Trip to the E.R.
While moving a patient at work the other day, the nurse that was helping me move the patient wasn't paying attention to what they were doing and ran over my foot with a bed. I didn't really think anything was broken, but as a precaution (and a matter of protocol) I went to the E.R.. This was the first time that I had been a patient sense I started working their seven months ago. It was a very surreal experience. Many of the other patients probably thought that I was getting special treatment sense I was an employee (I was still in scrubs and name badge). This idea was also fueled by the fact that some of them had to wait for a longer time to be seen by anyone and I had people coming up to me shortly after I arrived, and I had vastly more people come and talk to me then they did. What these people didn't know is that most of the people that came up to talk to me were doing so in a non clinical capacity (asking what happened, and just poking fun at me). In regards to actually being seen by a doctor or staff for the purposes of my care I was a low priority, so I was seen after most of the others that came in with me. I maintained my usual jovial spirit while at work, and tried to help out as much as I could while their (provided it didn't require standing or walking on my hurt foot). Knowing the E.R. like I do, I was able to do something to help myself that most patients can't do. I went to sleep. You see the reality of an E.R. is that the person that's hurt worst is the one that's going to get seen first by a doctor and will receive the most attention. On that bases I want to be the last person seen. So I knew that I was going to have to wait because my injures where small. I also knew that watching the clock wasn't going to get me help any sooner, it would only make me more frantic. So I eliminated that problem by just going to sleep. All and all I think I found the ride on the stretcher the most disconcerting. This in and of it's self is disconcerting because, that's my job at the moment. Hopefully this will allow me to sympathize better with my patients, and make me better at what I do, or maybe it's just one night spent in the E.R.