ED nurses with critical care knowledge & experience?

I did not do proper critical care until I started flying. In fact, I am only now learning just how complex ventilator management is. I did central & arterial lines as an ER RN; however, that was about it. Often, my vent strategy consisted of placing a patient on a transport vent for a trip to CT. This consisted of a fixed FiO2, dial a Vt & rate, CMV mode, and a pop off of 60 cm/H2O. Of course, early into my flight career, I thought I could manage every patient with SIMV.

I was lucky enough to manage multiple drips and infusions as an ER nurse. Never saw a ballon pump or LVAD until I started flying, and never managed ICP with an IVC until about a year ago.

If a patient like that is going to be in our ED more than a few hours one of us floats down from the ICU to manage them.

Wow, I guess I'm lucky. My Ed sent us to critical care training for a week -class room and simulation with new ICU nurses to learn the basics of all that... I did seek out the ICU educator and strt asking her some of my questions -so that might have facilitated this type of training.

none i had 12 years icu experience prior to becoming ed nurse 7years ago.otherwise our nurses learn as you go.

i had 3 months training in an icu before going to work in the er

Does your hospital not have an Education Department? We frequently board pts but usually not more than 24 hours and mostly we have house float nurses that will take those pts so our staff can continue caring for the inbounds.