Should Emergency Nursing be part of the Critical Care Nursing Specialty on this site?

I have always thought over the years it was strange that someone had to distinguish areas. What makes anyone working these areas more "special" than the other areas? I personally think it belittles areas such as L&D, Pysch, M/S as being inferior when it comes to patient conditions and care. I would like to ask the people who run this site to do away with this separation issue and just clump everyone into one area, "Patient Care". I work in the OR and even though there are many times where real critical care doesn't come into the picture, there are times when you have a case that makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck.

The American Association of Critical Care Nurses defines critical care nursing as the "specialty within nursing that deals specifically with human responses to life-threatening problems...responsible for ensuring that acutely and critically ill patients and their families receive optimal care." Critically ill patients are often unstable, with complex healthcare needs that require intense nursing care. Critical care nurses and nurse practitioners often work in intensive-care units (ICUs), including medical, surgical, pediatric, and neonatal ICUs, cardiac care units, cardiac catheter labs, telemetry units, progressive care units, emergency departments, and recovery rooms.

So with that desription what do you think now ?

Actually, several of the ER nurses I worked with for 8 years had their CCRN and CEN.

Your right, many of the patients who come in to the ER aren't critical. However, we see EVERYTHING, traumas, knife wound, gun shot wounds, acute MI's, CVA's, CHF, Etc... I often floated to ICU to help out, but they wouldn't take an assignment in the ER if floated there - the ICU nurse's were "uncomfortable"

So, I believe the ER is NOT ONLY critical care, but a sub-specialty in and of itself - as the majority of other critical care nurses would NOT take an assignment in the ER.