An ER nurse who passed CCRN!

[JordieRNCCRN]

So, I recently took my CCRN and passed on the first try. Most nurses, including ER nurses think that the CCRN is just for ICU. There were a LOT of questions which began with "A XX yr old pt presents to the ED with...". It really frustrates me that most nurses don't consider ER as a critical care area. I work in a level one trauma center, heart center and stroke center. Has anyone else experienced this attitude from fellow nurses?

[Guest374845]

I have my CEN and CCRN. ED and ICU touch on a venn diagram but they're otherwise a world apart. I've personally found more ICU nurses wanting to play ED than the other way around, and few who can hack it. So if you're getting attitude, have an internal smug moment with your new cert (congrats btw) knowing that your friends in the ICU are probably just jealous

[offlabel]

They have from me. The ER is not an ICU. No one would ever consider an ER physician to be a CC specialist/intensivist (or vice versa). Why would ER nurses be considered critical care nurses? Kudos for passing the test though. Looking after a cc patient while a bed gets ready in the ICU isn't critical care per se. Besides, why is what ICU nurses think so important? They're not emergency nurses

[NuGuyNurse2b]

I'm not sure why this even matters. In my ER, new nurses are groomed for obtaining both CEN and CCRN within a year or two. We are assigned trauma CEU's through company sponsored online learning.

[PeakRN]

I'm not sure why this even matters. In my ER, new nurses are groomed for obtaining both CEN and CCRN within a year or two. We are assigned trauma CEU's through company sponsored online learning.

I agree. We tend to push for CEN, CPEN, and TCRN first but if someone wants to get their CCRN that is great. We start out ICU patients and start vents/NIPPV/other 'critical care' respiratory support, pressors and inotropes, TPA, art lines, et cetera. A mistake in their care is just as costly as in the unit.

As an aside while intensivists are not the same as ED docs, most ED docs and PEMS are required to have a substantial part of their residency/fellowship in managing patients up in the units.

I do not consider myself to be an ICU nurse by any means, however we are all critical care nurses and have the same goals. If some ICU nurses got their CEN I would congratulate them, and then probably bug them to pick up some OT ED shifts. Our ICUs nurses are the same way about CCRN.

Not to dig on the floor nurses but the ED, ICUs, BMT, and L&D nurses at our hospital have each other's backs in ways that other units will never understand. We make important decisions based on the patient's condition when we don't have time to find the medical providers, and those decisions can make a difference between life and death in seconds to minutes.

[amzyRN]

In the ED's I've worked in sometimes we'd board ICU patients for up to 36 hours and we would try to get an ICU float to come and take those patients, but sometimes one of our more experienced ED nurses would have to take those patients. Some of these nurses were also ICU nurses or who had come from the ICU before working in the ED. They would do all the stuff an ICU nurse would do minus some of the extra equipment. But these patients would be vented on multiple drips, sometimes they'd even put in an a-line in the ED. So I don't understand why that wouldn't be considered critical care. Is it the lack of equipment, detailed assessments that do not equate with critical care? Some of these patients would even code a few times and were too unstable to transport up.