Stress and Challenge of the Emergency Room of the General Hospital

Abstract

During the last 50 years, patterns of administering medical services have been changing. The emergency room (ER) of the general hospital does not treat medical emergencies exclusively. Many cases of psychosocial emergency, often disguised as suicide attempts or drug-related situations, appear for help. In this paper attention was focused on the rejecting attitude of the ER personnel towards patients suffering from self-inflicted conditions such as suicide attempts, drug addiction and alcoholism. The interaction between personnel and those patients and, respectively, their relatives, is described and the reasons and circumstances of the rejecting attitude are discussed. The author proposes the subsequent suggestions for alleviating stress in the ER situation: (1) Regular rotation of ER personnel. (2) Transforming the psychiatric consultation into a teaching session. (3) Introduction of a formal training program to ER personnel which would lead to more understanding of the patients and relatives and generate a higher morale in the staff. (4) Providing timely and adequate information to relatives who are waiting outside the ER.