For the last time.

Pardon my french, but I don't give two shits if you have insurance. Seriously. I don't care. I probably don't even know. The same thing is true for every other nurse in the ER, ever. At our hospital most of it comes in the form of," you don't care about me because I don't have insurance/ I'm a Medicaid patient" when the real problem is the patient is here for stupid bullshit and they don't need to get seen before all the little nursing home patients, also on medicaid, who are actively dying.
What pisses me off even more, though, are the ones that do have insurance and think they're entitled to some special treatment for it. They actually mention it when I triage them, like I'll send them straight back to the platinum club for people who have healthcare. Hospitals do not work that way. Or they think that they deserve a higher level of care because they're insured, like the lady who I discharged at shift change today. She was completely beside herself because she said that she'd been "just left in the room!" mind you, on a monitor, with a call light in hand. She claimed no one had come in and talked with her about her test results, which is a legit complaint- even though I had just gotten on, I apologized profusely and explained her results to her- the she was short of breath because she had COPD and was a smoker, and that we had gotten negative test results for cardiac problems of pulmonary emboli. Still not satisfied. I apologized again, and told her that the nurse may have had other very sick patients that needed her constantly, etc. She continued to be rude as hell to me, and then went into a tirade about how she deserved better treatment because her father and sister had a whole lot of money in medical bills paid to this hospital.
REALLY? First of all- if you have a history of blood clots (which she did) and are so anxious about it that you're furious at the staff for not immediately telling you you didn't have one when your test results came back, maybe you should QUIT EFFING SMOKING. Also- do you really think we have a way of knowing that your family were also patients here? And more importantly, do you really think we care? In case there was any confusion, my number one concern is taking care of the patients who are sick and actually need me. I owe them that, because that is my job. My job is not to fluff pillows and give extra accommodations for people with insurance. Consequentially, I don't owe you shit.
I really think entitlement is the biggest issue ever for me. Like, it makes me enraged. I have insurance. I work at the ER. When I broke my hand last year, I did not come in through the back. I walked into the waiting room and signed in. I waited my turn to be triaged. When the nurse recognized me, he brought me to a room, but if he hadn't, I would not have cared. If someone is sicker or has been waiting longer, they deserve to go first. Insurance or no insurance.