Anyone Made the Transition from Med/Surg to ER?

[iluvdetroit]

I have been an RN for many years, with periods of time off now and then to stay home with my kids. All of my experience has been acute inpatient adult Med/Surg. I am looking to get back into nursing after a five year hiatus, although I did complete an intense, 120 CEU online RN refresher course earlier this year. The hospital where I gained most of my experience and worked at for over seven years has just posted a couple of per diem RN positions in their ER. I meet all of the qualifications listed, and, even though I am hopeful, my lack of recent experience will probably prevent me from getting a call, but if they do call me for an interview based on my excellent work history in this facility, I am a bit nervous about actually working ER. Does that make sense? This is a smaller, suburban hospital, and all of the really bad trauma cases end up at the large trauma centers in the city, so I don't think it will be that intense, maybe a lot of "I am having stomach pain so bad that I couldn't sleep" kind of stuff. Still, is it a really hard transition from Med/Surg, where everyone is already somewhat settled and assessed before you ever see them, to working ER? In one way I'm really excited, and in another way, I don't want to get my hopes up and I am scared of the kind of trauma I may see (before they are transported to one of the big guns). Also, and of course, all you can do is speculate, but do you think, based on what I've told you here, that I have a chance at getting one of these positions? Like I said, I have no ER experience, but I do have an excellent track record with this facility and a very clean nursing license.

Thanks!

[cota2k]

I made the transition a few years back after one year of tele/med-surg. We are also small town America; far more drama vs trauma. It was difficult at first mainly because I was still raw. You describe far more experience than I had, and with a good preceptor and support after that you'll probably be fine. There are horror stories about ER nurses and their difficult personalities, but I have not seen them in our small ER, or from the ER Nurses from other facilities I have met. As for the cases that come in; you'll be trained, Doc's are staffed 24 hours now, and the biggest lesson I learned is that you are never alone in the ER. There is always somebody around to back you up. Good Luck! Make the leap, you'll Love it!

[rita359]

Have not personally made such a transition but have known many people who have done so. Most of them have loved ER. I'd say go for it. What do you have to loose?

[Anisettes, BSN, RN]

I only had a year of Med/Surg experience when I transferred to the ED (back when dinosaurs still walked the earth). Of course, you don't simply transition straight to the ED without training (at least I'd hope not) as you need a different skill set. I was accepted into an ED training program at my hospital that lasted a few months and involved learning critical care skils, taking and passing ACLS and PALS, etc...

I don't see why they wouldn't accept you unless they expect you to come already experienced (that is they want an ED nurse ready to hit the ground running with minimal orientation) with no need for critical care teaching. You didn't mention a training program.

I've only worked Level I trauma, so I'm not sure what you'd see at a smaller hospital as far as traumatic injuries - I'm sure ambulances wouldn't bring you anything like that (they'd be routed to a more appropriate hospital), but people often walk-in with traumatic injuries to a clinic or small ED, not realizing they should have gone someplace more appropriate.

The only thing I could see holding you back is lack of critical care skills if NO training is offered. Other than that, I always tell people you should go for what you want, the only bad opportunities are the ones not taken advantage of. You never know until you try. Best of luck.