Is it me.....

Dunno, Kid... things are just crazy all over anymore. Be careful and watch your back. Sad state of affairs, eh?

or is the ED becoming more and more dangeropus a place to work? Last Tuesday I had a pt pull a knife, fortunately he did not open the pocket knife and it was in the local paper yesterday that there was 3 shots fired in another local hospital's ED waiting area. Makes me want to rethink my desire to stay in the ED.

wow! keep the faith though. i don't think this is new though. i have done this for 12 years and my 2nd year or so in the er my charge nurse got cut with a box knife, a psyc pt got his hands on a cops gun and another psyc pt walked out of his room and sucker punched a gyn pt who was standing in her door way (he didn't like the way she was looking around). i think the violence cycles. sad. you are in the jungle now! :)

trying to watch my back and stay safe as well as keep my chin up.......but after a day like today, it is a tough thing to do.......nice to know that I can always vent to you guys and you give me such great support......jnette (((hugs))) to you and magik girl too!

trying to watch my back and stay safe as well as keep my chin up.......but after a day like today, it is a tough thing to do.......nice to know that I can always vent to you guys and you give me such great support......jnette (((hugs))) to you and magik girl too!

You gotta love it. That's why my neck always hurts - keep your chin - look behind your back...If I could only count the number of times I had to dive under the triage desk - LOL!

Somehow I would rather not be able to could the number of times I have had to dive under any desk!!! But for now, it seems like this is the place to be...so I'll hang tight and if necessary, vent to my awesome allnurses family!

I think we definately have more psych patients now than we used to. I wish we had a metal detector in our waiting room.

anyone else have a lockdown button in their er?

where did things go soooo wrong?

we had a gsw in the trauma room and his buds in the parking lot searching for the other gang-bangers they thought were gonna show to finish the job!!

ain't life in the er grand?!!?

You gotta love it. That's why my neck always hurts - keep your chin - look behind your back...If I could only count the number of times I had to dive under the triage desk - LOL!

beats the 30 min of cardio i am supposed to be doing daily!!!!!!!!!! lol :rotfl:

We get those occasional loonies in our ED too, but we have 24 hr security presence. The 1st person a pt or visitor meets as they walk in is a uniformed security guard. We also have continuous security for pt that are "pink sheet" (there by police or court direction) or "blue sheet" (there by family request). Security also makes frequent rounds in the parking lot and several of them bring their own K-9. We still get a few whacky ones that slip through all this,but help is always only a quick call away.

That said, all that anxiety does not offset the internal rewards when people come up to me on the street or in a shop and thank me for the care and caring that their family member recieved when they were in our ER.

Keep the faith and Pray for Peace, and always trust your Cape.

StokoRN

"The miracle is not so much that I finished, rather the miracle is that I had the courage to begin" John "the Penguin" Bingham

Our security guards here are and always have been a joke. Er safety is always an issue wherever Ive been.

In 17 yrs of ER. I have had lets see now>>>>>>>>

3 sets of cracked ribs, they play hell with my golf game

left knee ligaments injured, lost my Basketball and tennis games there

3 missing front teeth from an intoxicated 16 yo that kicked me

Numerous bites and scratches, including one where I was bit on the forearm and a silver dollar sized chunk was bitten off and swallowed by the pt, that took forever to heal.

And I never wonder why I keep doing this.

Our security guards here are and always have been a joke. Er safety is always an issue wherever Ive been.

In 17 yrs of ER. I have had lets see now>>>>>>>>

3 sets of cracked ribs, they play hell with my golf game

left knee ligaments injured, lost my Basketball and tennis games there

3 missing front teeth from an intoxicated 16 yo that kicked me

Numerous bites and scratches, including one where I was bit on the forearm and a silver dollar sized chunk was bitten off and swallowed by the pt, that took forever to heal.

And I never wonder why I keep doing this.

I would say if you never wonder why you keep doing this,Tom, then you are A) a sado-masichist(sp), B) psychotic or C) Dedicated to the bone! :chuckle

Yes, our security is a laugh, no,we do not have a lock down button and there is just an over all lack of security presense in the ED...hospital wide for that matter. Yes, security comes to watch if a pt is brought in by the police or if they are a flight risk but even then, security tends to talk wit the staff more than do their job. Patrol the parking lot??? PULEEZE!! They waltz around in the AM, more concerned that someone is parking where they shouldn't than they are about the safety of the staff or the pts themselves.

I too will live with aches, pains and scars from putting pt safety before my own but I think there comes a time in one's life when one questions the pay off of being so damn dedicated that they would rather suffer the physical sacrifice than see a pt hurt. Now I know that this sounds so very cold and I am not advocating blatant negligence or abandonment of a pt or leaving a pt in such circumstances that are blatantly endangering the well being of the pt. I am merely questioning where does the duty of the nurse to the pt end in a situation where you could become more injured than the pt if you continue to intervene(sp).

From what I understand where I work now, they are talking about the ability of the ED to have lock down capabilities, however the issue is arising as to whether or not the supervisor on duty should be allowed to have say in whether the ED goes into lock down or if it should be at the discretion of the charge RN in the ED. And so the battle to provide a safe working environment continues.

And no, all the praise and thank yous from people for providing top notch care to their loved ones does not off set the times that your life is put in danger.......Ahhhh! The joys and dilemas of nursing in the ED!!

Our lockdown button is in the station. Anyone in the ED can hit it if needed. If we waited for approval from the hospital...we'ld all be lying on the floor dead after wiating so long!!!

We, too have a very sad security presence. I'm pretty sure I could take any of them myself!!! And trust me...I am WAY out of shape!!

:angryfire