Point of view, November 26, 2004

What ever happened to being responsible for yourself...owning up to your actions and mistakes, and holding yourself accountable for the circumstances of your own life? Sometimes I wonder, would people think I'm the most insensitive, uncompassionate, heartless doctor if they were privy to the ramblings of my internal monologue?At King we have lots of traveling nurses. Mostly I welcome their presence because they bring "new insight" that lots of the native King nurses lack. Yesterday RN Wendell told me that I was one of the best doctors he'd come across in his travels. Other staff frequently gives me similar compliments...and the patients express gratitude, which is what makes it all worthwhile.However, there are those people who...really are accustomed to doing whatever the hell they wanna do, with blythe disregard for consequences. And they need to be checked from time to time.For instance, there's the 55 y/o alcoholic african american male, brought in by paramedics complaining of abdominal pain. History of alcoholic liver disease, gastritis, and chronic pancreatits. He reeks of alcohol, and is mildly intoxicated. We (taxpayers) spend thousands of dollars on his workup, and after 8 hours in King's ER, we determine he has acute pancreatits. Now, as he's sobering up, he becomes belligerent and demanding (specifically) demerol 100 mg IVP. What the hell?? Well, he's certainly not gonna get that from me tonight. After a couple of critical patients are stabilized he's up and fussin...
Source: EM Physician - Backstage Pass - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Source Type: blogs