I’ve seen too many ER Docs and RNs who’ve become burned out and jaded due to several factors: long hours under stress for years; patients who abuse the Emergency Medical System whom are often non/paying customers with the loudest demands that don’t belong in an ER, anyway; patients seeking drugs; repeat customers with drug overdoses; inebriated drivers brought in by police; on and on, with inadequate staffing and often inadequate facilities to handle the load. Incoming Chest Pain, Suspected Strokes and massive trauma, gunshot victims and internal hemorrhages are assed and receive immediate care, Then, there are patients without integrity or concern for others who feign critical symptoms to get seen first. Most ER Docs competent, not all, reflect the same high degree of dedication, professionalism and efficiency. However, I’ve seen more than one who waited for all of the rooms to be full before they’d start working. Delays at the onset add to delays for laboratory and radiology results. Mixed in, there are the real, critical cases. It is terrible situation for patients like your wife whom are forced to wait. In the old days, doctors, nurses an especially nurses who were Nuns, would give offenders a royal chewing, but not anymore. Administrations believe and act as if hospitals are businesses instead of life sustaining refuges in the war against death, disease, disfigurement and suffering. Staff that speak the raw truth are immediately dismissed, doctors included. Everyone in driven by fear of litigation instead of being free to speak honestly. The domain is so surrealistic that you’d have to live it to appreciate the magnitude of the never-ending comedic tragedy. Then, there are the shifts where almost nothing happens….
