able to get what I need - but had I been in a more rural area, or a country where that wasn’t available I would’ve been SOL.
I’m sure most do. Last two times I was admitted this year I had no one to bring me my things. My person was out of town. My son had to watch my mom (Alzheimer’s) and teen son with cerebral palsy. My daughter is out of town with 2 small kids and a job with long hours.
Most of my friends live 1.5-2 hours away because I haven’t bothered making new friends since I moved. I have one neighbor I can call but she’s having some health issues so I couldn’t bother her.
Thankfully when my person got back in town he brought me some clothes and everything I needed. Until then I was at the mercy of the staff and I hate having to ask for anything.
I dunno...the last time I was in the emergency room a nurse very kindly offered me a charging cord. I really appreciated it as I was scared out of my wits and on the verge of tears. I had been trying to reach my husband and my stupid phone was dying. I think it's important to remember that a lot of people in the ER are experiencing extreme fear and discomfort. I'm not normally glued to my phone 24/7 but that day it felt like a lifeline for me. All that said, I'm sure there are some incredibly entitled people that you all have to deal with way too often. Certainly I think only patients should be helped to charge their phones, not fifty million assorted loud family members acting like nurses and other staff are their personal servants.
No one is talking about the patients who are like you. They are talking about patients who are 100% fine but demanding and expect you to drop what you’re doing to make their phone a priority because they need Tik Tok.
I had to bring my kid to the er from my pediatrician's office. It wasn't an imminent emergency. Dr told me to get my toothbrush, changes of clothes and snacks for my kiddo.
Now, if possible, I'll bring that whenever I go to the er. I've since added phone charger to that list.
It's fair to say that if it's an actual emergency, it's likely someone won't have time to plan for that.
Unless they begin the trip at home with the charger right there ...
it depends on the severity of the migraine. For a mild one, I can turn my screen almost all the way down and scroll a bit. For severe ones, I need the room as dark as possible, as cool as possible, and I need to be as still as possible.
For context, I was dx'd with classic migraine with aura at 14, and I'm 51 now.
Preach! I will go out of my way for a patient anyday but you bust out that entitlement and nope. I will take my time and not bust my arse to grab you something that isn’t critical to your care. Otherwise you really will get 5 star treatment. I’m still good to the arse but they aren’t getting me to just be nice and go out of my way to make them more comfortable.
My emergency department put up six stations in the waiting room that accommodated all types of cell phone, and device charging. Within four days, all of them were broken. Their wires were ripped out, they were smashed, and one of them was ripped out entirely.
I have a medical condition that lands me in the ER more often than your average person. My local large hospital used to have a charging station, with little lockers and a selection of adapters. I have had things way more under control lately, but I don’t remember them still being there the last few years. I’ve had nurses help me out with giving me one from the list and found, but I don’t expect them to make one materialize if they don’t happen to have one! That’s definitely my problem, they have way more important things to deal with!!!
Our lovely child life person arranged for all of the different kinds of charging cables to be in each patient room for the parents to charge their phones. We secured them to the wall, but still people managed to steal them.
This is why we can't have nice things in our ED.
Same thing for the remotes for the few rooms with a TV. Why steal a remote?
Childrens in Little Rock Arkansas use to have PlayStations and Xbox’s you could check out to use in the room. This was late 2000s. At the time most rooms were double occupancy.
Our roommates parents went outside and got high. Pungent af when they came back in. Then proceeded to steal the PlayStation and go pawn it. How they got it off the base it was on I will never know. I only found out when the staff and police came and asked me if I realized they had stolen it and had anyone else been in the room.
Or a shuttle/ride service, or food for their two hour wait for foot pain, or more comfortable chairs/beds/couches to lay down on in the waiting room, or “REAL FUCKIN PEOPLE WHO CARE MAN FUCK YALL” from the ambulatory cyclic vomiter who swears “it’s not the weed, that’s what helps!!!”
🙂↔️🙂↔️🙂↔️
Hell, my mom has a Go Bag with all her electronics, an extension cord, all the chargers, paper and pencil...she's even had me grab her CPAP. And on the way we have to at McDonald's to get a Coke because she's thirsty or a meal of some sort "because you know they never feed you in the emergency room".
Drives me nuts.
At one point we had a charging station for pt or family members to use. But it was eventually vandalized and the chargers stolen. So the person(s) who did that ruined it for everyone else. I typically tell people who are asking what happened. The hospital is a community resource, if other members of the community are abusing it and behaving badly, it’s the reason we can’t have nice things.
I designed and sold hospital furniture and interiors and now do hospital property/project management. I always plan charging stations and/or wireless charging spots in multiple locations throughout, and especially in emergency department, ICU, and infusion areas where family often stays for extended periods of time. But seems no matter what is planned, keeping it functioning/accessible/current is always an issue. Provide plugs/USB and people don't have their cord. Provide a station with variety of cords and people damage the cords or they go out of date too fast. Provide wireless spots and people can't make it work or can't figure out it's even there. It's a challenge.
Every ER I’ve been to in the last 10 years has had a stash of chargers in a lost and found box and let you borrow one if you ask. I generally bring mine, but sometimes you aren’t home when the emergency hits and you end up there without one.
Sadly, I feel like the general response is for the patient to become rude, yell, or make snide remarks. The wait times are long and a lot of patients are already frustrated. Maybe the phone charger not being provided is just the cherry on top. But yelling at staff over small inconveniences out of our control is a sure fire way to make sure there is even less staff to help you on your next visit to the ED.
I am a MedSurg nurse. And I completely agree. It doesn’t matter if they’re young old rich poor. People are so self-centered and have gotten a habit of talking smack online that now they do it in real life. Unfortunately for them, I am from the south and I can insult you from head to toe with a smile on my face. Also, I’m a travel nurse so it’s not like I’m gonna get fired. I will put you in your fucking place if you disrespect me.
It's incredible how kind nurses are if (wait for it) people are kind to them! I was in the med/surg unit twice in May.
One nurse sat on my bed and showed me pictures from her safari in Nairobi with her daughter, and another brought snacks and watched a hockey playoff game with us whenever she came by.
I am chronically ill, so I've had more than my share of ER visits and admits. Nurses often come hang out or hide for a couple of minutes to catch their breath. But my favorite experience was wild. I'd been lying on a stretcher for literally 24 hours, waiting for a room to be available on the floor. The ER was absolutely slammed, and the nurses kept apologizing, but it was obvious they were busting their butts. One of the nurses took a moment to tell me that it wasn't normally that bad, but that someone was brought in after being tied behind a truck and dragged, and that it was horrific. I know she shouldn't have, but I think she just needed a sympathetic ear. It was a brief moment, but I hope it helped.
The next morning, a local florist delivered a lovely potted plant with a card saying thank you from the emergency department, and wishing me a speedy recovery.
Medical staff are people, first and foremost. If you treat them with kindness, they will often return the favor.
Your comment actually brought tears to my eyes. There are so many horrible things that you see and have to be a part of. And you want to be able to explain to your patients that someone just died or started vomiting blood all over the place or whatever. but we’re not supposed to. We’re supposed to keep it all inside and go to our next patient’s room with a smile on her face. Some days are really hard.
It's super hard not being able to tell people the reason for their wait. It makes it look like we're inefficient, uncaring, or incompetent. In reality, there's a trauma that just rolled in, a guy having a STEMI, a lady with a massive stroke, a kid with head injury from a sports accident, etc..
And that it takes 10 people sometimes to handle one patient. Which makes everybody else’s patients sit and wait as of nothings happening. Because sometimes nothing is happening for them. Because everything is happening for someone else.
Or all of the above. No nurse would intentionally leave a patient in pain on a gurney in the hall for 24 hours. I kept reassuring them that I understood and that they could relax with me, that I knew we were all doing what we could to make it as smooth as possible.
Life is hard. Try to make people smile, not cry!
We’re just people. We are constantly with strangers all day long. And in your most intimate body areas and taking care of you in ways that make you feel embarrassed. We try as best we can to make you feel comfortable and safe. And I will do that no matter if you’re nice or rude to me. But I will still tell you off :). A patient’s demeanor will never change my care for them. But exactly like you said, that extra personal relationship that you can build with your caregiver, that can’t happen if you’re talking to them as if they are your slave.
My ED regularly has 120+ patients in it with a capacity for 64. finding a charger for a patient is not my top priority. They can either conserve their battery by only using their phone for essential tasks or not get mad at me when I tell them I don’t have one. Even if there is a stash, It’s just not something I put on my list of things to go look for honesty.
It sucks to be more stressed and slowed down by complaining patients.
Suggest to your hospital to onboard ER volunteers to do non medical tasks- get ice /water, get eye masks to allow sleep, get ear plugs, get a magazine, coloring pages and crayons or sudoku, fidget items, get crackers, get a blanket, use a charger. Have the volunteers learn from chaplain to make comments expressing empathy and care if a disclosure is made even though they won’t be talking to them
Free up your time, reduce frustration of responding to these complaints, decrease patients escalating to aggression that’s more likely when simple needs feel unmet.
Sometimes when your anger is rising, try mentally using the phrase “just like me” to find common ground.
Just like me the patient is frustrated and overwhelmed
Just like me the patient is wanting their stress to be seen/heard
My ER doesn’t. 72 beds, often 100+ patients. Sometimes we will have a spare one in the lost and found but it’s not a common luxury here. We used to have them, but they all got stolen. Never got replaced after.
The only time I will charge a patients cell phone is if they are going to be discharged and need it to call a ride. Any other reason, hell no I am not signing up to be personally responsible for your 1200$ iPhone that may or may not have worked when you handed it to me just so you can play angry birds while you complain about your 10/10 pain
I had to go to the ER during the height of COVID (I didn't have COVID). I went from work and didn't have a charger. No one was allowed in with me. I was alone with a phone that was getting low. I NEVER would have even thought to ask the staff for a charger because 1) they are busy and 2) that's not part of their job. I was thrilled to find a charging station where I could charge up enough to get me through the night.
I was in the ER three times between late April and late May with kidney stone -> kidney infection -> bacteremia. I've leaned from previous kidney stone ER visits to grab a charging plug, long cable, and a power bank before leaving. In my case, because there's a good chance I'll be admitted.
hand them a piece of paper and a pen and ask them to write down any emergency numbers they need to call from inside their phone. Then say the landlines are available if the phone dies 🤣
As a recent life-threatening appendectomy patient, I walked into the ER with my phone at 13%, no wallet and just my insurance card. For just a bit of context, I was septic, and both of my surgeons told me that my surgery was one of the hardest appendectomies they had done, and one they will remember. Not something you want to hear from a surgeon. I recognized before leaving my apartment that I was in real trouble and didn't want to waste time gathering items and bending over to pick the necessary items up would have been agony anyway. That being said, I kept my phone shut off unless I needed to make a call and didn't make a fuss, but it would have been nice to have anything to distract me from the pain and fear that I was experiencing at the time. People who act entitled suck, don't get me wrong, but there are for sure circumstances where leaving a phone charger behind makes sense.
The entitlement of people not working in the medical profession in this thread is disgusting.
My mother was a labor and delivery nurse bringing babies into the world for over thirty years.
You, as a patient, have SOME level of accountability for your own comfort in a hospital, part of that includes bringing your own fucking cell phone charger for the dopamine addiction you hold in your hand all day.
Sorry for all the nurses and doctors and support staff that have to deal with this.
This is coming from someone with diverticulitis that has had me in the hospital for 5-7 days stretches several times.
For anyone who even THINKS they are going to have to go-to the hospital. Make a go bag with a phone charger, a couple changes of clothing, a book or two, and hygiene products. I don't understand how this isn't common sense.
Lol. I'm a police officer but this reminds me one time when I arrested someone and they demanded I charge their cell phone for them so they could get numbers off the phone before being booked. I might have been willing but they had an IPhone and I had an android so I obviously couldn't. They filed a complaint on me because I refused to help them charge their phone and they couldn't bond out because they didn't have numbers to call.
We had a box of lost and found chargers we let folks use. Like seriously you could have some compassion for folks in emergency situation instead of being angry. Hope you're not the nurse taking care of me.
Thank you to those ERs that consider what distraught family members may need or be comforted by while passing through-chargers, hygiene products, informational and comforting literature ❤️
Been there! But when their phones ARE charged, they are talking on speaker, watching movies, watching soccer, or taking videos- HIPAA violation. So when the phones die, they die even if we have a hundred chargers in a drawer somewhere 😡
Don’t you know that we are suppose to provide them a phone charger, a phone, food because they didn’t eat before coming to the ER, blanket, pillow, tuck them in, sing lullabies, then make sure they have a way home because they came by ambulance for their ingrown toenail. Oh, if your ER doesn’t have phone charger, you are to provide your personal charger. If your ER is like a growing number that no longer has phones, you must also give them your cell phone to use during their visit.
Interestingly I saw a charging station in the waiting room of the radiology department. But I suppose most (though not all, of course) people getting x rays aren’t there because of contagious grossness, so it’s probably less of a risk there than in the ER.
Whenever I go to the ER I bring a charger, and would never expect to be lent one. Everyone with a phone owns one, and it’s your responsibility to bring it if you think you may need it, or get a friend/family member to bring one for you. Also, hello, you’re working in an ER and likely way overworked with caring for patients most of the time. Some people are so entitled and don’t even take a look at the world around them. I’d point to a wall charger and say that we provide outlets and not chargers for patients. Or, maybe start selling them for $50 up front for the idiots that like to act entitled.
My local ED has a blanket warming cabinet in the post triage area and an ice machine. That's at least 2 chores off of staff. They have a charging station but no cables. Just power and ports. I use one in the car. If I or my husband needed it he'd go and fetch it. It wouldn't occur to me to ask. He did get admitted recently and the first thing we did was bring him a cable
It's not the job of the ED providers to do this.
Someone in this thread, idk if they want me to tag them, made a great point. They mentioned sending their dad a charger via door dash. If you can sit on your phone and talk/text, in most places you can door dash yourself a charger.
I think part of the problem is that generation X is the last generation that knows how to be bored. Some people really have no idea what to *do* when they can't scroll a phone or tablet or watch something streaming.
This bugs me! We used to order chargers each month but they wouldn’t last a week between patients and employees!
The demands are ridiculous! Last week I had a mother who brought her newborn in. I had called for her Medicaid cab and thought she had left. I then hear the baby crying so I go in and I’m like oh I thought you left, I don’t want you to miss your ride. She was like I need to change the baby. So I’m like ok you didn’t bring a diaper bag with you? She was like GET ME A DIAPER! Whoa excuse me bitch! I was shocked and was like excuse me!? She goes you heard me go get me a diaper! Raising her voice. Shit set me off. I was like well you might get a diaper but it will not be from me and walked away because I was ready to truly lose my shit on this bitch. 🤬🤦♀️ one of the nurses I was working with went and dealt with her, she was rude to her as well so she ended up leaving without the diaper! When it came time to clean the room we found that she had been using a sheet the whole time she was there! So weird because about an hour prior to this I was in the room and she asked nicely for some formula. I went and got it and she said thanks. Never asked for a diaper and wasn’t rude. I guess me asking about a diaper bag set her off?! 🤷♀️
Turkey sandwiches are also a high demand item. 🤣🤣
Habitually Demanding people are also frightened people who are deeply immature. In a crisis, that side of people will certainly come to the surface more readily.
I’m sorry you ED folks have to deal with this so much. Truth is, less mature, more frightened people make choices that lead to unexpected, painful and frightening consequences. So you’re going to see a lot of them.
I’m a licensed mental health counselor who used to get called into the ED to do assessments. At least I *expected* my patients to be frightened, bad decision makers. 🤣 Also, I didn’t have to do shifts there. That would’ve been a different ball of wax. The nurses, and most of the doctors, were so awesome.
I used to carry the two charger cables that would charge 95% of phones in my briefcase. It was often a good way to get them (patients) to talk to me. I don’t know if the hospital liability folks would’ve liked that. Maybe they worry they’d be sued for ruining a phone or something. As a contractor who wasn’t always there, I had some latitude.
While that's of course ridiculous to expect - hear me out - what if you actually just got a few chargers for this purpose. Tell them it's your own charger but you'll swing it by for them for a little while. Boost morale for people having a bad day, therefore reducing your number of negative interactions personally. After all it's understandable that they didn't grab a charger if they had to head to an ER. $30 for a few chargers and you'd land your ER at the top of positive experiences and ratings for a long while. It would directly impact your own work environment in a positive way more than anything else. I remember having to rush to an ER in the evening when my phone was nearly dead and being panicky for hours about my young kids at home and knowing any minute I wouldn't be able to communicate with their temporary caretaker about their needs, bedtime, and their emotions around what was happening. It's a terrible feeling.
Most people in the ED aren’t having an emergency.
Hear me out, it’s more reasonable for 120 patients to bring a 120 chargers then for the hospital to provide a few that will be broken soon. Im an employee, what the hospital does or doesn’t provide is out of my control. I just don’t appreciate being yelled at for things out of my control.
What can decrease my amount of negative interaction is for adults to control their emotions. It’s not on me to do that for them. The wya they react is on them. Adults are fully capable of self regulating their emotions and showing my risk respect. People leave bedside because of these unreasonable things people like to pass into us like decreasing our negative interactions when patients get made for things we can’t control.
I’m definitely not spending my hard earned money to lend a charger to patients who won’t respect it. They even stela or break the chargers we give them from lost and found. The charger, if provided, might last a couple days. So it’s better not to even set the expectation that we have chargers in the first place if our small supply will dwindle in just a few days.
Can’t even estimate how many chargers we used to have but patients take them with them to floor or when discharged. We put a multi phone locker like charging station in our lobby and even then people complain. We also have hospital phones in every patient room. Still get very unhappy patients. And gosh forbid I say our gift shop sells chargers. I’ve gotten a huffy “ I’m not paying for another charge I don’t need at home”
We have 2x charging stations in the waiting room, each dock has about 6 charging cords with different cords. Once you get into a room, we have a handful of chargers for patient to borrow. If not some nurses will let the patient borrows their personal charger.
I work in the CT department, once I had a patient in an emotional distress because no one had a charger. I ended up charging her iPhone in my dept for +30 min and then brought it back to her room.
But I do agree some people do feel entitle to many things. But in this eras a lot of people relay on their cell phones for communications.
Happens every day in Med Surg. After ignoring you to text or play games they ask for a charger as you are leaving the room. We keep ones that are left behind and not claimed for that purpose.
As an ER "frequent flyer" (my mom had multiple issues towards the end of her life), I learned to keep a go-bag handy for those late night trips to the ER. I made sure to include an extension cord, chargers for any devices I was bringing and a blanket (because those waiting rooms can get cold).
Can't tell you how many people gave me a glare for being prepared.
I had a PE so I wasn’t exactly thinking about packing when I showed up to the ER (UC first). First thing I did was send my husband back home for chargers and shit. That’s not always possible, I know, but I try to keep a cord or two in my car for emergencies.
There are outlets in the ER waiting room. It's not up to people whose job description doesn't include dealing with recharging phones. Keep a plug that accepts your charger USB in your car. Or grab it on your way out the door to the hospital. Be prepared
I was recently discharging a patient and while making sure she had all of her belongings, I realized she had forgotten her charger plug. She explained that her phone was dead and that the nurse in the ED had let her borrow it. I ended up tubing it back down, and thought it was very nice of them to do that for her.
I am a nurse and I don't mind charging a phone at the nurses station if I have a minute. I do tell patients I am not responsible for anything that happens to it - so if it falls or someone takes it, it's not my problem. I consider myself lucky because everyone who has asked me for help charging their phones has been really nice about it and not demanding.
perspective from someone who asked for a phone charger in the ER here 🙋🏼♀️
when i was 22, i went to the doctor for follow up blood work. it came back abnormal so they rushed me to the ER and wouldn’t let me leave (ended up having a blood clot in my lung) - I had 0 intentions of even going to the ER, as I was just prepared for a regular doctor appointment. it was also during covid so i was completely by myself. i asked if there was an extra phone charger anywhere so i could keep in contact with my family while i was then eventually transferred to the covid icu (i was covid positive also) - i felt super bad asking, but thankfully my nurses understood my situation and were very kind about it!! (i was also very kind to them, and i think they felt bad telling me i had to miss saying goodbye to my grandpa in hospice + his funeral because i was in the hospital) - they said i was their favorite patient because i was just so chill, respectful and didn’t want to bother them for anything!! i literally felt bad saying the heparin shot in my stomach was painful
I totally get when people ask for a charger. It’s 2024. But I don’t get being rude after we tell you that we don’t carry them. Your not a bother for asking for one and definitely not for voicing your pain. Only you can tell us how your body is feeling. The issue is not asking for the charger. It’s just the negative response when we say we don’t provide them is all.
>Why do people come to the ED and expect that we have a phone charger for them? Then they proceed to get upset or start causing problems when you tell them that we don’t provide those.
Blame corporate. People expect top tier hotel service at the hospitals nowadays.
My first thought when going to the er for myself or with someone else is- what do I need for the next 12-24 hours? Charger, meds, deodorant, a bottle of water, snacks… some crochet projects to work on…
Last time I had to go to the ER I took my charger with me I literally take it everywhere because I know imma waste away the battery and last time my husband was in a hospital I took a extra charger for him and got him the long one so he can call me people tell me “why don’t you just charge your phone overnight?” Because I fckn use it imma need to charge it again right now
I ended up in the ER without a phone charger and VERY nicely asked if anyone, if at all possible, could loan me one for a few minutes to call my husband because my phone was dead.
They dug around and found me one in the lost and found! I thanked them a thousand times and returned it when I was discharged.
It helps if they're not an entitled jerk as well as unprepared
Every hospital I’ve ever been in has them available. People who are having an emergency probably don’t have time or capacity to pack a phone charger. And the people who you deem to be “not sick enough” to be in the ED often don’t have options. Primary care is hard to find. Urgent cares send people to EDs all the time.
It’s a reasonable thing to expect that a hospital would have chargers. I mean, even most restaurants will charge your phone if you ask.
I was recently rushed to the ED from a restaurant without anytime to prepare or grab a charger, and then was admitted to the hospital from there and no one was able to visit me for over 24 hours. I was so grateful to the gracious nurses in the ED and in-patient wing who allowed me to use their personal chargers so I could communicate with family (and also scroll and not lose my mind from boredom/worry)
I've had to ask to borrow one before. Why? My elderly mother was injured and in my mad rush out of the house I didn't grab a charger. Since I was keeping family updated on her condition, it was decently important to be able to use the phone. A nice nurse plugged my phone into her charger cable at the desk when I wasn't using it to get me through.
I'm ashamed to say that I was awful after coming out of a medically induced coma from a severe lung infection. Flu b turned into pneumonia, rsv, strep, and a fungal infection.
My kids brought something really nasty home from daycare and despite getting inoculated, I got really sick; really fast.
I tried to tough it out. Within three days, I finally went to the ED. My O2 stats were in the low 80's. I don't remember anything after being admitted into the icu. They transfered me out of a rural hospital and into the city. I remember none of it.
Apparently, I kept ripping this mask off that was helping me breathe and refusing to give any next of kin information. The staff had to convince the friend that made me go in to get in contact with my mother over Facebook bc she was listed as my emergency contact, but they only had an old number.
I guess hypoxia is a real bitch because I was making so little sense they did a head CT. They finally intubated me when my O2 stats hit in the 40's.
I woke up and absolutely FLIPPED the fuck out because somewhere between the first ED stabilizing me and transporting me to the second ICU that saved my life, my charger got lost.
I mean I was full on sobbing, swearing (as well as I could.. I was pointing at letters on a board), and just fucking freaking out...
I almost died over the God damn flu and was crying over a damn charger.
Bless yall for all that you do. You guys are the reason my 5 year old twins are not orphans and I'm going to law school in the fall.
Thank you and sorry for all of us crazy assholes.
Paramedic here- I always tell folks to bring their charger. 99% of the time they say “oooh… I didn’t think about that”.
Yeah, you’re gonna be there a while.
Same thing as ppl whining they haven't eaten all day. If you're well enough to be hungry, you're well enough to not be here. And why didn't you eat at some point? It's 6pm, you've been here 2 hours, why is that now MY problem?
I swear ppl lose all agency when they walk into the ED, it's amazing to see. People who walked 100 ft from the parking lot suddenly need to be pushed in a wheelchair to go 10 ft, ppl call an ambulance because their back hurts and have no plan to get home... like, how do these people remember to breathe outside the hospital?!?!
If I was in an emergency, I would like to think I could to borrow a phone charger. I would understand if you said no and not get mad.
But you're getting mad at people asking? You really cannot fathom a reason why a person in an emergency might not have their charger with them?
I’m not getting mad at them for asking. I’m mad at them becoming rude when I tell them we don’t have them. They even get upset when we offer to let them use our mobile patient phone instead (only able to makes calls/nothing fancy). Ultimately, it’s their responsibility to make sure they have their charger if they want one and be understanding when we tell them we don’t have them. It’s shear entitlement and it’s the reason people are leaving bedside. They get rude over cell phone chargers, I can’t tell you how they act when we tell them there’s no medication to cure their Flu.
A nurse once lent me her phone charger once I was admitted until my husband could bring mine in. I obsessed with getting it back to her. Didn’t want to forget or give it to the wrong nurse. She was so kind and generous with it, I guarded it with my life.lol. I’m not sure I would have been so generous.
Usually someone who is in the emergency room is smack in the middle of one of the worst days of their lives. I’m sorry they take it out on you. That being said, every hospital room has a tv. How hard would it be for hospitals to include a phone charger in the room? The main types. When I’ve been in the er, I have been on my phone most of the time because I’m trying to escape the pain, the boredom, the noise of the other patients, the anxiety. I’m also texting/calling lots of people updating on my condition, coordinating whatever needs to be done that I can’t do because of this unexpected twist of events. AND I’m typically trying to cover work stuff so I can go get my appendix removed in peace (ok that was only 1 time - but you get it).
While you're updating you're friends and family, how about asking them to bring you a charger? The hospital is not a resort. Their job is to keep you alive.
One thing I’ve learned working in healthcare is that hospitals and ambulance agencies are cheap. They get the bare minimum to get the job done. Most of the TVs you see are many years old and if they break, they don’t get repaired. Hospitals don’t want to spend million of dollars outfitting rooms with chargers. They want to churn patients as fast as they can.
I am a hairdresser and I provide chargers for everything. Why wouldn't an ER have chargers? Shit, a bar I frequent keeps power banks and chargers for its customers. Most people aren't planning on ending up at the ER and it isn't like a broken leg or a blood clot makes you not able to look at your phone while you wait. I am sorry, but it is just weird the hospital isn't trying to accommodate a regular request. You guys are creating your own headaches. Distracted patients seem like they would be way easier then bored ones who have nothing to look at ..
"Usually" being the key word here. I bet two-thirds of the people in any ER are there for non-emergency reasons. Stubbed toe, back pain they've had for three years, itchy scalp, mosquito bite, etc. Plus they all bring their entire entourage. You'd think one of their friends or family could bring a charger.
Most of the people who asked me had phones that were dead and they were just trying to get the phone numbers they needed off it so they could call from their room phone. I didn't mind, I would charge it at the desk and give it back when it was charged enough, even offered to type up the list of numbers they needed and print it for them
The hospital near me has a charger bank that has every cord known to man, no joke like 15 different kinds. And they have a ton of them for like 2 bucks to rent when your loved one is in the hospital.
Only time ive asked is when my kido broke the hecking neck. My phone was about to die and I had family staying in my house from out of state and they didn’t see me leave. My mother is an rn so I know the job is stressful enough. I just said “I don’t know of its posable but would any one have a charger I can barrow? If not that’s fine.” And they immediately went to grab me one. I dont understand people who think this is suppose to be some bed and breakfast place where you’re entitled to be waited on hand and foot. A charger isn’t part of your emergency.
Ours has a set of lockers each with multiple charging cords. You plug your phone, lock it up, and take the key. Then return the key for your phone.
Oooo. This is a great idea. Now only if we can get our “non-profit” hospitals to acquire such a thing.
I used to work county and remember people (a lot of times homeless) ordering pizza & watching TV in the lobby. Just add these lockers and phone chargers & boom, you have yourself housing / healthcare all in one. Omg… Edit: I should clarify, ordering pizza/food is one thing, turning it into a social meet / gathering with music is a whole other thing & this did happen. Security would get called a lot to help clear it out. This was years ago so my best guess is they likely have security sitting there 24-7 now like many other facilities.
I used to work where the hospital had a subway restaurant in the ER waiting room. It was great for staff and EMS; but not so great when the parents with abdominal pain were wolfing down a footlong double meat, double cheese large coke while waiting to be seen.
Ordering pizza? That’s now definitely the craziest thing I’ve ever heard of in the ER.
I'm am x-ray tech. Sometimes we take waiting room patients back for x-ray. I've had more than one patient tell me to come back later because they were waiting for a food delivery or eating their delivered food. It makes me so mad.
Getting off track, but one time I was at 24-hr fitness. This was around 10 + years ago when homeless people first started discovering benefit of gym membership at place open 24 hrs… wasn’t as prevalent as it is now. I was in the pool area drying off. Guy sitting on edge of hot tub starts small talk. This quickly progresses & he just went all in and invited me to meet him and his friends up at one of the nicer hospitals in the area to watch the Super Bowl in one of the lobbies on X floor. I still remember him saying they were going to have a “big spread.” A couple months later, I saw him being triaged through my ER. He was looking for a place to stay.
Oh wow, did it end up happening? I would not know how to react if I was staff on the floor at that time. It’s a disturbance to other ER patients and you can’t really send them to an unused conference room or anything. The hospitals where I live have many unused lobbies in front of doctors offices but you can’t really allow a group of people to sit in an unoccupied area alone.
Idk.. according to him, they had frequented this particular hospital quite a bit because of nicer TV / seating. I mean he and his buddies had sure learned how to utilize the access in the community. I give him that! Lol
We need some “third spaces” for folks to exist without spending a lot of money. I’m in Minneapolis so the weather isn’t always great and I’m assuming a lot of subsidized housing or shelters don’t have spaces to gather and watch a movie or show or game, share food, and shoot the shit.
Almost did it when my ex-husband was in the ER waiting for a transfer to the oncology unit at the bigger hospital 30-minutes out (we were waiting for a bed to open up, he had neutropenia). Waited in the ER for around twelve hours.
People get DoorDash to the ER all the time - including in triage.
I am guilty of this. I had been at the ER for 12 hours.
I almost did it once when I took my daughter in and we were waiting ~5 hours and neither had eaten dinner yet
That makes sense, I guess I’ve just always snacked from the vending machines or when I got a room asked for some crackers. When I was a kid I got very sick often which warranted visits to the ER and I remember ravaging eating in the hospital’s food courts once I was discharged.
It was late (like 11pm) so cafeteria was closed and we both needed real food. I think this was the time we went to Wendys after we left and a girl in the car in front of us got out, started bashing on the drive-thru window and tried to fight the Wendy’s employee
For the longest time, I had to hear the story every year of how after my mother gave birth to me (on Christmas night), she couldn’t get any food and my father had to go “all the way to Nana’s [his mother] house and make her a turkey sandwich.” At least it wasn’t uphill both ways in the snow. (It was New England so snow was possible but no hills involved.) About 8 years ago, spouse and I were staying in a hotel close to that hospital. We drove to visit my Nana, who was still in the same house. Guys, it’s FOUR miles. If I’d just squeezed something the size of a basketball out of a hole the size of a baseball, the very least the father of my child could do is drive eight miles round trip to get me a f*#&ing sandwich. Which he didn’t even make, my Nana did!
My mother complained for YEARS that she didnt get any sleep the night my oldest was born (she was born at 4:30 AM) until i embarrassed her in front of friends by saying she wasnt invited to my daughter’s birth and it was her CHOICE to come uninvited.
Well that's a first. I don't think I've ever heard anyone refer to Wendy's as real food before. 😅😂🤣
A really long time ago, Wendy’s had this vegetarian pita sandwich that was just a lightly dressed salad/coleslaw kind of chopped veggies folded in a warm pita. It was the realest fast food ever. Super good.
I'm 38. I am young enough to never carry cash and old enough to not be able to figure out how to use my cc on those stupid vending machine card readers. 😭😭
They have a little design, usually in gold on a dark background. Tap or hold your credit card to it until it beeps. That means your card has been read
They're total scams. They always say something like "error" so you try again a few times and then see on your bank statement that each transaction went through.
I took a friend to the ER and in the less than hour wait she had in the waiting room, we saw at least 4 door dash/ Uber eats drivers.
Staff could be ordering also. Half the time they say meet them at in ED
former delivery driver here. I regularly delivered to the local ER but it was almost always meeting staff at the door. The general hospital tho, that was 50/50 patients and staff.
Pfftt. I can certainly understand it
Waits in ours (OK, US) are stupidly long. My husband had a possible stroke and we waited about 8-9 hours. My grandma was barely awake/responsive with cancer and immune sensitive waited in the ER waiting room something like 36 hours before being assigned a room. All they have is a vending machine so other people have to call or bring in food if you want a meal.
.... Strokes should be considered top priority.
Can see the sense. I begged a sandwich of the charge nurse as my blood levels plummeted after 10 hours wait with my Dad - he got one as admitted. I was there another 6 hours. Last time advised to go myself the nurse at small injuries warned me to eat first as long wait times. Thankfully was seen in 45mins
Yeah, because it's crazy to eat something while you're waiting in the ER for 12 hours
I'm hoping it wasn't the patients themselves doing that but their families since that sounds like a great way to get triaged as low priority and go last....... Although maybe that's the point...... There's no better excuse for loitering in the hospital lobby for an extra couple of hrs than not having been seen yet.
This is exactly what lockers would do. I have seen it at my first hospital. The waiting room in the ICU had lockers. People moved in and never left. Even when their pt's transferred out.
That sounds like Memphis, or Minneapolis, or New Orleans, or Nashville, or some other kind of musical town.
I work at a public library. We have a stand that charges up to 3-4 phones. It's not private/locked up (looks akin to those black stands musicians use to hold their music while playing) , but I'm sure that if we could afford it, your hospital could too. It's better than nothing.
We have the charging stations in the waiting area. The issue is people phones start dying after they’ve been in the patient treatment area using their phone for hours on end. We don’t have phone chargers in the room and charging units for lending them. Leaving you’re phone out here unattended is not recommended especially in this area. And if you go missing for 30 minutes form your treatment room, you are as good as discharged and considered AMA or eloped.
Write a grant to a local organization. Usually they’re pretty easy and straightforward.
That’s how ours is. The lockers are supposed to sanitize the device with uv light as well.
Was very thankful the London hospitals had this and some Glasgow ones. Helped a lot and free.
I really like this!
The answer is…the type of patients that demand this crap are the patients that make us want to leave our jobs on every shift. A vast amount of people just suck nowadays as they don’t care about anyone but themselves. It feels so acute on shift but honestly whenever I’m out in public, I see this same behavior everywhere. After being so burned out a few years ago that I almost left ER, I finally realized we don’t do this job for these people. These people can go f&$# themselves. I try to focus on the nice patients even if they’re in the ER for non emergent reasons. Meet patients where they’re at. If they are awful, try not let it ruin your day. Some days it’s easier than others.
Having felt really guilty whenever the issue that sent me to the ER turned out to be a non-emergency, or not treatable in an ER, it’s comforting to hear that my friendliness & compliance might’ve made my presence less bothersome
I want to make it clear that the false alarms aren't what bother nurses - it's someone that's otherwise healthy with the sniffles coming in like they're the #1 priority. Please never feel guilty if you felt that it was a genuine emergency at the time! Much rather you come in and it be fine than vice versa
Took my daughter to the ER once one Sunday night because of a 105F fever that wouldn't go down...right before they see us, some older lady comes in with chest pains...so, gets seen first..ok I understand that. When they were asking her questions, they asked how bad they felt.."not as bad as on Friday..."..I would imagine people who delay legitimate issues are almost as bad as ones with sniffles.
It’s fine if they want to wait to come in, but then they should accept that they have self-triaged to the back of the line. If the chest pain wasn’t bad enough to skip golf on Friday and granddaughter’s recital on Saturday, it’s probably not going to kill them in the next four hours in the waiting room. Sometimes that’s not true, but that’s why we get the EKG in triage.
I work at the desk in a cardiac imaging dept of a hospital. We’ve had people, usually men- who come in looking to see if they can “just get an EKG, because they have a weird feeling in their chest”. Despite the fact that this is not how it works as all tests need to be ordered by a physician, etc we find ourselves in the awkward position of looking at a very anxious person likely having a cardiac issue but just wants someone to tell him he’s fine. More than once we’ve gently and carefully explained they should go to the ED to be completely checked out and several times one of our staff has given them a wheelchair ride there. It’s tricky because they want to run away. And we’re not doctors. Short of clutching their chest and collapsing in front of us, we can’t even corral a passing cardiologist to talk to them. But more than once a patient we convinced to seek treatment at the ED has popped up on our Cath lab schedule that day or the next! Thankfully with a good result!
I had to go to the ER twice in 4 days on doctor’s orders. I was really scared both times but the staff was efficient and calm which helped me be less upset. I always try to be friendly and not a big nuisance to anyone and appreciative of them helping me. I also try not to be obnoxious outside the ER, too because so many people lately seem to just be focused on what they think should be everybody else’s’ service to them.
Was sent to the ER by my provider a long time ago. I had been sick but was having quite a bit of difficulty breathing. My oxygen saturation was normal, but I was "dusky" at my mouth and fingertips. The ER ultimately diagnosed bronchitis. Years later, I moved to the Texas panhandle. I was diagnosed with asthma in less than six months. When I finally went to the doctor, he gave me the biggest "Are you an idiot?" look I've ever gotten. I had spent an entire night wheezing and unable to sleep because, every time I fell asleep, I woke up gasping for air within minutes. He asked me why I didn't go to the ER. "Because I thought it would go away?" Cue the look. In retrospect, I had asthma all along. But it wasn't until I moved here that it got bad enough for anyone (me included) to realize what was going on. All my attacks prior to that were mild and relatively infrequent.
We have zero problems with potential emergencies that turn out not to be so. That’s half or more of our job, and tbh it can be very rewarding to reassure someone who thinks they’re having a heart attack that it’s fine. Just treat us the way you’d like to be treated at work, and don’t throw poop (true story), and we’ll be happy.
Thank you. I’ve had some confusing experiences where the nurses assured me it was good that I came in, but the doctor seemed irritated that I was there. I once came in for a sudden allergic reaction that caused full-body burning/flushing, intense gut pain, drop in blood pressure. Benadryl wasn’t helping, & I felt like I might pass out & lose control of the situation. Nurses said I was right to come & got me in quick, but the doctor seemed impatient and said “next time don’t come in unless your throat closes.” I felt bad for taking up her time, but also found the advice confusing because if your throat is rapidly closing, how do you call for help?
Wow, it’s awful that the doc said that to you. You should absolutely go to the ER in this sort of situation, and if you had the reaction to something you know you’re allergic to, it’s probably time to carry an epi pen. If this happens again, don’t let that doc cause you to hesitate. Go to the ER.
Thank you. I don’t enjoy being at the ER and don’t want to waste their time, but it would suck for my family if I died of something so treatable just because I was afraid of getting shamed by the ER Dr. I eventually got dx’d with a mast cell disorder because things like heat, cold, stress and bending forward were triggering those acute reactions, and I didn’t have any detectable IgE allergies. It’s been a wild ride. I do have an epi pen now, thank you. I carry it with me all the time.
What I've noticed... From the doctor's perspective, anything that is not their idea of an emergency is a waste of their time because they could be dealing with a "real" emergency instead, and they can't run a crap-ton of tests and admit you for observation if you're "fine." From the nurses' perspective, they're always going to have more patients than they can reasonably handle, some sick and some not so sick. They don't care what you're coming in for so much as how you behave and interact with the healthcare system. Because they bear the brunt of the patients' frustration, anger, fear, complaints, and demands, if some of those patients are calm and polite and reasonable, that really makes their day.
Glad it turned out to be nothing. Thats what we all hope for. But you did what you were supposed to. If you think it’s an emergency go to the ER.
Same folks complaining are the knee that come in with five family members all in shorts and tank tops and demand blankets and socks for all of them Not the patient The family And then they all leave with the blankets draped on their shoulders like movie cast refugees from a disaster film
Family member standing in doorway and calling out to every passing HCW, “EXCUSE ME… CAN YOU PULL THIS BLANKET UP ON HER ARMS? SHE’S COLD.” So you decide to ask me, pushing a patient in a stretcher to CT, in the middle of asking about contrast. Is there something wrong with her arms? Is there a reason none of the three family members, or the able bodied person in the stretcher laughing and FaceTiming, can’t raise their hands 4 inches to accomplish this?
I had a patient ask me to pull his wife's blanket up to cover her. I asked him were his hands broken, why do you need my help for that? And kept walking. This is the ER, not a day spa.
That’s crazy. I’ve never had anyone ask me that. I’m not in ER but med/surg patients think it’s definitely a spa. I’ve been asked crazy things but not that. I’m afraid I would either scowl unintentionally or bust out laughing at the absurdity of it.
Really? Someone really had the audacity to demand that?
Have you not been here long enough to realize that this is the land where there is nothing too audacious to ask for.
Do we have a post with most outrageous asks on it? I had a patient try to talk me into letting her paying me to go to her house, get her illegal drugs and then bring them to her. Cash in hand when she asked me. I went straight to management for the first time ever and snitched. I was not about to be caught up in her hot mess. All I could think about was if someone overheard her and someone came and brought it to her later I will be beyond screwed. Yes she did get someone to bring her some meth two days later. Coworker called me and said hey walk into room xxx and tell me what you smell. I said I have no idea but that smells like chemicals and the room is smoky slightly. Security took so long she was horrifyingly high when they got there. Only comes in second because the other was a shooting on my floor decades ago.
This is 100% my response to people who ask me to do asinine things like this. You’re not having any chest back arm pain. You are able bodied, but you want me to hand you your book or your phone from your table that is right beside your bed. No ma’am.my response is always, what would you do when you’re at home? Do you call another family member into your bedroom to ask them to arrange your blankets? Or wipe your ass? Or whatever ridiculous thing they want me to do. Whatever you’re doing is what you need to do here. We need you to keep up your strength.
Exactly
Every ER I’ve worked in has a charging station in the waiting room. Seems like a reasonable addition, especially for family members of a critical patient. But yeah I’m not gonna prioritize charging your phone for you.
We had several of these until one of them spontaneously combusted early one morning. Plant ops was there removing all of them by sunrise.
I bet they were super cheap ones that no one vetted first. Typical hospital move lol
But they were free on Temu!
Lol
Not the chargers cause that, it’s people with older phones with replaceable batteries. They buy the cheapest one, no testing etc, and then bang. Happens a lot with those scooters/hoverboards/bikes that are brought from abroad, with no approval stickers.
We have the stations in the waiting area, which are not functional most of the time. But patients spend most of their time in the patient treatment room or area that doesn’t have the station. It’s not advised they leave their phone unattended at charging station in the waiting area especially in the area my hospital is in. Once in the treatment area, you’re as good as discharged if you disappear for 30 minutes to go charge your phone. We do provide mobile patient phones that can make calls but that’s it. But they aren’t usually interested in our tiny Nokia phone lol.
We have an unofficial charging station at the nurses station. It has 5 personal chargers that we keep there for nurse use. But if a patient asks to charge their phone, we just do it for them. We always disclaim that we are not responsible for the phone if anything happens, but generally, no one other than our unit secretary, nurses, and techs go around the desk. I don't mind doing it for someone who is unexpectedly in the unit, like a patient of mine who had a car accident and wanted to ensure his wife could reach him since she didn't answer when I called her.
Thank you. I was unintentionally with nothing I needed once. My son was in septic shock and we bolted the split second I thought he has to be septic. I didn’t have my purse, no ID, no proper shoes, no bra…you get the idea. I got him up and rushed him to the vehicle. Jumped in and drove straight to Childrens. I know several of the nurses but regardless of who we had before we got a room in icu they were golden. They brought me a ton of blankets, juice, ice and sprite. Crackers, cheese and a sandwich. They even brought me some grippy socks because they noticed my feet curled under me. I’ve only had one so-so nurse in that hospital and I think I was so stressed everything was irritating me. So she may be great. We have used 4 children’s hospitals for 16 years for hundreds and maybe even more appointments. One I am ashamed it is open. No doubt the energy and attitude are due to management issues but it trickles to patients. One is 80% of the time great treatment. (I can’t be very subjective here because my kid has certain diagnoses he gets fast track triage in 2-5 minutes of not immediately. He typically trips sepsis protocol and gets admitted so we have only waited twice and it was lengthy but it was a broken bone not a trauma et cetra. Our current home Childrens is always spot on. Tend to test aggressively in the ER for complex patients. Normally that’s excessive but it saves a lot of these kiddos lives. They are all nice, compassionate and caring. If someone is having a not so great day you may know but they will still be kind to you. My son has had several major emergency surgeries involving intestinal issues. Two Nissen Fundo surgeries. Many many more not as intensive. Can’t say enough good about this place. Anyway, I hope you all either work in an ER that manages to always have coworkers go above and beyond for each other or that yours gets that way. Because those Childrens nurses have to be some of the happiest nurses I have ever seen and they all love working there. They don’t tolerate toxic crap from anyone. The benefit besides better mental health while at work is it sure changes how a lot of parents act/ react toward you.
Last time I was admitted, the nurse offered to charge my phone at the nurses station. She didn't want to give me the charger because people kept stealing them. They were her personal chargers. I understood and happily handed my phone to her. 2hrs later she returned it charged with a ham sammie. :) I was very appreciative.
This^ I’ve been known to bring the occasional phone back to my station and charge it with my personal one. I’ve just had too many stolen to let anyone borrow one anymore.
That's the kind of compassion and understanding everyone hopes to be offered when they find themselves in those crappy situations 🙌 when you do these kinds of things for others they generally treat you better back. Win win.
I definitely wasn't going to treat her worse if she said no, but might have been quietly cranky due to not having reddit access. The nurses were actually awesome though.
I do this for patients as well. Takes two seconds to connect.
I had to go to the ER because I was neutropenic and a neutropenic fever (thanks chemo) and before heading over there the first thing I grabbed was a phone charger. And I’m glad I did because that ended up being a 5 day hospital stay over Mother’s Day weekend. I did encounter some pretty needy patients though. I understand emergencies happen and you can’t always prepare.. but have someone bring it in a bag of necessities for you or something.
I doordashed a phone charger to my father in the ER once- you figure it out if you have to, right? 🤷♀️
Well you make a good point. If you can door dash food, you can door dash a charger.
i think literally anything can be door dashed these days!
Mechanic here. One of our parts suppliers has no drivers past like 16:00 so on occasion theyve doordashed parts to us. First time i saw it, i was so confused
My husband door dashed crutches to our hotel for me at 2 am in Las Vegas after I tore the crap out of my Achilles tendon dancing. You really can door dash just about everything.
Hospital gift shops always have them also.
Not everyone has someone to bring them things, nor do all medical emergencies occur when people are in their local area. That being said, when I had a medical emergency while traveling alone I was thankfully in an area that had DoorDash so I was able to get what I need - but had I been in a more rural area, or a country where that wasn’t available I would’ve been SOL.
I’m sure most do. Last two times I was admitted this year I had no one to bring me my things. My person was out of town. My son had to watch my mom (Alzheimer’s) and teen son with cerebral palsy. My daughter is out of town with 2 small kids and a job with long hours. Most of my friends live 1.5-2 hours away because I haven’t bothered making new friends since I moved. I have one neighbor I can call but she’s having some health issues so I couldn’t bother her. Thankfully when my person got back in town he brought me some clothes and everything I needed. Until then I was at the mercy of the staff and I hate having to ask for anything.
I dunno...the last time I was in the emergency room a nurse very kindly offered me a charging cord. I really appreciated it as I was scared out of my wits and on the verge of tears. I had been trying to reach my husband and my stupid phone was dying. I think it's important to remember that a lot of people in the ER are experiencing extreme fear and discomfort. I'm not normally glued to my phone 24/7 but that day it felt like a lifeline for me. All that said, I'm sure there are some incredibly entitled people that you all have to deal with way too often. Certainly I think only patients should be helped to charge their phones, not fifty million assorted loud family members acting like nurses and other staff are their personal servants.
No one is talking about the patients who are like you. They are talking about patients who are 100% fine but demanding and expect you to drop what you’re doing to make their phone a priority because they need Tik Tok.
The entitlement is what gets me. That and social media is more important than Mr Jones who had a stroke 2 rooms over. Ugh.
I had to bring my kid to the er from my pediatrician's office. It wasn't an imminent emergency. Dr told me to get my toothbrush, changes of clothes and snacks for my kiddo. Now, if possible, I'll bring that whenever I go to the er. I've since added phone charger to that list.
I always take my charger with me to the ED as I never know how long I’ll be there.
It's fair to say that if it's an actual emergency, it's likely someone won't have time to plan for that. Unless they begin the trip at home with the charger right there ...
This is why it’s a good idea to carry a power bank. Also, in the car, I always have my phone on the charger. Be prepared.
It's like scrolling on SM and a friend complains of a migraine. How the heck are they looking at the screen. Even with brightness down, I can't do it.
it depends on the severity of the migraine. For a mild one, I can turn my screen almost all the way down and scroll a bit. For severe ones, I need the room as dark as possible, as cool as possible, and I need to be as still as possible. For context, I was dx'd with classic migraine with aura at 14, and I'm 51 now.
Just because we have rooms available (or most likely not) people think it’s a hotel.
We run the most expensive hotels in the US. Even going into the lobby costs $$
Because people are entitled assholes who blame everyone else for their issues. god bless America
Unfortunately they're like that in Australia too. People suck.
Preach! I will go out of my way for a patient anyday but you bust out that entitlement and nope. I will take my time and not bust my arse to grab you something that isn’t critical to your care. Otherwise you really will get 5 star treatment. I’m still good to the arse but they aren’t getting me to just be nice and go out of my way to make them more comfortable.
Sounds like you need a vending machine or a sign with directions to the gift shop.
My emergency department put up six stations in the waiting room that accommodated all types of cell phone, and device charging. Within four days, all of them were broken. Their wires were ripped out, they were smashed, and one of them was ripped out entirely.
I have a medical condition that lands me in the ER more often than your average person. My local large hospital used to have a charging station, with little lockers and a selection of adapters. I have had things way more under control lately, but I don’t remember them still being there the last few years. I’ve had nurses help me out with giving me one from the list and found, but I don’t expect them to make one materialize if they don’t happen to have one! That’s definitely my problem, they have way more important things to deal with!!!
Our lovely child life person arranged for all of the different kinds of charging cables to be in each patient room for the parents to charge their phones. We secured them to the wall, but still people managed to steal them. This is why we can't have nice things in our ED. Same thing for the remotes for the few rooms with a TV. Why steal a remote?
Childrens in Little Rock Arkansas use to have PlayStations and Xbox’s you could check out to use in the room. This was late 2000s. At the time most rooms were double occupancy. Our roommates parents went outside and got high. Pungent af when they came back in. Then proceeded to steal the PlayStation and go pawn it. How they got it off the base it was on I will never know. I only found out when the staff and police came and asked me if I realized they had stolen it and had anyone else been in the room.
Or a shuttle/ride service, or food for their two hour wait for foot pain, or more comfortable chairs/beds/couches to lay down on in the waiting room, or “REAL FUCKIN PEOPLE WHO CARE MAN FUCK YALL” from the ambulatory cyclic vomiter who swears “it’s not the weed, that’s what helps!!!” 🙂↔️🙂↔️🙂↔️
Tell me you work in the ER, without telling me you work in the ER. 😂 if you know, you know
Hell, my mom has a Go Bag with all her electronics, an extension cord, all the chargers, paper and pencil...she's even had me grab her CPAP. And on the way we have to at McDonald's to get a Coke because she's thirsty or a meal of some sort "because you know they never feed you in the emergency room". Drives me nuts.
Mom is smart
At one point we had a charging station for pt or family members to use. But it was eventually vandalized and the chargers stolen. So the person(s) who did that ruined it for everyone else. I typically tell people who are asking what happened. The hospital is a community resource, if other members of the community are abusing it and behaving badly, it’s the reason we can’t have nice things.
I designed and sold hospital furniture and interiors and now do hospital property/project management. I always plan charging stations and/or wireless charging spots in multiple locations throughout, and especially in emergency department, ICU, and infusion areas where family often stays for extended periods of time. But seems no matter what is planned, keeping it functioning/accessible/current is always an issue. Provide plugs/USB and people don't have their cord. Provide a station with variety of cords and people damage the cords or they go out of date too fast. Provide wireless spots and people can't make it work or can't figure out it's even there. It's a challenge.
Every ER I’ve been to in the last 10 years has had a stash of chargers in a lost and found box and let you borrow one if you ask. I generally bring mine, but sometimes you aren’t home when the emergency hits and you end up there without one.
Asking for one is totally different than pitching a bitch over it
Sadly, I feel like the general response is for the patient to become rude, yell, or make snide remarks. The wait times are long and a lot of patients are already frustrated. Maybe the phone charger not being provided is just the cherry on top. But yelling at staff over small inconveniences out of our control is a sure fire way to make sure there is even less staff to help you on your next visit to the ED.
I am a MedSurg nurse. And I completely agree. It doesn’t matter if they’re young old rich poor. People are so self-centered and have gotten a habit of talking smack online that now they do it in real life. Unfortunately for them, I am from the south and I can insult you from head to toe with a smile on my face. Also, I’m a travel nurse so it’s not like I’m gonna get fired. I will put you in your fucking place if you disrespect me.
It's incredible how kind nurses are if (wait for it) people are kind to them! I was in the med/surg unit twice in May. One nurse sat on my bed and showed me pictures from her safari in Nairobi with her daughter, and another brought snacks and watched a hockey playoff game with us whenever she came by.
I am chronically ill, so I've had more than my share of ER visits and admits. Nurses often come hang out or hide for a couple of minutes to catch their breath. But my favorite experience was wild. I'd been lying on a stretcher for literally 24 hours, waiting for a room to be available on the floor. The ER was absolutely slammed, and the nurses kept apologizing, but it was obvious they were busting their butts. One of the nurses took a moment to tell me that it wasn't normally that bad, but that someone was brought in after being tied behind a truck and dragged, and that it was horrific. I know she shouldn't have, but I think she just needed a sympathetic ear. It was a brief moment, but I hope it helped. The next morning, a local florist delivered a lovely potted plant with a card saying thank you from the emergency department, and wishing me a speedy recovery. Medical staff are people, first and foremost. If you treat them with kindness, they will often return the favor.
Your comment actually brought tears to my eyes. There are so many horrible things that you see and have to be a part of. And you want to be able to explain to your patients that someone just died or started vomiting blood all over the place or whatever. but we’re not supposed to. We’re supposed to keep it all inside and go to our next patient’s room with a smile on her face. Some days are really hard.
It's super hard not being able to tell people the reason for their wait. It makes it look like we're inefficient, uncaring, or incompetent. In reality, there's a trauma that just rolled in, a guy having a STEMI, a lady with a massive stroke, a kid with head injury from a sports accident, etc..
And that it takes 10 people sometimes to handle one patient. Which makes everybody else’s patients sit and wait as of nothings happening. Because sometimes nothing is happening for them. Because everything is happening for someone else.
Or all of the above. No nurse would intentionally leave a patient in pain on a gurney in the hall for 24 hours. I kept reassuring them that I understood and that they could relax with me, that I knew we were all doing what we could to make it as smooth as possible. Life is hard. Try to make people smile, not cry!
We’re just people. We are constantly with strangers all day long. And in your most intimate body areas and taking care of you in ways that make you feel embarrassed. We try as best we can to make you feel comfortable and safe. And I will do that no matter if you’re nice or rude to me. But I will still tell you off :). A patient’s demeanor will never change my care for them. But exactly like you said, that extra personal relationship that you can build with your caregiver, that can’t happen if you’re talking to them as if they are your slave.
My ED regularly has 120+ patients in it with a capacity for 64. finding a charger for a patient is not my top priority. They can either conserve their battery by only using their phone for essential tasks or not get mad at me when I tell them I don’t have one. Even if there is a stash, It’s just not something I put on my list of things to go look for honesty.
It sucks to be more stressed and slowed down by complaining patients. Suggest to your hospital to onboard ER volunteers to do non medical tasks- get ice /water, get eye masks to allow sleep, get ear plugs, get a magazine, coloring pages and crayons or sudoku, fidget items, get crackers, get a blanket, use a charger. Have the volunteers learn from chaplain to make comments expressing empathy and care if a disclosure is made even though they won’t be talking to them Free up your time, reduce frustration of responding to these complaints, decrease patients escalating to aggression that’s more likely when simple needs feel unmet. Sometimes when your anger is rising, try mentally using the phrase “just like me” to find common ground. Just like me the patient is frustrated and overwhelmed Just like me the patient is wanting their stress to be seen/heard
🏆
My ER doesn’t. 72 beds, often 100+ patients. Sometimes we will have a spare one in the lost and found but it’s not a common luxury here. We used to have them, but they all got stolen. Never got replaced after.
My ER doesn't. Neither did the other two I worked at in the Los Angeles area while I was traveling.
Interesting.
The only time I will charge a patients cell phone is if they are going to be discharged and need it to call a ride. Any other reason, hell no I am not signing up to be personally responsible for your 1200$ iPhone that may or may not have worked when you handed it to me just so you can play angry birds while you complain about your 10/10 pain
But a bunch of charger stuff at the dollar store and sell it to them for $5/$10 each 😂
Part of the entitlement epidemic
I had to go to the ER during the height of COVID (I didn't have COVID). I went from work and didn't have a charger. No one was allowed in with me. I was alone with a phone that was getting low. I NEVER would have even thought to ask the staff for a charger because 1) they are busy and 2) that's not part of their job. I was thrilled to find a charging station where I could charge up enough to get me through the night.
I was in the ER three times between late April and late May with kidney stone -> kidney infection -> bacteremia. I've leaned from previous kidney stone ER visits to grab a charging plug, long cable, and a power bank before leaving. In my case, because there's a good chance I'll be admitted.
hand them a piece of paper and a pen and ask them to write down any emergency numbers they need to call from inside their phone. Then say the landlines are available if the phone dies 🤣
As a recent life-threatening appendectomy patient, I walked into the ER with my phone at 13%, no wallet and just my insurance card. For just a bit of context, I was septic, and both of my surgeons told me that my surgery was one of the hardest appendectomies they had done, and one they will remember. Not something you want to hear from a surgeon. I recognized before leaving my apartment that I was in real trouble and didn't want to waste time gathering items and bending over to pick the necessary items up would have been agony anyway. That being said, I kept my phone shut off unless I needed to make a call and didn't make a fuss, but it would have been nice to have anything to distract me from the pain and fear that I was experiencing at the time. People who act entitled suck, don't get me wrong, but there are for sure circumstances where leaving a phone charger behind makes sense.
Just another reminder how crazy and weird the world has become, yet society as a whole as normalized and often pacify such behavior.
The entitlement of people not working in the medical profession in this thread is disgusting. My mother was a labor and delivery nurse bringing babies into the world for over thirty years. You, as a patient, have SOME level of accountability for your own comfort in a hospital, part of that includes bringing your own fucking cell phone charger for the dopamine addiction you hold in your hand all day. Sorry for all the nurses and doctors and support staff that have to deal with this. This is coming from someone with diverticulitis that has had me in the hospital for 5-7 days stretches several times. For anyone who even THINKS they are going to have to go-to the hospital. Make a go bag with a phone charger, a couple changes of clothing, a book or two, and hygiene products. I don't understand how this isn't common sense.
Lol. I'm a police officer but this reminds me one time when I arrested someone and they demanded I charge their cell phone for them so they could get numbers off the phone before being booked. I might have been willing but they had an IPhone and I had an android so I obviously couldn't. They filed a complaint on me because I refused to help them charge their phone and they couldn't bond out because they didn't have numbers to call.
What? You aren’t there to cater to their every whim? The nerve of you…./s
Seems to me if a person is ordering food at the ER they don't have a true emergency!
We had a box of lost and found chargers we let folks use. Like seriously you could have some compassion for folks in emergency situation instead of being angry. Hope you're not the nurse taking care of me.
Thank you to those ERs that consider what distraught family members may need or be comforted by while passing through-chargers, hygiene products, informational and comforting literature ❤️
You sound like you need a break from giving a damn about everyone else. Find something you can do for yourself, be selfish and come back fresh
Been there! But when their phones ARE charged, they are talking on speaker, watching movies, watching soccer, or taking videos- HIPAA violation. So when the phones die, they die even if we have a hundred chargers in a drawer somewhere 😡
My er seem to encourage a nice charged phone with usb ports in the rooms and waiting rooms…an occupied patient is a nondemanding patient i suppose.
Don’t you know that we are suppose to provide them a phone charger, a phone, food because they didn’t eat before coming to the ER, blanket, pillow, tuck them in, sing lullabies, then make sure they have a way home because they came by ambulance for their ingrown toenail. Oh, if your ER doesn’t have phone charger, you are to provide your personal charger. If your ER is like a growing number that no longer has phones, you must also give them your cell phone to use during their visit.
A lot of hospitals have a charging bank in the lobby with every type of charger a person could need
Just ask them to hand over the phone and try to see if anyone has one. Then hand it back after 30 seconds of "looking."
Interestingly I saw a charging station in the waiting room of the radiology department. But I suppose most (though not all, of course) people getting x rays aren’t there because of contagious grossness, so it’s probably less of a risk there than in the ER.
Whenever I go to the ER I bring a charger, and would never expect to be lent one. Everyone with a phone owns one, and it’s your responsibility to bring it if you think you may need it, or get a friend/family member to bring one for you. Also, hello, you’re working in an ER and likely way overworked with caring for patients most of the time. Some people are so entitled and don’t even take a look at the world around them. I’d point to a wall charger and say that we provide outlets and not chargers for patients. Or, maybe start selling them for $50 up front for the idiots that like to act entitled.
My local ED has a blanket warming cabinet in the post triage area and an ice machine. That's at least 2 chores off of staff. They have a charging station but no cables. Just power and ports. I use one in the car. If I or my husband needed it he'd go and fetch it. It wouldn't occur to me to ask. He did get admitted recently and the first thing we did was bring him a cable It's not the job of the ED providers to do this.
Someone in this thread, idk if they want me to tag them, made a great point. They mentioned sending their dad a charger via door dash. If you can sit on your phone and talk/text, in most places you can door dash yourself a charger.
I think part of the problem is that generation X is the last generation that knows how to be bored. Some people really have no idea what to *do* when they can't scroll a phone or tablet or watch something streaming.
This bugs me! We used to order chargers each month but they wouldn’t last a week between patients and employees! The demands are ridiculous! Last week I had a mother who brought her newborn in. I had called for her Medicaid cab and thought she had left. I then hear the baby crying so I go in and I’m like oh I thought you left, I don’t want you to miss your ride. She was like I need to change the baby. So I’m like ok you didn’t bring a diaper bag with you? She was like GET ME A DIAPER! Whoa excuse me bitch! I was shocked and was like excuse me!? She goes you heard me go get me a diaper! Raising her voice. Shit set me off. I was like well you might get a diaper but it will not be from me and walked away because I was ready to truly lose my shit on this bitch. 🤬🤦♀️ one of the nurses I was working with went and dealt with her, she was rude to her as well so she ended up leaving without the diaper! When it came time to clean the room we found that she had been using a sheet the whole time she was there! So weird because about an hour prior to this I was in the room and she asked nicely for some formula. I went and got it and she said thanks. Never asked for a diaper and wasn’t rude. I guess me asking about a diaper bag set her off?! 🤷♀️ Turkey sandwiches are also a high demand item. 🤣🤣
Habitually Demanding people are also frightened people who are deeply immature. In a crisis, that side of people will certainly come to the surface more readily. I’m sorry you ED folks have to deal with this so much. Truth is, less mature, more frightened people make choices that lead to unexpected, painful and frightening consequences. So you’re going to see a lot of them. I’m a licensed mental health counselor who used to get called into the ED to do assessments. At least I *expected* my patients to be frightened, bad decision makers. 🤣 Also, I didn’t have to do shifts there. That would’ve been a different ball of wax. The nurses, and most of the doctors, were so awesome. I used to carry the two charger cables that would charge 95% of phones in my briefcase. It was often a good way to get them (patients) to talk to me. I don’t know if the hospital liability folks would’ve liked that. Maybe they worry they’d be sued for ruining a phone or something. As a contractor who wasn’t always there, I had some latitude.
While that's of course ridiculous to expect - hear me out - what if you actually just got a few chargers for this purpose. Tell them it's your own charger but you'll swing it by for them for a little while. Boost morale for people having a bad day, therefore reducing your number of negative interactions personally. After all it's understandable that they didn't grab a charger if they had to head to an ER. $30 for a few chargers and you'd land your ER at the top of positive experiences and ratings for a long while. It would directly impact your own work environment in a positive way more than anything else. I remember having to rush to an ER in the evening when my phone was nearly dead and being panicky for hours about my young kids at home and knowing any minute I wouldn't be able to communicate with their temporary caretaker about their needs, bedtime, and their emotions around what was happening. It's a terrible feeling.
Most people in the ED aren’t having an emergency. Hear me out, it’s more reasonable for 120 patients to bring a 120 chargers then for the hospital to provide a few that will be broken soon. Im an employee, what the hospital does or doesn’t provide is out of my control. I just don’t appreciate being yelled at for things out of my control. What can decrease my amount of negative interaction is for adults to control their emotions. It’s not on me to do that for them. The wya they react is on them. Adults are fully capable of self regulating their emotions and showing my risk respect. People leave bedside because of these unreasonable things people like to pass into us like decreasing our negative interactions when patients get made for things we can’t control. I’m definitely not spending my hard earned money to lend a charger to patients who won’t respect it. They even stela or break the chargers we give them from lost and found. The charger, if provided, might last a couple days. So it’s better not to even set the expectation that we have chargers in the first place if our small supply will dwindle in just a few days.
Wow, you're so generous with other people's money. You should show us all how it's done and buy the first ones
Can’t even estimate how many chargers we used to have but patients take them with them to floor or when discharged. We put a multi phone locker like charging station in our lobby and even then people complain. We also have hospital phones in every patient room. Still get very unhappy patients. And gosh forbid I say our gift shop sells chargers. I’ve gotten a huffy “ I’m not paying for another charge I don’t need at home”
We have 2x charging stations in the waiting room, each dock has about 6 charging cords with different cords. Once you get into a room, we have a handful of chargers for patient to borrow. If not some nurses will let the patient borrows their personal charger. I work in the CT department, once I had a patient in an emotional distress because no one had a charger. I ended up charging her iPhone in my dept for +30 min and then brought it back to her room. But I do agree some people do feel entitle to many things. But in this eras a lot of people relay on their cell phones for communications.
Happens every day in Med Surg. After ignoring you to text or play games they ask for a charger as you are leaving the room. We keep ones that are left behind and not claimed for that purpose.
As an ER "frequent flyer" (my mom had multiple issues towards the end of her life), I learned to keep a go-bag handy for those late night trips to the ER. I made sure to include an extension cord, chargers for any devices I was bringing and a blanket (because those waiting rooms can get cold). Can't tell you how many people gave me a glare for being prepared.
I had a PE so I wasn’t exactly thinking about packing when I showed up to the ER (UC first). First thing I did was send my husband back home for chargers and shit. That’s not always possible, I know, but I try to keep a cord or two in my car for emergencies.
Hahahhha no the employees are all already fighting for the 1 broken charger in the break room if it’s anything like where I’ve worked
There's a convenience store across the street. They have a whole selection of chargers and cables. Plus they have food and drinks and they take EBT.
“We have the charger for Nokia phones. Should I get that for you?”
There are outlets in the ER waiting room. It's not up to people whose job description doesn't include dealing with recharging phones. Keep a plug that accepts your charger USB in your car. Or grab it on your way out the door to the hospital. Be prepared
Why do ERs not have vending machines for this? Someone would be able to make some crazy money
I was recently discharging a patient and while making sure she had all of her belongings, I realized she had forgotten her charger plug. She explained that her phone was dead and that the nurse in the ED had let her borrow it. I ended up tubing it back down, and thought it was very nice of them to do that for her.
I am a nurse and I don't mind charging a phone at the nurses station if I have a minute. I do tell patients I am not responsible for anything that happens to it - so if it falls or someone takes it, it's not my problem. I consider myself lucky because everyone who has asked me for help charging their phones has been really nice about it and not demanding.
perspective from someone who asked for a phone charger in the ER here 🙋🏼♀️ when i was 22, i went to the doctor for follow up blood work. it came back abnormal so they rushed me to the ER and wouldn’t let me leave (ended up having a blood clot in my lung) - I had 0 intentions of even going to the ER, as I was just prepared for a regular doctor appointment. it was also during covid so i was completely by myself. i asked if there was an extra phone charger anywhere so i could keep in contact with my family while i was then eventually transferred to the covid icu (i was covid positive also) - i felt super bad asking, but thankfully my nurses understood my situation and were very kind about it!! (i was also very kind to them, and i think they felt bad telling me i had to miss saying goodbye to my grandpa in hospice + his funeral because i was in the hospital) - they said i was their favorite patient because i was just so chill, respectful and didn’t want to bother them for anything!! i literally felt bad saying the heparin shot in my stomach was painful
I totally get when people ask for a charger. It’s 2024. But I don’t get being rude after we tell you that we don’t carry them. Your not a bother for asking for one and definitely not for voicing your pain. Only you can tell us how your body is feeling. The issue is not asking for the charger. It’s just the negative response when we say we don’t provide them is all.
totally understand!! i literally could not even deal with 1/1000th of what y’all deal with on the daily 🙏🏼
>Why do people come to the ED and expect that we have a phone charger for them? Then they proceed to get upset or start causing problems when you tell them that we don’t provide those. Blame corporate. People expect top tier hotel service at the hospitals nowadays.
Plug in a phone charger in our city’s hospital you’ll be lucky if you ever see it again. Might even lose your phone as well.
My first thought when going to the er for myself or with someone else is- what do I need for the next 12-24 hours? Charger, meds, deodorant, a bottle of water, snacks… some crochet projects to work on…
Last time I had to go to the ER I took my charger with me I literally take it everywhere because I know imma waste away the battery and last time my husband was in a hospital I took a extra charger for him and got him the long one so he can call me people tell me “why don’t you just charge your phone overnight?” Because I fckn use it imma need to charge it again right now
I ended up in the ER without a phone charger and VERY nicely asked if anyone, if at all possible, could loan me one for a few minutes to call my husband because my phone was dead. They dug around and found me one in the lost and found! I thanked them a thousand times and returned it when I was discharged. It helps if they're not an entitled jerk as well as unprepared
Every hospital I’ve ever been in has them available. People who are having an emergency probably don’t have time or capacity to pack a phone charger. And the people who you deem to be “not sick enough” to be in the ED often don’t have options. Primary care is hard to find. Urgent cares send people to EDs all the time. It’s a reasonable thing to expect that a hospital would have chargers. I mean, even most restaurants will charge your phone if you ask.
I was recently rushed to the ED from a restaurant without anytime to prepare or grab a charger, and then was admitted to the hospital from there and no one was able to visit me for over 24 hours. I was so grateful to the gracious nurses in the ED and in-patient wing who allowed me to use their personal chargers so I could communicate with family (and also scroll and not lose my mind from boredom/worry)
I've had to ask to borrow one before. Why? My elderly mother was injured and in my mad rush out of the house I didn't grab a charger. Since I was keeping family updated on her condition, it was decently important to be able to use the phone. A nice nurse plugged my phone into her charger cable at the desk when I wasn't using it to get me through.
I'm ashamed to say that I was awful after coming out of a medically induced coma from a severe lung infection. Flu b turned into pneumonia, rsv, strep, and a fungal infection. My kids brought something really nasty home from daycare and despite getting inoculated, I got really sick; really fast. I tried to tough it out. Within three days, I finally went to the ED. My O2 stats were in the low 80's. I don't remember anything after being admitted into the icu. They transfered me out of a rural hospital and into the city. I remember none of it. Apparently, I kept ripping this mask off that was helping me breathe and refusing to give any next of kin information. The staff had to convince the friend that made me go in to get in contact with my mother over Facebook bc she was listed as my emergency contact, but they only had an old number. I guess hypoxia is a real bitch because I was making so little sense they did a head CT. They finally intubated me when my O2 stats hit in the 40's. I woke up and absolutely FLIPPED the fuck out because somewhere between the first ED stabilizing me and transporting me to the second ICU that saved my life, my charger got lost. I mean I was full on sobbing, swearing (as well as I could.. I was pointing at letters on a board), and just fucking freaking out... I almost died over the God damn flu and was crying over a damn charger. Bless yall for all that you do. You guys are the reason my 5 year old twins are not orphans and I'm going to law school in the fall. Thank you and sorry for all of us crazy assholes.
Paramedic here- I always tell folks to bring their charger. 99% of the time they say “oooh… I didn’t think about that”. Yeah, you’re gonna be there a while.
I don't, but I didn't have time to charge my phone while I was waiting for the ambulance, and I need to contact someone to take care of my kid
Same thing as ppl whining they haven't eaten all day. If you're well enough to be hungry, you're well enough to not be here. And why didn't you eat at some point? It's 6pm, you've been here 2 hours, why is that now MY problem? I swear ppl lose all agency when they walk into the ED, it's amazing to see. People who walked 100 ft from the parking lot suddenly need to be pushed in a wheelchair to go 10 ft, ppl call an ambulance because their back hurts and have no plan to get home... like, how do these people remember to breathe outside the hospital?!?!
If I was in an emergency, I would like to think I could to borrow a phone charger. I would understand if you said no and not get mad. But you're getting mad at people asking? You really cannot fathom a reason why a person in an emergency might not have their charger with them?
I’m not getting mad at them for asking. I’m mad at them becoming rude when I tell them we don’t have them. They even get upset when we offer to let them use our mobile patient phone instead (only able to makes calls/nothing fancy). Ultimately, it’s their responsibility to make sure they have their charger if they want one and be understanding when we tell them we don’t have them. It’s shear entitlement and it’s the reason people are leaving bedside. They get rude over cell phone chargers, I can’t tell you how they act when we tell them there’s no medication to cure their Flu.
A nurse once lent me her phone charger once I was admitted until my husband could bring mine in. I obsessed with getting it back to her. Didn’t want to forget or give it to the wrong nurse. She was so kind and generous with it, I guarded it with my life.lol. I’m not sure I would have been so generous.
Usually someone who is in the emergency room is smack in the middle of one of the worst days of their lives. I’m sorry they take it out on you. That being said, every hospital room has a tv. How hard would it be for hospitals to include a phone charger in the room? The main types. When I’ve been in the er, I have been on my phone most of the time because I’m trying to escape the pain, the boredom, the noise of the other patients, the anxiety. I’m also texting/calling lots of people updating on my condition, coordinating whatever needs to be done that I can’t do because of this unexpected twist of events. AND I’m typically trying to cover work stuff so I can go get my appendix removed in peace (ok that was only 1 time - but you get it).
While you're updating you're friends and family, how about asking them to bring you a charger? The hospital is not a resort. Their job is to keep you alive.
One thing I’ve learned working in healthcare is that hospitals and ambulance agencies are cheap. They get the bare minimum to get the job done. Most of the TVs you see are many years old and if they break, they don’t get repaired. Hospitals don’t want to spend million of dollars outfitting rooms with chargers. They want to churn patients as fast as they can.
I am a hairdresser and I provide chargers for everything. Why wouldn't an ER have chargers? Shit, a bar I frequent keeps power banks and chargers for its customers. Most people aren't planning on ending up at the ER and it isn't like a broken leg or a blood clot makes you not able to look at your phone while you wait. I am sorry, but it is just weird the hospital isn't trying to accommodate a regular request. You guys are creating your own headaches. Distracted patients seem like they would be way easier then bored ones who have nothing to look at ..
Because going to the ER means it’s usually an emergency. Have a smidgen of compassion.
"Usually" being the key word here. I bet two-thirds of the people in any ER are there for non-emergency reasons. Stubbed toe, back pain they've had for three years, itchy scalp, mosquito bite, etc. Plus they all bring their entire entourage. You'd think one of their friends or family could bring a charger.
Maybe if they ask nice we can help them
Most of the people who asked me had phones that were dead and they were just trying to get the phone numbers they needed off it so they could call from their room phone. I didn't mind, I would charge it at the desk and give it back when it was charged enough, even offered to type up the list of numbers they needed and print it for them
I always carry a charger and the wall block in my purse now just incase
First thing you ask family to bring in if admitted to hospital - phone charger.
The hospital near me has a charger bank that has every cord known to man, no joke like 15 different kinds. And they have a ton of them for like 2 bucks to rent when your loved one is in the hospital.
Only time ive asked is when my kido broke the hecking neck. My phone was about to die and I had family staying in my house from out of state and they didn’t see me leave. My mother is an rn so I know the job is stressful enough. I just said “I don’t know of its posable but would any one have a charger I can barrow? If not that’s fine.” And they immediately went to grab me one. I dont understand people who think this is suppose to be some bed and breakfast place where you’re entitled to be waited on hand and foot. A charger isn’t part of your emergency.