Your Dream Emergency Department...

nurse2033, MSN, RN · Feb 9, 2011

How about no charting! Just treat'em and street'em.

Zookeeper3 · Feb 9, 2011

Bullet proof glass

No frequent flyers asking for dilaudid

No patients faking chest pain to be seen sooner

No more "lodged" items in the netherlands from a "fall"

alem-tsahai · Feb 9, 2011

Plenty of ancillary staff around to take vitals, do urine dips, and toilet patients as needed so you can get your bloodwork and charting completed in a timely manner.

Really that would be all I need... well, better nurse:patient ratios too...:)

EmergencyNrse · Feb 9, 2011

Okay, I'll play...

Where nurses stopped complaining and realized that we are here to serve. That are dedicated to principles of caring and compassion. Who understand that there are people that get sick and hurt. The poor and disenfranchised have limited places to turn for help. That people are dealing with multiple problems that brought them to the ER to be seen.

Where nurses spend more time at the bedside talking and more importantly LISTENING to their patients. Where nurses have the sense of professionalism to rise above the petty labels placed on good people that find themselves in a bad way. Where nurses act civilized and extend dignity to patients that trust in the fact nurses are the most respected of professions in the world for a reason.

Get over yourselves and do your jobs. Smile more and embrace the more difficult patients because you are a professional. Treat them with dignity and respect. Their lives are hard enough they don't need you to make it worse. They need your help and you're better than that... you're a nurse and you're the one that will make them feel better. You actually care...

ImThatGuy, BSN, RN · Feb 9, 2011

One that closes on weekends and holidays.

LegzRN · Feb 9, 2011

Okay, I'll play...
Where nurses stopped complaining and realized that we are here to serve. That are dedicated to principles of caring and compassion. Who understand that there are people that get sick and hurt. The poor and disenfranchised have limited places to turn for help. That people are dealing with multiple problems that brought them to the ER to be seen.
Where nurses spend more time at the bedside talking and more importantly LISTENING to their patients. Where nurses have the sense of professionalism to rise above the petty labels placed on good people that find themselves in a bad way. Where nurses act civilized and extend dignity to patients that trust in the fact nurses are the most respected of professions in the world for a reason.
Get over yourselves and do your jobs. Smile more and embrace the more difficult patients because you are a professional. Treat them with dignity and respect. Their lives are hard enough they don't need you to make it worse. They need your help and you're better than that... you're a nurse and you're the one that will make them feel better. You actually care...

Easy, Friend... this thread was made for fun, not hostility.

megan_EMT · Feb 9, 2011

Private rooms for everyone. I wish I didn't have to see an elderly person dying (literally waiting for next of kin...) sharing a room with a drunk college student.

Oh, and no more need for hallway beds - I was a pt in one once...which was great because I kept being told "this bed is assigned to a pt, go hang out some where else." (In there defense I had been taken in from an EMS shift, so I was sitting on the bed in uniform.) But seriously, I feel bad for anyone in a hallway bed.

noahsmama · Feb 9, 2011

Oh, and no more need for hallway beds - I was a pt in one once...which was great because I kept being told "this bed is assigned to a pt, go hang out some where else." (In there defense I had been taken in from an EMS shift, so I was sitting on the bed in uniform.) But seriously, I feel bad for anyone in a hallway bed.

I was stuck in a hallway bed as an ED pt too, and I wholeheartedly agree! Never knew this was something that was done till then (it wasn't the ED of a hospital I worked in, so I had never been there before). I laid there for a couple of hours before I was taken into an exam "room" (which was just a curtained off area in a larger room), and was then wheeled back into the hall to wait for the doctor and the result of my X-ray.

Also, there would be enough wheelchairs for anyone who needed them -- I had hurt my leg badly enough that I couldn't walk, and they had me sit on a stool with wheels and pushed me on that!!!

TravelinCEN · Feb 10, 2011

Funny that you should ask about my Dream ER...

1. Consulting MD's would get up out of their seat to give me the chair when I entered the Nursing station.

2. Attending MD's would offer me coffee.

3. The patients would realize that my proper title is "Nurse" not "*****"

4. There would be no "Chart Nazis"

5. No one would ever experience Lateral Violence.

All kidding aside, I work at a great ER now with respectful patients, where I truly believe in the hospital mission and core values. The team consists of solid medical and nursing professionals. I really love it, more importantly, the patients get great care. I'm living the dream.

But, I wouldn't turn down a tequila dispenser at the time clock... hehehe

Altra, BSN, RN · Feb 10, 2011

Bulletproof glass

Full time armed security

A blanket warmer the size of a restaurant walk-in cooler (and oh yeah, it's actually been stocked with linen, too)

A well-planned layout without dead end, blind hallways & rooms out of sight of the nurses station

One permanent assignment of a tech 7a - 11p just to stock

A permanent assignment of a floating nurse without a room assignment from 11a - 3a

A permanently assigned physician in triage to weed out the go-see-your-PCP stuff

A physical layout of the hospital which puts the ED at easy access from the outside but also close to Radiology, the ORs, and the ICUs

ImThatGuy, BSN, RN · Feb 10, 2011

Full time armed security

Just arm the nurses.