My Emergency Medicine rotation is really getting me down. So many malingerers.

[Aristus]

:-(

I'm doing my EM rotation at a local military hospital. We get a few patients per 10-hour shift who are in some real need and for whom we can do some good. But a lot of them are just plain malingering. Faking severe pain to score narcotics. Faking a viral illness to get out of a couple of days' duty. (And they can fake all they want; Vital signs don't lie. if you don't have a fever, you're getting Tylenol, the afternoon off, and that's IT!) We live in a time when our service personnel have been romanticized and even fetishized to a fair-thee-well. But all I'm seeing right now are people with no business being in the military, where you need to have drive, a strong work-ethic, and a mission-first attitude.

And I know these are the exceptions, and that most service members are hard-working patriots. Hell, when I was a tanker in the Army, the scammers and shammers were a definite minority. But it's still depressing...

Thank you for listening to me rant.

You are good friends and I love you all...

[supernova]

1. If it helps any

Please keep in mind you are seeing a self-selecting group of people.

Most in the military are there are there to do their jobs well.

:pals:

I'm sure you're doing a fantastic job. :-)

[Aristus]

2. Yeah, I know.

And I agree.

Thanks! :-)

[Haole Girl]

3. It's difficult, I know

:hug:

[Sanity Claws]

4. Good luck -- that's hard work

The romanticization of service personnel has also bothered me. I admire the people who can do the work but the overdoing of it strikes me as propaganda and a way for the military to get more enlistees.

[LeftyMom]

5. Maybe people had more drive when you were in because of the deployment situation?

Hypochondriacs get worse under stress. Two disastrous wars with no end in sight pretty much redefines stress, no?

[Aristus]

7. That certainly is possible. Although, wars or no wars, there are always people who enlist,

and realize after they're in that they are really not military caliber. So they search for ways to get kicked out on a general discharge under honorable conditions.

I don't know. I'm just depressed...

[Akoto]

6. I hope tomorrow is a better day, but ...

Please, don't allow the fakers to make you too jaded. I suffer from a chronic pain condition, and I can be in severe pain while outwardly appearing fine. My pain management doctor takes good care of me. However, when he's not available, I've seen the suspicions of other medical professionals (particularly in the ER) seep through. They assume pill seeking, when someone may just be in a lot of pain and seeking reassurance.

Chronic pain's a terrible thing to live with. I'm only 24, and I have an unusual problem, so it's even more difficult to get past the doubt.

[conscious evolution]

8. Square needle meet

left nut.
Isn't that how the navy does it?

[stray cat]

9. Sounds like almost any clinic in a factory, business or school

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

10. It'll be better after Obama's health reform ...

Obama will appoint a new Death Tsar.

Malingerers will walk the plank.

Problem solved.

:hi:

(scammers and shammers are still in the minority. you just don't see the others in your ER. they're out doing their job)

[Deep13]

11. You've got to be fucking kidding me.

A fever is malingering?

[Aristus]

12. No, I'm not kidding you. A fever is definitely not malingering. A fever gets Mucinex, an NSAID

an anti-nausea med if they need it, an order for bed rest, and possibly a chest CT, depending on the results of the pulmonary exam. Plus a follow-up appointment with their PCP in 48-72 hours. We take fevers seriously.

It's the people who DON'T have a fever who get something for the sniffles, 12 hours rest in quarters, and a note for their sergeant.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

13. My dear Aristus...

Ah, don't let the bastards get you down!

I can bet you're doing a kick-ass job!

:hug:

[Aristus]

14. Thanks, CalPeg!

B-) :hi:

[Adsos Letter]

15. My daughter (just now about 1/2 way through her final year of med school)...

did her Emergency Room rotation at a hospital in Philadelphia: multiple gunshot wounds, stabbings, beatings, drunks, drug-seeking admits.

In a way, she made a similar observation to me just the other day: the patients she had the hardest time with, personally, were those who faked symptoms in order to get narcotics; said it made her feel used/manipulated.

I realize this isn't exactly the same. I guess I'm trying to buck you up a bit by telling you that she is now in the process of flying all over the country to meet 23 Ophthalmology residency interviews. So, My Good Aristus, there is a light at the end of that tunnel.

And I, too, remember the shammers; how did the sarge used to call it out? "Who's on sickcall; the Sick, the Lame, and the Lazy, fall out over here..."

Hang in there bud, it gets better.

EDIT: ...but my spelling could use some help... :dunce: