In need of ED RN

[APNgonnabe]

I work in an ICU at a community hospital. I recently got a DKA from the ED on an insulin gtt. When I asked the pt nurse, who brought the pt up, when the last accu check was she kind of shrugged her shoulders and said it's been awhile. Her 'awhile' was over 3hrs by POC test and nearly 3hr by lab result.

Is this normal?

What do other EDs do?

Trust me I know that it's a different world down there...just frustrated because it seems to be pt safety was compromised.

[Lunah, MSN, RN]

Then again, maybe I'm the only ED nurse who ever gets overwhelmed and is just glad to get the patient safely and stable to where they need to be next.

Not at all ... but 3 hours is quite a while, especially with an insulin drip running. I'm glad the patient was okay.

I have a bit of a buffer because I work in a freestanding ED where we have to physically transport our patients down the road a few miles if they're being admitted -- we have a transport company that does that for us. It means we have to give report twice, once to the floor and again to transport, but whatever -- not a problem. So we have a bit of time between us and the admitting unit, and it's easier to do stuff like grab another accucheck while giving report to the transport company.

[MassED, BSN, RN]

I was thinking the same thing, and I thought that was common sense. (The older I get, the more I realize how uncommon sense really is. )

isn't that the truth! =)

[Roy Fokker, BSN, RN]

Hourly checks until under 250 or so seems pretty standard.

Ditto here.

Anything less is simply asking for trouble.

cheers,