Er-ward Vs. Er Adults!

[janetrette]

i am offer with a job position in an 9bed er-ward. my first choice was the er-adults however they're don't have a position for me.

any difference? i am a new graduate and never worked before. i believe the er is for me and although the er-ward is still in the er. i was told it is more like an icu. i like a fast pace type of work so i'm not sure would i want the er-ward position. in the er-ward usually it's a 1-2 or the most 1-3. although i know the patients are very critical but i'm not sure if i want to monitor/stabilizing the patient.. also, i believe charting would be intense.

any thoughts would be appreciated.....

thanks in advance :balloons:

[Dixielee, BSN, RN]

I have never heard of what you are talking about so I can't offer any real insight. The only thing I can think of, is that ER's all over the country are holding patients longer and longer because of the lack of floor/ICU beds. This may be a way to free up ER beds but still give the care the patients need. In our very busy 52 bed ER, we have set aside several rooms from time to time to be used as a holding ward.

We discharge them from the ER, make floor charts, use the attending docs orders instead of the ER doc, etc. until they can get a bed. Sometimes they spend their whole stay in the ER and then are discharged. This happens most frequently for us with telemetry patients, as they don't have enough tele beds on the floors.

If this is what your new job would entail, it is not exactly ER, but you would get a good blend of ER, med surg, ICU. It might not be a bad place to start if you want to work ER eventually. You get to see the flow of the ER, get to learn the rhythm and have essentially stabalized patients to work with, so you can get your feet wet. I would not take it though, unless I had assurances of adequate staff and orientation.