just another burning question......

Published

:p :p

just wondering if some of you other er nurses wondered this as well. why is it that no one ever considers er nursing critical care? even on this bb we are only under specialty nursing. burn and transporting nursing is considered critical care but we are not.

what's up with that? i have taken care of lines, drips, vents and ventriculostomys. and some of them were boarders so they were mine all night!

any thoughts?:cool: :cool:

Originally posted by fab4fan

I have no idea why people don't think of the ED as critical care. It's not just about slapping on bandaids.

We held ICU pts all the time. Funny how it was OK for me to have 2 ICU pts plus an additional 3-4 ED pts. Let anyone try to tell me that wasn't critical care!

so true, so true. the last time i assisted with and cared for a venticulostomy, we didn't use bandaides! lol:)

fab, glad to see you back!;)

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Originally posted by athomas91

i see it as one of our little hidden glories.....sometimes others notice and sometimes they don't...but we ALWAYS see it in each other....

yes, yes. you can take the nurse out of the er but you can't take the er out of the nurse. no matter how long you are gone, or where ever you go, the mentality stays.....even if it's just a liiiiiitttle bit!

we are a very special breed. i don't see the icu putting up with the restaurant or babying thier patients!:devil:

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For the nurse that doesn't know of an ICU nurse that is paid more than an ER nurse, then you haven't been to my hospital. The ER isn't considered a specialty area. Go figure! AT least I'm short timing it now in this hospital. They have a great group of nurses to work with and it is one of the most organized ERs I have seen. Upper management treats the ER like lower class, at least that is my preception. And this is an ER that not only pays for it's self but makes a 2 million a year profit. So what is that all about. Welcome to ARkansas.

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Originally posted by ensense

For the nurse that doesn't know of an ICU nurse that is paid more than an ER nurse, then you haven't been to my hospital. The ER isn't considered a specialty area. Go figure! AT least I'm short timing it now in this hospital. They have a great group of nurses to work with and it is one of the most organized ERs I have seen. Upper management treats the ER like lower class, at least that is my preception. And this is an ER that not only pays for it's self but makes a 2 million a year profit. So what is that all about. Welcome to ARkansas.

ouch! that smarts! (well, maybe not to smart for that hospital. soon the er nurses will realize.......)

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Hahahahaaa. I thought I was the only one who thought that ICU nurses have something up their butt. LOLOL...pretty much on a daily basis.

Hey now, not very funny. I've met many an ER nurse who had quite the ****attitude. Please don't label ICU nurses that way. Hopefully it was tongue in check.

I don't know why ER isn't considered critical care. I respect ER nurses for what they do. Some I don't respect for who they are-it's a personal thing, not a professional thing.

ER and ICU are their own special entities that do have similarities. Both are difficult in their own right.

we are a very special breed. i don't see the icu putting up with the restaurant or babying thier patients
We can and do wait tables and babysit with the best of them:chuckle Just miss the tips at the end of my shift.
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Specializes in ER - trauma/cardiac/burns. IV start spec.
Originally posted by athomas91

thanks magik....and HK...i agree completely and i think that is mostly what my origional post said...who cares what others think...we know we are the cream of the crop....

and those rural nurses are hard core man!!

:smokin: I agree.

What difference does it make? If anyone is more concerned with title than job, they need to just go away.

We had TV crew in our ER one night and they were wanting to film some "good stuff". As they were waiting I heard some of the crew say something about "Saving Lives every night" and that they were starting school so they could do the same. I told several that if they want to work ER for the glory forget it. We get in the unstable and send them to the floor or unit stable.

We learn to handle anything you can think of and then the pt goes to the unit that specializes in one area. Hummmm I am not critical care nurse by defination??? No I am an ER nurse. WE belong in our own special division.

:rolleyes: We need to create our own special division. We're not CC, we're? What should we call ourselves? Needs to be distinctive and important sounding. :chuckle

Get over it people, titles and initals behind our names are not why we became ER nurses to begin with.

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ok...if they don't call us critical care....how about "elite"

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Originally posted by athomas91

ok...if they don't call us critical care....how about "elite"

elite.....I LIKE IT!

OK, BUT JUST ER, OK?:p

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I'm been on both sides of the fence. I worked ICU before I came to the ER. Yes, there are lots of skills and monitoring done in ICU that we seldom do in the ER. There are also lots of skills that I do more of (and better for that matter) in the ER. I have taken patients to the ICU several times since moving to the ER. Our ICU nurses look down on us as basically the scum from the basement......but I've been in their place. I remember thinking..."freaking lazy ER nurses can't even take the dudes pants off" and "what it with all the crap in the bed" i.e. EKG patches, alcohol preps, syringe tops..etc.

I consider both areas highly skilled critical care areas....and we are a breed unto our own. You guys know what I mean:D

I don't take it personally that we are not listed as critical care. We know we are critical care, and we are damn good at saving lives!

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Originally posted by MAGIK GIRL

so true, so true. the last time i assisted with and cared for a venticulostomy, we didn't use bandaides! lol:)

fab, glad to see you back!;)

:D

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Specializes in ICU.

Here they are BOTH considered critical care.

But ICU and ER - the difference is broad versus deep. ER by it very nature requires you to know a little (and often more than a little) about a lot of different things.

ICU requires you to have in deep knowledge of a few things - i.e. sepsis, ventilation etc

If you think of it in this manner you see that they are equal but different.

And I do agree that some ICU nurses think that just because they work in ICU that they are the be all and end all for nursing. I work ICU and it seems to me the end all I most often see is the diahorrea so many seem to have.:rolleyes:

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Originally posted by MAGIK GIRL

we are a very special breed. i don't see the icu putting up with the restaurant or babying thier patients!:devil:

You gotta admit Magik, the ICU has a "special" way of dealing with patients.

Instead of "dealing" with patients they simply get a Propofol drip and the services of a vent :D

Now how often would that have FIXED the situation in ER, but circumstances w/not allow for it :D

Dave

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