What made you decide to do ER Nursing?

Initially, as a kid, the ER was on my radar because of my mom who would come home from work (in an ER) with the smell of alcohol wipes and splats of blood on her shoes. I thought, "wow, now there's an exciting job." Of course I don't smell of alcohol wipes or having splats of blood anywhere on my person....

oh and a nose bleed I applied pressure to on the playground when I was in First grade. That was memorable.

My husband involved in a motorcycle crash and running him to the local small town ER, with our 5 month old baby in tow, just to be uninformed by the staff. All of these reasons (and I'm sure many more) formed an impression upon me and made me want to do a great job for what I thought should be an ER nurse.

I have always been able to think on my feet, and I love that aspect of ER nursing.

I was (still am) a paramedic, and I worked in an ED while going to nursing school. I'm an RN in the same ED now; seemed like a natural progression for me. I also started in the ED straight out of school, but I also had a lot of ED experience (albeit on a different level), as well as emergency and patient care experience. There are pros and cons to new grads going directly to the ED. I'm glad I did, but I've seen totally green new grads come in and not do so well. After my first few days of orientation, I told my nurse manager, "I don't think I'd WANT to come straight to the ED as a totally green new grad!" LOL