I get that a&e is busy, but was not expecting to be spoken to so rudely

[mitsicar]

Went to a&e tonight. I have a foreign object stuck in my ear. I did not know it was in there until someone looked last night before I left my house and said i should get it looked at. Wasn't able to go to a&e today as my son had his own medical appointment in another city that I have waited months for and we were in a hotel for last night. There was no way I was cancelling it for my own ailment.

The pain has got significantly worse. Have shooting pains into my jaw and cheek bone and my ear is making clicking noises. This is since about lunch time today. Went to a&e this evening and the triage nurse asked me how long it had been in my ear. I said I suspect a few weeks, but I thought I just had an earache and it went away after a while so thought it was gone. Got some new foam ear plugs last week (which obviously pushed the foreign body in further!) and am now suffering for it. I hadn't finished when she cut me off and said 'well I don't really understand why you have picked this evening to come to a&e' and told me I would be better off going to my GP. I am in some pain but ended up leaving because she just made me feel like I had done an awful thing by heading straight after my son's appointment. I spoke to 111 earlier in the day and they told me to go to a&e asap because I could risk my hearing and that whilst it isn't life threatening, it is both an accident and an emergency. I asked if I could wait until morning and they said no. This was the 111 dr not the triage staff. I have no idea if this is the correct advice.

AIBU to think I didn't do anything wrong? I told her a medical professional has looked at it (a friend of mine who is a dr of 30 years) and said it needs ent because of how far in it is and she actually rolled her eyes at me and said I should see an actual GP (I suspect by that she meant my own GP?) and that a&e were sending everyone to minor injuries and that cases like mine are the reason she now has a 6 hour waiting list.

Is this normal for a&e now? Is it so awful working there that being rude has just become the norm or do most people have a better bedside manner? I haven't been to a&e since I was a child and was really shocked by the way I was spoken to, after being advised to go there by 111 and a trusted friend who is a medical doctor (GP).

To add, she didn't look in my ear.

Would you have done anything different? Am I missing something?

OP was rightly sent there by her GP. Delay was caused by the triage nurse wrongl and rudely sending her away. RTFT fgs, or at least some of it!

What I genuinely don't understand is when they post 3 days after the OP wrote it and several hundred people have said the same thing.

They must think they're contributing something... but what? Maybe they just enjoy typing opinions based on half-read text and a lot of imagination?

They should have told her that paracetamol doesn't work for migraines and sent her off to get something more effective.

Of course, it might not have been a migraine or headache and might have been a brain tumour. Unless they examine her, they won't know. She could also be a repeat offender and just be an attention seeker, who knows.

Because ED is for major incidents where you are likely to die or unlikely to repair without fairly immediate specialist attention.

Broken bones, severe head injury, needing stitches, urgent x-ray required to establish if someone is broken, heart attack etc.

People nip of to A&E with all sorts. My friend is a resident Dr and she's looking for a different job as she's so sick of treating people that don't need to be there.

I was in a couple of months ago post seizure with my son. New seizure activity. We waited absolutely ages because of the time waters. There was a child who was constipated secondary to poor diet. Parents had a GP appt for the next day but decided a night out to A& E was more convenient, a 6 year old child with tonsillitis, a teenager who "didn't feel well" and Mum had brought her knitting and a KFC with her, a kid with a supposed sore ankle who was bombing around happy as a clam whilst her Mum excitedly phoned everyone in the phone book to tell them she was on hospital.

Meanwhile there was a toddler who arrived with partial thickness burns and a 5 ISH year old with severe concussion. They really did need seeing quickly and that's where the staff want the attention to be. This is why the staff are very irritated.

Constipation can be an emergency. Bowel can perforate. It's very judgemental to assume the child has a poor diet. My child has chronic constipation. He is on dialysis medication. His diet is varied and not a factor in his medical condition. However, many children with ongoing constipation are also autistic and may have restrictive diets due to autism or AFRID and you can't just force feed a child. This doesn't make them time wasters btw it just means their medical conditions are complicated with additional disabilities.
Sometimes medicine isn't enough and hospital is this right place for constipation. Waiting is neglect when a child needs medical attention now.

In addition children have died recently with what was thought to be simple tonsillitis but the child deteriorated rapidly.

Not feeling well could be anything from minor to major.

Children are also renowned for being up and down. The child with the sire leg could have been limping earlier. We once got sent to a and e by GP when one of the children woke up unable to weight bare at all. The GP assessed and was concerned, a and e were concerned it was a bone infection caused by strep a. They were admitted to the ward for antibiotics. It was worrisome as I hadn't expected anything serious.
As it turned out it wasn't a bone infection thankfully but the hospital was concerned enough to start treatment in case it was.
I have also been sent to hospital by GP with a different child who went from looking very unwell to fine once we arrived at a and e. However, the GP had sent us and we needed to stay to get the all clear. If we had just gone home this would be Potential neglect red flag.

Meanwhile there was a toddler who arrived with partial thickness burns and a 5 ISH year old with severe concussion. They really did need seeing quickly and that's where the staff want the attention to be.

Yes, perhaps there should be some system of seeing patients in order of seriousness...

Potential loss of hearing, or sight, is absolutely an A&E issue.

Nobody 'nips off' to A&E.

I've been 4 times in the past year. Because as I said upthread our surgery is overstretched and tends to send people there direct.

two times- massive chest pains and racing heart beat and breathlessness. Not a heart attack, turned out I have a particular disorder that can mimic that sort of pain. But I didn't know that and it took ages to be diagnosed. Once for an asthma attack. Once because I thought I had DVT after a long haul flight (turned out it was - embarrassingly- gout.) I'm 52 and when I am in pain and fear I tend to go very still and quiet and to sit there very calmly. Anyone looking at me (and the latter episode DH was away so i had to take my 2 Dcs with me - for the family jolly as someone upthread said ) would have thought I was a time waster on a fun day out. But although I knew very well I was having the asthma attack I had no idea what the other issues were. Because I'm not a medical professional and was sent to A&E by 111 (twice) and by the GP (once). For the asthma attack I knew myself I needed to go on account of being unable to breathe.

There is - they are called streams here. So for instance, the man in front of us, in the triage queue with clearly a lower leg injury (on crutches) was in a different stream to DD1, who was also there for a lower leg injury, but hers was caused by loss of consciousness.

Yes, I too know what happens in A&E, having done the job for years.

You sign up to the job knowing what it entails, and you continue doing it year after year knowing what it entails, because that is what you are paid to do. There is absolutely no excuse for poor behaviour and poor nursing care.

I’m at a loss to understand how this is related to OP, given that on two separate occasions she was referred to A&E by medical staff, and the ‘irritated’ nurse she encountered wasn’t in A&E but in minor injuries. And the reason she was irritated was that A&E were sending people through to her clinic and lengthening the waiting list. None of which is OP’s concern.

Recently, if they’ve got the correct tools then they can do it

That's strange as in many areas it's Blanket no

You were lucky they didn't cause ear damage or deafness

In the name of this thread it literally is mentions A and E. I had read further down that the OP had mentioned minor injuries but went along with A and E because that's what it mentions. I can't change that.

My post was somewhat reflective of what I felt OP should consider doing now she was home. In truth, I wouldn't have left. I would have apologised for any misunderstanding of where I should and shouldn't have been, ensured the reasons for me being there had been fully understood and asked where else I should have been.

This would have highlighted a few different things:

I had turned up after already seeking advice

I had been told by X amount of people that I should be here

The situation is worthy of assessment and not to be dismissed.

OP, doesn't mention if they had reiterated or made it clear how bad the situation was to the nurse.

The nurse shouldn't have spoken to OP the way that they did, but let's just think about what else may have come through the doors that evening for the nurse to rant in the way she did.

If someone comes in complaining of earache when you've just dealt with a trauma you may rant a little.

If that person then made it clear that they were actually very much in pain, had saught alternatives and still arrived here: there may have been a reassesment.

I'm not excusing her behaviour, but saying... let's think about the other person's perspective for a second.

There are also people who would go to A and E instead of a routine GP appointment- maybe the nurse felt this particular patient should have known to access the GP service (again, patient would have then explained the history of this).

Either way, it seems OP is sorted now 😊

All of this just says to me:

Nurse needs to hold her tongue until she has heard full information. Full information will likely be longer than one opening sentence.

Then she can make a judgement....

I know that I couldn't do that job and will always applaud people who do.
There's no questioning that the HCP in this particular story was dismissive and perhaps also rude... but having also needed emergency services in the most desperate situation I have ever been in. Ever. I'll always make sure that wherever I am, it's justified to be there. . . And hope that I'm understanding towards the person I'm asking help from.

I think that had OP maybe reiterated her position, and not left, the nurse may have come to realise that OP was in the right place. 😊

Personally, it's something I can forgive.

I don't disagree. But I wouldn't have just left either. I'd have explained my reasons for being there.
I can see why OP might not have felt they could but I think a simple "I've been to my GP. They told me to come here. The pain is in my jaw and I'm worried about infection" would have changed this.

Glad OP is now sorted 😊

I agree leaving the first night was short sighted. A&E staff seem to make up their own minds before a patient has even opened their mouth though and it infuriates me.

Mum: "I think I have broken my pelvis"

Triage nurse abruptly interrupting: "well how do you know that?? What makes you think that??"

Mum: because I am osteoporatic, have a history of spontaneous fractures, three in the 12 months, one of which was the other side of my pelvis and it felt then like it feels now.

🙄🙄
The triage nurse soon shut her mouth and listened.

ETA - we were right. Mum had indeed broken the other half of her pelvis

@mitsicar I hope the foreign body is gone and you're starting to heal now.

Exactly, usually a blanket no as in this case.
For those interested in evidence from experts
https://patient.info/doctor/emergency-medicine/foreign-bodies-in-the-ear

The nurse shouldn't have spoken to OP the way that they did, but let's just think about what else may have come through the doors that evening for the nurse to rant in the way she did.
If someone comes in complaining of earache when you've just dealt with a trauma you may rant a little.

No, you may not. It is unprofessional, unhelpful and means you are in the wrong job.

Yes, perhaps there should be some system of seeing patients in order of seriousness

Yes if only A&E departments operated some sort of triage system. Oh wait...

I think that's a big issue. Medical staff always know best and don't listen.

What's the saying - you have two ears and only one mouth? There's a reason for that!

20 years ago I was told to go to A&E when my son had a foreign body in his nose. By a GP.

Kindly stop talking nonsense about things you know nothing about.

And in this case the OP was told to go to minor injuries which is where she went.

🤣🤣
im nearly deaf already!
it was the end of my hearing aid that was in my ear
🤣

I worry about the ends of my ear buds. They have popped off but I've been able to retrieve them so far.