Do You Want To Know What Bothers A Cardiac Nurse?

This is a little venting on my part today. Call it my therapy for the week. Do you want to know what bothers cardiac nurses more than anything? Patients that come in with heart attacks, chest pain, in cardiac arrest, or CHF and their toxicology screen is a big fat positive! Uh huh. And you know, it is always a mix and match of illegal drugs. It’s never just one. No, they have to mix cocaine with pot with heroin.

Now these are the same patients that can’t understand why they had a heart attack at the ripe ol’ age of 28 and don’t understand why they can’t go out to the corner to have a smoke with a peripheral line inserted directly into their vein. Hello people???? Are you kidding me.

And then these very same patients are vomiting, shaking. sweating and crying for their mommies because they are starting withdrawal. Which by the way, is no fun at all! I can attest to that. I have seen it countless times and it is never pretty.

So instead of this cardiac nurse taking care of her sick and end stage diseased patients, she is stuck in the room with the big ol’ baby that is going through something that he brought on all by himself. These other patients didn’t ask to have cardiomyopathy and be on heart transplant lists and be fighting for their lives at 58 years old. They are sick and deserve my attention.

I know I took that oath and all, and I try to treat all my patients the same. But the drug abuse, nasty, verbally abusive, physically assaulting patients that are taking up one of our beds to detox after inducing a heart attack due to partying make it darn hard, you know?

What do you think about this? Would you be upset if your loved one was sharing a room with someone that was throwing things, cursing and hitting their nurses because they didn’t want to be in the hospital after coming in via 911 and cardiac arrest? Would you feel safe leaving them there in that room? Just something to think about. Sometimes us nurses have to let it out, or else we would cry!