We Can't Save You | Teen Ink

We Can't Save You

January 17, 2011
By Kailey Schwarzenbacher SILVER, Pewaukee, Wisconsin
Kailey Schwarzenbacher SILVER, Pewaukee, Wisconsin
7 articles 0 photos 0 comments

The emergency room can be super busy, and if you have a slowly worsening disease you do not want to wait in the waiting room before you see a doctor. Not having enough doctors or enough rooms can be stressful for the doctors on shift. Hospitals are uncomfortable places to be especially when you are sick. Waiting rooms can be busy, but the doctors need to speed up the process and get the patients care.

The article, “We Can’t Save You,” explains that emergency rooms can be very busy at times. People who have slowly worsening diseases want better treatment. In the ER, there are doctors who know more about some things than others. Who wants to be the person telling the family their relative is dying? The doctors and nurses are struggling to help patients be aware of what is happening to the patient. They try to have different doctors and nurses with different characteristics to create a balance in the ER. “In real life, one in 500 ER patients—200,000 a year—dies under the bright lights of the emergency rooms.” (Kenen, 2010)

It can be frustrating to be on shift when the ER is backed up; however, the nurses and doctors learn to cope. Nurses and doctors scramble daily to care for all patients. Making the decision of transferring a patient to a different room or hospital can be life or death. On television the people who are dying survive, but in the ER that is not always the case. They want them to be against the odds and overcome the disease they carry. Family members are waiting anxiously; they want to know how their loved one is doing. Emergency rooms need to work on multiple aspects: their priorities, the friendliness in stressful situations, and it might be worth having a back up nurse or doctor come in when it is super busy.

Television series do not always tell you about what really happens. The quote stated earlier proves that not all cases in the ER end happily. Society gives us so many images and thoughts that are not true.
In the article there are multiple doctors who say the ER is a stressful place to work. They are working on changing the number of nurses and doctors they have on staff. No one should have to wait in the waiting room. They are going to the ER because they have an emergency.


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