The state of healthcare...

[proverbialgirl]

It's so much worse than I imagined. I asked my Emergency Medicine attending how he handles the obvious drug seekers who come through our department on a regular basis. I wish I hadn't asked. You see, I know that pain is pain, whether physical or emotional; but I have branded myself as someone who seeks to relieve pain in others - I mean, isn't

Comments

[schwap23]

Wow! I had no idea, but the bare, cold logic of it is inescapable once you see it... Not the kind of thing I expect will be on ER anytime soon though!

[aineotter]

I remember having to sign, along with a tech, that we had disposed of the fentanyl patches I took off my patient (a horse with severe laminitis in both front feet) by putting them in the sharps container. I reamian certian that anyone who would suck on fentanyl patch that had been strapped to a horses leg for 48 hours would certianly go into the sharps bin after it. Hell, *I* went into the sharps bin once or twice after blood samples I'd accidentially dropped in.
Animals are rarely drug seeking, but occasionaly their owners are, and veterinarians and vet techs are statistcally high risk for drug abuse. Especially vets; there's access plus stress, plus the the intellectual hubris of believing that if you understand the pharmacology, you wont't become a 'real' addict.

[cleojones]

And I thought triage was bad enough, when it doesn't work.

:( Hang in there.