ER Nursing, Is it considered critical care?

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I am a first year nursing student. I do not have any experience in the health care industry. I am wondering if ER nursing is considered critical care? Also, what areas are considered critical care?:typing

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Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

ICU, progressive care. I believe ER is considered critical care.

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Specializes in Advanced Practice, surgery.

You can get critical patients in ER but there is such a variety of minor injuries, major injuries, trauma, surgery, medicine and every other speciality you can think of I am not sure that I would describe it as true critical care. However there are large critical care elements to the role.

My perception of critical care is any ICU, (medical, surgical, trauma, neuro, peadiatrics, neonatal, CCU, Burns and even Psych - I am sure there are some missed sorry)

Definition of Critical care

Critical care: Intensive care. The specialized care of patients whose conditions are life-threatening and who require comprehensive care and constant monitoring, usually in intensive care units.

http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=24812

Critical care -A subspecialty of medicine concerned with the diagnosis, treatment, and support of patients with multiple organ dysfunction (i.e., critically ill) during a medical emergency or crisis.

http://www.avera.org/avera/doctors/glossary.aspx

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According to the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses it is.

Their list includes those working in "intensive care units, pediatric ICUs, neonatal ICUs, cardiac care units, cardiac catheter labs, telemetry units, progressive care units, emergency departments and recovery rooms".

However this forum says otherwise https://allnurses.com/forums/f18/why-emergency-nurses-not-considered-critical-care-nurses-170701.html

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Are you asking for future aspirations in advanced practice nursing? If So, you would want to contact a particular program you are looking at possibly attending. Everyplace I have ever worked certainly considered the ER as critical care.

I am a first year nursing student. I do not have any experience in the health care industry. I am wondering if ER nursing is considered critical care? Also, what areas are considered critical care?:typing
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Yes, the ED is an area of critical care. If you are wanting to attend anesthesia school, I would advise you to speak with the programs you are interested in as many do not consider ER to be acceptable for CRNA school.

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Specializes in ER.

I, too have wondered why ER is not considered critical care by this forum. Obviously a small community hospital may not get much in terms of critical care, but the trauma center I am in certainly does. We don't use Swan Ganz, but we put in plenty of central lines, chest tubes, CVP and art line monitoring, lots of intubations and vents, lots of titratable drips including vasopressors, sedation, vasodilators, etc. We frequently give blood (many times non crossmatched/type specific, platelets, etc.

We receive critical patients from outlying hospitals and many times hold overnight until our hospital has a critical care bed available. We send folks to the cath lab who are having active MI's, we have life threatening traumas flown in to us everyday by one of our 2 helicopters.

We manage airways, cardiovascular systems and care for patients whose conditions turn on a dime. Then throw in infants with fever, precip deliveries, burns, run of the mill bone fractures, flu, GI bleeds, kids with lacerations requiring conscious sedation, drunks, overdoses, little old ladies who fall out of bed and break their hip, full arrests, psych patients who either want to kill themselves or one of us.....and many more,

But, we are not critical care. Oh well....those of us in the know....know.:smokin:

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Many threads on this topic. It depends on how you define critical care. The honest answe is, depends on the patient.

As far as the setup on this forum. Please, you guys are killing me. ER is in the specialty area and they had to put the forum somewhere. I see no need for hurt feelings and egos.

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Specializes in ER/Trauma.
Yes, the ED is an area of critical care. If you are wanting to attend anesthesia school, I would advise you to speak with the programs you are interested in as many do not consider ER to be acceptable for CRNA school.
he same goes for certain flight/transport programs - some of 'em don't consider ED to be "critical care experience".

cheers,

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Specializes in Neuroscience, ED.

In our hospital it is. I am a critical care nurse and work in the ED.

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Specializes in Advanced Practice, surgery.
I, too have wondered why ER is not considered critical care by this forum. Obviously a small community hospital may not get much in terms of critical care, but the trauma center I am in certainly does. We don't use Swan Ganz, but we put in plenty of central lines, chest tubes, CVP and art line monitoring, lots of intubations and vents, lots of titratable drips including vasopressors, sedation, vasodilators, etc. We frequently give blood (many times non crossmatched/type specific, platelets, etc.

We receive critical patients from outlying hospitals and many times hold overnight until our hospital has a critical care bed available. We send folks to the cath lab who are having active MI's, we have life threatening traumas flown in to us everyday by one of our 2 helicopters.

We manage airways, cardiovascular systems and care for patients whose conditions turn on a dime. Then throw in infants with fever, precip deliveries, burns, run of the mill bone fractures, flu, GI bleeds, kids with lacerations requiring conscious sedation, drunks, overdoses, little old ladies who fall out of bed and break their hip, full arrests, psych patients who either want to kill themselves or one of us.....and many more,

But, we are not critical care. Oh well....those of us in the know....know.:smokin:

I have always viewed the emergency unit as a speciality of it's own rather than lumping it in with other critical care specialities, which is why I suppose I wouldn't consider it a critical care unit, that's not to say it does not deal with critical care patients but you all do so much more as well.

I guess I figured that calling EU critical care is underselling it.

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Specializes in ED.

Unfortunately several of our nurses had to transfer from the ED to ICU to obtain "critical care experience" The programs they had applied for did not recognize all their years of ED experience. (Nurse Anesthetist)

None of us in the ED agreed with this.

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