ED Terminology, what does it mean?

Specialties Emergency

Published

Hey seasoned ER Nurses!

My questions are:

1. What does the team names Alpha, Delta, etc. mean in the ER?

2. What are the notification systems does your ED use to receive notifications from paramedics?

3. What books were the best to read for the ED?

4.

What books were the best to read for the CEN and ENPC tests?

Thanks for caring enough to answer these questions. I find that Google can't give me all the answers I need.

Specializes in Emergency.

1) I've personally only seen military terms used based off of ACUITY. Alpha = ICU, Bravo = Stepdown, Charlie, etc are below. Just think of Alpha as the highest acuity possible.

2) Code 2 is without sirens, code 3 is with sirens. If you hear a "Code 3", you need to potentially think about getting your intubation supplies ready.

3) Sheehy's Manual of Emergency Care, Emergency Nursing Bible, Critical Care Nursing Pocket Book

4) Sheehy's, CEN, Solheim's

1. I've worked EDs that were separated into different zones and each zone was named either Team A/B/C or Team 1-3, etc. Team A/1 is usually where the big t10/trauma rooms are lcated. I've also worked in EDs that had one big main area that included the trauma rooms and then a separate fast track.

2. We get notifications from the biophone, it's a line(s) used exclusively for EMS. We don't use the verbiage "Code 2/3", we use emergent/non-emergent.

3 & 4. I think you're asking different things, at different times in your career. For starting out and for reference- always and forever Sheehy's. ENPC has its own book that you get with the course and that is required within 6 months where I currently work. There are a ton of sources for CEN stuff, I personally like the Solheim manuals for all the ENA certs.

Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.

When you talk about the ENPC test, do you really mean the CPEN board exam? ENPC is a two-day course. I only ask because the CEN is a board exam, and board exams and courses are apples and oranges.

If you did mean the CPEN, I loved the Peds-R-Us CPEN prep manual. I think Peds-R-Us changed their name to something like Pedi-Ed-Trics, but you can find their manual on Amazon.

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