I work in ER. I love triaging patients because I get to hear things that you would not normally hear anywhere else.
These are just a few examples of some of the profound conversations taking place at triage desk (I have a lot more ER stories to share on my blog urgentemergencies.blogspot.ca) :
Nurse: "On a scale of 1 to 10 how bad is your pain?"
Patient: "10."
Nurse: "So this is the worst pain you've ever had?"
Patient: "No, I've definitely had worse."
Nurse: "So, out of 10, what would you rate your pain at?"
Patient: "10."
Patient: "The last time I was here I had pneumonia. They were gonna intubate me but I left."
Patient: "I had an ectopic pregnancy once but nobody could find it."
Nurse: "So how did you know you had it?"
Patient: "I could feel it was there. But then I hit myself in the stomach with a broom and used other objects and I dislodged it."
Nurse: "???"
Nurse: "From 1 to 10, 10 being the worst pain you can imagine, how bad is your pain?"
Patient: "12."
Nurse: "10 being the worst pain you can imagine."
Patient: "12."
Nurse: "OK."
And my all time favorite:
Nurse: "Do you have chest pain?"
Patient: "No, but I do have pain in my chest."
