Had a patient yell at me for 10 minutes because I wouldn't give them dinner at 3am

Working night shift in the ER, a guy got furious I refused to heat up his meal tray two hours before breakfast time. Has anyone else dealt with someone losing it over something that small in the middle of the night?

3 comments

3 Comments

margareto2626d ago

and you're totally right about that @joel_jones. My friend works in a nursing home and told me about this one time an elderly lady started crying and screaming because they ran out of strawberry pudding. She was yelling about how it was the only thing she looked forward to all day. Turned out her son hadn't visited in months and that pudding was her little bit of comfort. So yeah, it's never really about the small thing.

charles_mitchell27d ago

Man, I gotta say I used to roll my eyes at stories like this. I figured people just needed to chill out, you know? But then I had this guy scream at me for a solid five minutes because I wouldn't open the pharmacy window at 2am for a pack of gum. He was pacing, red in the face, all because he forgot to buy gum earlier. That moment really hit me. It's never really about the gum or the dinner tray right?

joel_jones27d ago

@charles_mitchell spot on, it's never about the gum or the tray. You just see that moment where all the little problems in someone's day pile up and explode. That's what changed my view too, cause you realize the poor guy probably had a rough shift or a messed up home life.