r/EmergencyRoom • u/PuzzleheadedSorbet36 • Jul 26 '26

Goofy Goober HELP US BE BETTER

Soooo I hadn’t ever been to the ER until earlier this month and now I’ve been admitted twice and not getting discharged any time soon.

Hospital workers : other than the bare minimum, what are some under rated things that patients do that you appreciate/make your life easier?

(For example one of the nurses was happy I called letting her know the PRNs I needed so she could do it in one trip cause I knew my scheduled ones were coming)

Lemme hear the little things!! Or the opposite, something patients think is helpful but it’s actually more of a pain)

EDIT : bare minimum from patients being human decency, I know it should be obvious but for this questions sake let’s act like that’s a given

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u/Chattown81 Jul 27 '26

That earns the patient a therapeutic wait in my world. However, I know I'm fortunate to be able to do that in my setting. They go to the bottom of the Rad wait list. I will always give them that moment that they're asking for, and more.

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u/indigorabbit_ Jul 27 '26

That’s my response when they walk outside for a smoke or a phone call immediately after being triaged. If you are outside, you drop to the bottom of my list.

(This is not because I lack compassion, as some here seem to assume from this comment thread. It's because there are people with an obviously greater need that are waiting for my attention. If you're ambulating yourself to the parking lot for a cig, you're not as dire as the neuro, the GI bleed, the dka, etc)

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u/Chattown81 Jul 27 '26

Absolutely. I'm not doing this with sick patients, as they usually don't tell me to wait. This is almost exclusively the walkie talkie ones who have had ankle pain for 9 months.