ER Nurse is Being a JERK to EMS...

[flashpoint]

One of our ER nurses has been just UGLY to all of our EMS people over the past couple weeks. No matter what EMS brings in and no matter what EMS does she finds fault with it. She is refusing to answer questions when calling the service for an interfacility transport, "I want a paramedic to transport a patient and that is all you need to know!," she'll say. She's also told paramedics who have offered to assist with getting IVs started, inserting foleys, EKGs, that those procedures require a REGISTERED NURSE, not an ambulance driver who got their license out of a mail order catalog, has ripped out IVs started by EMS, removes C-spine precautions, refuses to take report, and the list goes on and on. There is already tension between the EMS people and the ER staff as it is...don't know why, just one of those long standing things.

So what's is your opinion? As a member of the ambulance service and the ER staff, I am caught in the middle a lot. When I am on duty in the ER, this nurse is my supervisor and if she tells me to pluck out the IV, I am expected to do it. When I am on duty with the ambulance service, I am MAD when I am told I am too stupid to do a procedure that I do on a regular basis and is makes me really mad to have my judgement questioned by someone who thinks we shouldn't have c-spined a patient who had MOI.

The ER supervisor and the ambulance service supervisor (who just happen to be best friends) are aware of the situation and they just keep telling everyone, "Well, that's just how she is...don't let her get to you." Fine, great answer, but it sure makes for a lot of tension and makes people not want to show up in the ER when this nurse is on...

[alet3ff]

Wow I would say... All the complaints I here come from doctors that usually do not like they way we packaged a pt. One example was a very large person that we had tubed and was pnb. The road was a farm road and a bumpy one so we had to really work to tape and secure the tube during bagging. This ER doc came out and told us "what kind of crap is this? who would ever secure a tube like this?" Well it would be a quality team of field EMS folks working to keep the pt tubed that would do it. This doc may have only worked in a hospital where he has no bumpy roads or bad weather. He has probably never done cpr on the road. One hand trying to balance and stay upright in the ambulance and the other working compressions on the pt.

[tattooednursie, LVN]

Originally posted by JohnnyGage

There was a cartoon I saw once in an EMS magazine -- I wish I had copied it.

There was an old guy sitting in a rocking chair with grandkids around him. Over the fireplace was a human head with a stethescope around its neck. The caption read...

"Tell it again, grandpa! What happened when the doctor called you an 'ambulance driver'?"

Hahahahahahahaha >snort!

:roll

[renerian, BSN, RN]

with a b instead

renerian

[RNFROG3, BSN, RN]

I'm with stargazer she needs a real attitude adjustment. Or a new feild of work where she only needs to rely on herself. I personally find it a blessing when our EMS folk help us out by drawing labs or whatever. Even if we have to draw some more tubes later- they've already got us started on iniating care for that critically ill person. And to take out a perfectly good IV over my dead body!

[flaerman]

Obviously this nurse is one of those bad examples of what not to be in our profession. If she has that many issues with the paramedics and EMT's then she should go work on a floor or better yet in insurance where she can't hurt real people. In my ER this one would last not long, I have been in charge many times and would have called her on this behavior and taken it to my manager and director as well, also probably would have sent her home once or twice for unprofessional behavior. I have been in ER 5 yrs and have good relationships with the paramedics/EMT's, there has been an occasional problem with maybe a transport ambulance crew, had an EMT rudely blow me off one night while in charge and they were transferring a pt from another facility to a bed in ours. I was in charge that night and he picked the wrong person to get rude with. I waited for the crew to return, pulled them aside and confronted him, got his name, wrote him up and persued the issue with his medical director. He is not with them anymore, alas this was not his first problem with his shotgun mouth overloading his hummingbird ass.--Paul

[l.rae]

Originally posted by flaerman

He is not with them anymore, alas this was not his first problem with his shotgun mouth overloading his hummingbird ass.--Paul

Paul....rotflmao!:roll .....LR

[littleICURN]

As an RN in the ICU, i have the utmost respect for paramedics. We utilize them on a full time basis in our Emergency Department. When they are not out on a call they are in the ED working side by side with the doctors and nurses, treating patients. In the ICU, which is located next to the ED, we use the paramedics quite frequently. Any time we have a patient who is an impossible stick that needs an IV, the paramedics are called over and they always bail us out. They also help when we have 300lb plus pt.s who need a boost in bed. They are always willing to help out and are very much appreciated and respected. They have many skills that take years of practice out in the field to achieve. Even our 20yr veteran nurses can't throw in an IV like a paramedic can. I love them!

[mikemw]

One day nurse ugly will need the services of the lowly EMS and may change their mind.

Hopefully their unprofessional attitude will not effect the EMS response. I sympathize as I was an EMT-B for 20 years most ER nurses and docs appreciate the service and dedication that EMS personnel show on a daily basis. Unfortunately some er staff forget that the ER is a link in the chain of survial that starts on the street and often extends out to physical therapy staff or homehealth nurses

Dont forget the majority of us appreciate your service and dedication - Stay Safe

Mike Myers RN

[Kim Steinmann]

Well, at our ER we get along great with our EMS crews and also have one of the paramedics who comes in and helps out when we are in a pinch. Yes, it is tough to work with people with attitudes and makes everyones job tougher! Hang in there!! We have all known nurses like this!: :D

[VaMedic]

I can defiantly feel your pain and anguish. I worked with a county EMS system in NC with a Level 3 ER (that thought they were level 1). We had a night charge nurse that happened to be married to the rescue squad caption for the city. We had a setup where the rescue squad vol's supplied a BLS truck and the county Paramedic trucks would supply ALS. If it was a Medic call we were to load the pt into the Vol's truck and the county paramedic would ride withthem or if it was BLS you sent them on their way and cleared up. Whenever we had a critical patient and we were there before the squad, we would load them in the County truck and go lights to the ER and clear the squad before they got there. They would always throw a tempertantrum because we left them, but why are we in EMS again? Doh! To help the Patient! lol. Needless to say, the squad captain would tell his wife, the charge nurse, and we would get exception reports all night long. It never failed, the Captain would have 10+ reports waiting for him in the morning for us getting written up for imaginary crap. We usually never got in trouble though as my Captain did not really care what she had to say or what the squad had to say about it (Kudos to him, we are there to do a job and not babysit someone who just wants to play with the siren-Not nocking Volunteer's just the ones I that happened to run when I was on shift.)

Needless to say the wicked witch of Western North Carolina Fell when she got canned for repeated complaints on her. EMS gets back, but they do it in a tactful way! We were getting no where with the nurse manager so we went to the head of the hospital service in Charlotte. We took a copy of all of her write ups. I put them all on the computer and showed a trend and corrolation of the inicidents with the rescue squad and the write ups she had done. It clearly showed that she was doing it malicisly and she lied when she was confronted, hence CANNED!!!!! :chuckle :chuckle :chuckle :chuckle :chuckle :chuckle

[mghtraumarn]

Yikes, what must her patients think? Personally, I think she is endangering the public with her ruthless attitude. Do you know if she is impaired in any way? This nurse bears watching and needs help. If not for her sake, but for the sake of the people she is "caring" for. Alert your nurse manager to the situation or her compulsive behavior and patient endangerment may lead to disciplinary action on YOUR license. Discuss it with your peers and come up with an action plan to present this to management.

[CMERN]

I am an ER nurse and I completely appreciate our Paramedics,our Emt's and I feel that patients benefit from good relations between ,paramedic and nurse and doctor. We all deal with high stress and high acuity. Respect and teamwork make for a more tolerable shift. I say to the NURSE with the TUDE....spend one shift in a paramedics shoes ..you might change that TUDE!!!!