To those ED nurses out there that have worked both on the floor (in acute care hospitals) and in the ED, I'm wondering if you can compare the kind of stress you experience in the ED vs floor. For example, as a floor nurse, I often felt overwhelmed by the number of tasks, amount of charting, and being responsible for ALL of the patient's ailments.
What do ED nurses feel are the stressful parts of their job?
No comparison in my opinion. Everyone has pretty much summed up my feelings already but wanted to add that on the floor, the patients you start with are, for the most part, the same patients you have all shift. You don't get hall beds and you don't have the stress of the "urgency" involved in ED care. I get that floor nurses have paperwork and often families to deal with. That paperwork isn't going to kill a patient. I get that mistakes / errors in charting can affect patient care but med-surg patients are generally stable by the time they reach the floor thanks to the ED staff. Yep, we often can't get everything done that is ordered for that floor patient but we DID get them stable before sending him to the floor.
In the ED, the patients just keep coming either by ambulance or through the front door and maybe from the OR or imaging or even a hospital visitor or employee. The just keep coming in. It does not stop. I've run a heart alert / code in the hallway!
ED stress includes diagnosing the patient and often dealing with the unruly. Rarely does a med-surg nurse have a pt in restraints putting me 1:1 with that patient. What about my other patient / patients? My co-workers are also 2:1 or 1:1 with their patients.
I've seen the floor "close" to any new admissions because they are short staffed. The ED doesn't get to "close" because we are short staffed. We have to suck it up and split rooms and take on 3 priority 2 pts.
Don't even get me started on a mass casualty or the GSW that gets dropped off at the ED front door.
Bottom line is: it never stops. Ever.
So true. I felt like on the floor I would get a break...I worked nights so most of the time the patients were sleeping. Didn't mean I sat on my butt and did nothing all night, though. We had some very busy nights, too. In the ER, however, as KeeperMom stated, it truly never ever stops. There are times where we have been short and we have had to take 5-6+ patients each and when you have multiple unstable ones it becomes very difficult. We do have to suck it up most of the time.
turnforthenurse, MSN, NP
3,364 Posts
So true. I felt like on the floor I would get a break...I worked nights so most of the time the patients were sleeping. Didn't mean I sat on my butt and did nothing all night, though. We had some very busy nights, too. In the ER, however, as KeeperMom stated, it truly never ever stops. There are times where we have been short and we have had to take 5-6+ patients each and when you have multiple unstable ones it becomes very difficult. We do have to suck it up most of the time.