Tuesday 9 April 2013

7/10 pain or Let me finish my burger before you triage me

Just an advice to all those ER patients-to-be:

If you come to my ER and tell me that the pain in your toe that you stubbed on a table leg a week ago (!) is a 7 out of 10, with 10 being the worst pain you've ever had in your life or can possibly imagine, I will not feel too sympathetic to your suffering and will not put you ahead of other people or abandon my other patients to go looking for a doc to get an order for your pain meds. I might tell you to "limp" your way over to a chair to have a seat and wait for your turn. And while you're waiting for a couple of hours, instead of texting on your phone, you might as well observe other patients around you to boost your imagination a little and a get a sense of what a true 7/10 pain might look like. So that you can fake it better next time you come to ER with a paper cut or something. Thanks.

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