ER not considered Critical Care?

[Carotid]

this has always puzzled me. i searching most schools for crna admissions, they do no accept ER as critical care.

http://http://www.musc.edu/chp/afn/afnacceptance.shtml

have a minimum of two years as an RN in an adult critical care setting (e.g., ICU, CCU, SICU, MICU, etc.)

are we the etc?

as overcrowded as we've become, we hold ICU patients in the ER for at least 25% of their stay in the hospital.

Carotid

[Carotid]

excellent posts traumadog and emerald. perhaps these schools need to reword their entrance requirements to state, "3 years experience with swanz, vents, etc." instead of excluding emergency nursing in the field of critical care.

[TraumaMaster]

I too am in awe of ER nurses for putting up with the BS while waiting for the good thing to roll through.

I work a Trauma Intensive Care Unit in a Level I hospital and we crack chests, open bellies, and all the juicy stuff more often than I can count. The difference between the ICUs and the ER in our facility is the understanding and manipulation of HD parameters (not to mention other things CRNA schools look for in skills). We simply have more experience with it, which I think is what CRNA schools look for.

I do think ER is critical care and I fought for our ER nurses to be paid the same as the ICU nurses in our hospital, so don't think I am discrediting the critical care provided, it is just a different variety of skills.

Anyway, just my thoughts.

[BabyBlueRN]

It has always amazed me...how the ICU/CCU/CTICU folk always look down on what goes on in the ER .....What they never seem to understand is that we must ...while taking care of the BS that comes in needing some motrin and a bandaid...and at any moment we may (and many times do) have to switch gears and take care of a GSW or a sucking chset wound or an acute MI or an acute CVA or a trauma or even worse a pediactrc trauma or even worse (and more common), multiple trauma!!!

Belive it or not these people can be taken care of without a swan ganz catheter!! we actually look at the patient and not just the numbers on the screen, this is the time when your assessment skills shine through. When you get a patient in you have no clue what's going on...assessment is key to saving that person.

The ER is organized chaos and not for everyone.. but those who do it and do it well are special and should be recognized for their skill and expertise.

:angryfire :rotfl:

[TinyNurse, RN]

Thanks traumadog and babyblueRN, I couldn't have said it better myself.

xo Jen

[RNin92]

How about getting a gsw to chest while your newly tubed/vented pt in room 2 (also your room) decides to now show that lovely s-t elevation and get a syst pressure of 74, oh yeah, he has no contraindications to thrombolytics, and the patient in room 3 (you guessed it, mine too) who's been waiting for a unit bed for 6 hours wants to join in the fun with 8-10 beat runs of v-tach. Who would be the brave individual to walk up to me and say "oh, this is not critical care."

Here..Here my friend.

And when that "brave individual" does decide to walk up to you...she/he should be darn glad that you will be there to pick up the pieces of his/her sorry a$$ and put him/her back together...compliments of an ER nurse!!!