Ever want to be on ER?

Usually work is work, and even though I spent much of my time in the ER it is very unlike the show. Today, however, work today was a bit excessive. I only saw one client myself, but the ER was at full capacity, with five of the clients being there for mental health reasons. Yes folks, it was once again one of those days when we had more clients than we have clinicians, but this time the ER staff was breathing down our necks because they were full with medical situations - no, no, no big drama like gunshot wounds or cardiac arrests today, but you wouldn't know it with the urgency that the nursing staff and doctors were bustling about and telling us to"This woman needs to get upstairs right now! We just don't have room for her down here." I remained calm though. That's my job after all, isn't it? To stay calm in the midst of chaos. So I tell the woman, "When I've had a chance to read the chart, I will evaluate her and only then can I make the determination if she is appropriate to go upstairs [this is the psych ward by the way]. If she is appropriate, I will do my best to get her a placement as quickly as I can. A pre-approval has already been made if she is appropriate, but even then the evaluation [ten pages] still needs to be typed up before they will actually take her upstairs as you know." The woman - I believe she was the charge nurse - looked at me scornfully and muttered that "If we don't clear some of these bays we're going to have to go into diversion!" She then turned to get on someone else's case.

You know, there is only so much I can do. I'm going to be as calm as I can in the process, but when people are yelling at me to do my job faster than I am capable - or for that matter, tell me to bypass what my responsibilities are, well it gets me a little irritated. And I guess that's still where I am. More tired than irritated really, but tired never helps irritated. It is now several hours after the incident, but I am still just beat from it. The client, by the way, did go upstairs. And I'm fairly proud to say that she was out of the over-packed ER within the hour - record time with someone who needs hospitalization.