Help me make my ED better!!!

[Em2805]

Hi all. I am a senior nurse that has also taken on a role as nurse practitioner in a busy ED. Since making the transition to senior nurse, I feel I haven't contributed or given anything back to the department, apart from being a hard worker. I was wondering if any of you ED nurses had any ideas of anything I could implement or contribute to my ED. Thanks x

[Kuriin, BSN, RN]

I'm confused. Are you a midlevel provider or are you a senior nurse (staff nurse III/IV)?

[Em2805]

I'm in UK so RN senior nurse, band 6, ED

[DayDreamin ER CRNP]

I'm also not sure what all that means but....

What are you doing to further the department's training, certification and education? I'm not talking about going back to school but is there an educator in your department that assists with assuring staff members know policies and procedures?

ie: we had a problem with hemolysis from the lab. A few nurses decided to figure out why the yellow tubes were constantly clotting between the ED and the lab. Through this process, we determined that #1 the tubes were consistently being drawn out of order. From there, the educator did several in-services to educate staff on the new process.

#2, we found that we no longer HAD to have that yellow tube for our basic lab orders. We still draw it and send it as an extra SST but the lab can process it so the patient doesn't have to endure another stick if labs are needed from that specific tube.

In all of this, it was quite alarming how much the staff didn't know about the order of draw and a few other things we thought were just common knowledge in the department. From there, the whole education process was adjusted.

A few years ago a few of the seasoned RNs got together and started holding little classes on critical care topics... intubation set up, central line set ups, vents, heart alerts, EKG interp, neuro, etc. It wasn't mandatory for anyone but was "strongly encouraged" for all of the newer nurses. Nurses were supposed to have these classes before taking the "big bed" assignments.

Does this help at all?

[Em2805]

Great thank you for your reply. We have a set day where we go over things like this and have teaching and simulated sessions. I wanted to introduce something to make the running of the department better just needed some inspiration x

[iluvivt, BSN, RN]

You need to look critically at your ED and start identfying the problems specific to your department .Once you have a good problem list going then start to brainstorm some solutions to each problem.Then pick one problem that you think you can tackle .Once you put the plan in place you then need to monitor for how effective your solution(s) is.Once you identity the problem you can get some good ideas here too.

[jallen0]

Are you a member of the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA)? If not you should join for the articles, boards, and education. Lots of basics and advanced topics covered there.

[guest8888]

Find ways to improve patient flow. That was a big deal in my ER.