Reply to Do you hate the term “drug seeking” when it’s used on people who are seeking legitimate medication?

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Reply to "Do you hate the term “drug seeking” when it’s used on people who are seeking legitimate medication?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Addiction is still very poorly understood by ER health care professionals. Most don't seem to have any understanding of why an addict would be 'drug-seeking'. They just see this as a person lying, being attention seeking, manipulative, and overall a bad person.

Also the idea of anyone who knows their own health being seen as a threat to the expertise of the docs/nurses and therefore gets dismissed and treated poorly because how dare anyone say they know what works for them...[/quote]

You can know what works for you. You can say you know what works for you. You cannot force a licensed professional to put that license on the line to do what you say, just because youa re saying it.[/quote]

True, but it is cruel for that “professional” to react by telling others you are drug-seeking and either discharge you without care or ignore you in a room for hours. [/quote]

I don't think that any patient ever deserves cruelty, or being ignored, or being disrespected. Professionals should be professionals. Language should be thoughtful, precise, and accurate -- and kind, as much as possible.
[b]
That being said, there is no words you can use to explain to a patient that you are not going to prescribe what they think they need (but which it is in your medical judgment, and on your license, inappropriate) that goes over well. [/b]It can be done better or worse ways, but it is never welcomed.

An emergency room is required to stabilize people. It is not there for longterm management. If you are discharged and stable, they have done their job.

And I say this gently and sincerely -- often a big part of emergency room care is observation. Someone comes in with serious distress, and the examination, including vitals, is non-worrisome. You watch and wait to see if something worse develops. Ideally this is communicated to the patient -- sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't, and sometimes it is but the patient doesn't hear it. And sometimes a multi-car pile-up comes in and it's all hands on deck elsewhere.

I hope you find a plan to move forward that works better than what has happened in the past. I'm sorry you are dealing with this on top of pain.[/quote]

The problem is that the health professional often is poorly informed when they make this call. They make all kinds of assumptions, don't listen to the patient or ask questions to find out what is really happening, and have the wrong idea of the situation. So they often think something is inappropriate because they don't have (nor want) the information that would provide the context for the request. It is easier and faster to just jump to a quick conclusion and prescribe something really easy, general, and safe where you don't even need to know the story. Very few doctors have any interest in outcomes or whether or not their treatment was effective or worked. They just want to move down the line and erase you off the board and get you out the door alive. [/quote]

The quickest way to get rid of you is just to give you a prescription for what you want. Apparently, that's not happening.[/quote]

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