Le Triage Nurse
I wasn't feeling very well yesterday so I decided to go to the walk-in clinic in my university. Unfortunately, the clinic was full so the receptionist referred me to the triage nurse. I told him that I had severe pain on my lower back and front on the right side. Believing that the pain was associated with appendicitis apparently, he advised that I urgently go the emergency room in the hospital. Upon hearing that I lifted my eyebrow (partly dreading 8 -10 hours of ER waiting time) and declared that I don't have any symptoms that suggest that I have appendicitis so I'd much rather just come back tomorrow to see a doc. I think my defiance offended him so he started making a statement which renders me responsible for not going to the ER despite his suggestion lol. I thanked him and left the room but before leaving, I made a point of mentioning that I am a med school student.
Today, when I actually got a chance to see a doc, I looked at the notes on my file from yesterday which were something like this:
"No MD available, patient complains of pain in lower right quadrant, patient refuses to go to ER, says she is a "med school student" might RTC tomorrow - attention self-diagnosis issue**"
I laughed out loud after reading those comments. I didn't know he'd be that offended to write comments with such sarcasm in my file lol. I'd never experienced anything like that in my life before haha. Aren't nurses supposed to be passionate, kind and willing to help patient according to his/her needs? O.o
Turns out it is only muscular or stress-related pain. *cheers for saving my precious 8 hours yesterday*