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What You Should Know About the Emergency Room
A doctor’s tips
Whenever someone learns I’m an emergency room physician, they reflexively ask ‘What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever seen?’ I get it — television shows like the eponymous ‘E.R.’ depict my job as full of lust, gore, and foreign objects in unexpected places.
I can humor you with stories all day long, but I’m not sure I want to. No one has ever asked me what I think is the most important question about my job: ‘What should I know about the ER if myself or my loved one is ever a patient? Any insider tips?’
There’s only one thing that unifies the thousands of patients I’ve seen in over 13 years as an emergency medicine physician: none of them ever expected to be in the ER, and certainly not at that moment. Should you ever find yourself in that position, here are 5 things you — and every patient — should know about the emergency room.
Be a squeaky wheel. But a nice one.
In an average shift, I make hundreds of decisions, big and small. And I’m usually interrupted every few minutes — a phone call from a consultant, an ECG to sign, or a “Hey doc, the patient in room 2 would like more pain medication!”
Even if I’m adept at multitasking, I forget things. Especially the smaller, not life-or-death things.
