How is ER charting different than floor?

[tarotale]

Pretty often, I get ER nurses tell me how ER charting is so much better than floor charting and that he/she cannot stand floor charting. I am always friendly with ER rns giving report because I love ER, ER nurses, and how tough you all work so hard all the time, so they drop some info about their worklife here and there, but never heard how it's so different.

Personally I think if you guys are obligated to chart like we do, the work is probably never going to be done; so how is it so different??

By the way, I have ER internship interview on 24th. I really wish to get it and finally do something I have always wanted to do! ER nurses are awesome.

[MassED, BSN, RN]

From experience, it's best to always chart a mental and respiratory status, ambulatory status and then the CC and its associated s/s. It's best to chart in a way where you can look back in a week or years and be able to grab a mental picture from your narrative. When they came in, was their skin pink, warm, dry, were they at ease? restless? tachpneic? Were they limping, red in the face? I always think of my charting in terms of conveying what I see for the future nurse, or myself, if need be. And of course charting to CYA. I have been called in the office for things that are out of my control, so if one is in a brief and it's clean and dry before they go to the floor, chart that. If it's not charted, it does not exist. Defensive charting. Ridiculous, but it's the sad state of our affairs. Nurses love to write up other nurses, especially floor nurses (majority, not all!) who hate ER nurses for a multitude of reasons, but mainly because we take care of the emergency then move them out.