by Sara Rainer

Created on: June 26, 2008

Your doctors visit took a long time? Please let me give you something to always remember. As a cardiac nurse for a prodominent cardiologist, I have seen a lot of patients come and go in a years time. Nothing makes me more upset than having a very angry patient walk out the door. I can't stress enough how many times I have been screamed at, told I was so stupid, told my doctor was stupid, that I was a bad nurse, that I didnt care about people, etc. I just want to put the word out there so that people understand something. When you go to the doctor, dont expect to walk in and out in ten minutes. Expect to be there a while. Also please understand that 9 times out of 10, it is not the nurse's fault that it is takiing so long for you to be seen. Many times, the doctor has an emergency, someone is dieing and needs immediate care. Sometimes it is us trying to get records for you so we can better to care for you. Would you rather us not? You might not get the proper care if the doctor is not fully informed of your situation. Other doctors offices cant always drop what they are doing to get them to us. Sometimes that takes time to get them sent over as well. Things like this are important to us. Our goal is always to provde the best care possible.

Some good time saving tips:

- Always bring all of your medications in the bottle when going to any kind of doctors visit. They cant treat you, or optimize you medically without knowing exactly what milligram of therapy you are on.

- Stop by ahead of time and get your new patient paperwork. You can have this filled out and in the system before you even come for your appointment. This saves a good hour on the nurses time and the receptionists time.

- Give them your insurance information when you make the appointment. This way if you have something that needs to be verified, it can be done beforehand. That can save a lot of time, a lot of times.

When you are there making a jerk of yourself, it makes you look insensitive, gets us in trouble, and puts the doctor in a bad mood. If he/she is concentrating on the patient in the lobby angrily screaming because they have had to wait 30 minutes, then he isnt thinking about the peoples lives he needs to save. I ask you, to have a little patience, a little care. When you get angry with us, for only trying to help you, not only does it make us have a bad day, thus making other patients suffer, but it really affects us. We try our best, please dont be so hard on us..:)

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