[aberrn]

You sound totally "wishy-washy"...ICU is to 'boring' you have to be too "focused'..

In the ER,you'd better be bloody "focused' if you have a crashing patient. Don't run off and read about it,follow orders from experienced nurses and see how they do it...Ask questions CONSTANTLY..

Agree with previous thread re seeing a therapist You "slave"over your patients???...I see time management being a big problem for you.

In a busy ER you do what needs to be done and move on to the next pt. Sounds like you want the excitement and recognition without the actual knowledge.. Which comes with experience..

[sumas8]

I found your posting to have alot of thoughts to process and digest.
I think it is natural to have self-doubts when you are a new nurse, or even when thinking of changing to a different specialty. I also feel your post contains alot of misconceptions about Emergency nursing, as others have mentioned. You take care of a hundred patients or more in between 'saving someone's life'. There are very few or maybe no jobs in medicine where all you do is 'save lives'. Most you have to get satisfaction from yourself knowing that you helped a patient or family have a more positive experience with their illness or hospitalization or even their own death or death of a loved one, and not need to be on the front page of the news daily because you saved the baby dangling from the ledge.... If you need that type of reward you will never be satisfied. And while many of us like the challenge and satisfaction after a 'good trauma' or crisis patient, you need to have a large bank of experience/knowledge before you get to be a productive member of that team!
I think you should make steps towards a goal or job you would find more satisfactory, and also look into why you are not getting satisfaction from helping patients in other ways and life's smaller satisfactions.
As per your posts' title, you do seem interested in ED but don't sound like ED material at present, which you acknowledge. You sound like you want to go from point A to point Z without learning all the letters in between. I hope you can find something that gives you pride and satisfaction.

[Kidrn911]

Tell me about it?...were there people who you thought was hopeless, but made it through ER?

Yep, I would be one of those people

2 the real world

[Itshamrtym]

Hello to all ER nurses. I've been a RN for a little over 2 years. Was an LPN for 8 years. While I was an LPN my experience consisted of moslty pediatric home care, school nursing, very little LTC. I have always had a desire to do trauma nursing even before I was a nurse.
But, I'm not sure if this isn't just from the save the world aspect that you see on TV. I know that it must take years to be right up front and be involved totally in a large code or very serious situation. It just looks very cool from a distance. Well the last 1.8 months I have worked in the OR. I feel that I have really grown as a person and nurse. I feel more confident and competent. Since we are always precepting new nurses, I feel that I do this well also. I have been told on many occasions. The OR has taught me that I do have leadership and teaching abilities that I didn't know or didn't care about before. I know that I don't want to be on a unit. So it was OR or ER. As it happend the ER wasn't hiring anyone without experience. I figured that I would like the OR (blood guts etc). Which I do like the OR, but I don't love it. I think that the OR has a lot of similarites to the ER. The big difference is that we just take care of one patient at a time. This is good, you can give really good care. I have been reading posts on the ER forum for a long time. It is very interesting if you guys have noticied that the ER forum most always has the most people viewing.
So long story short, should I just "go for it". (The ER). Doing a share day is helpful, but I don't think it gives you a full taste of what it is like on a day to day basis. I guess it is a start.... I don't want to start a job (orientation etc.), and then be like... oh god what did I do... I want to be the best nurse possible and have a real passion for what I'm doing. I don't have that now.... So should I make the move or just hang out in the OR ????? Thank you in advance for any advice that you have to offer............