No Nurse Deserves to Die in the Lobby of the Emergency Room

[Nursekalu]

Its 6pm thursday evening and am still at a loss at the death of a colleague whom i learnt was hit by a truck while attempting to cross the road in lagos state. No sooner had i finished saying a prayer for him, i received a message on my phone: Mr Onyebuchi hilliary, a 200level student of Nursing science uniben had also been hit by a moving vehicle infront of the school gate. He too didnt make it.

With tears running down my cheeks and shudders down my spine, i learnt my colleague's relations spent hours crying over the phone about how he was severly bleeding and yet no one had attended to him at the emergency room at the Lagos university teaching hospital. A NURSE bleeding to death in the sanctuary of an environment where he had spent a greater part of his life saving others from bleeding and death! Even introducing the patient as a registered nurse didnt make any difference either.

I recall how urgent calls were made to determine who knows someone in LUTH, at least to help expedite care to a dying colleague but help was so near, yet so far. Relations recalled him persistently asking "where is this blood coming from", in his experience he knew the bleeding had to be arrested but this time around, he was on the other side of the trolley and helpless to save himself. In the end, He gave up the ghost.

As nurses, we must display strong regard for fellow colleagues be it at work, in the church, in the bank or on a hospital bed. On many occassions i have seen police officers get favors amongst Naval officers because they have a common spirit existing amongst themselves (members of the armed forces), i have seen an ACCESSBANK Staff jump the quequ at FIRSTBANK just at the mere introduction of himself as a colleague!

The emergency room may be a different ball game altogether but the basics of the E.R allows same. For example, by TRIAGING a bleeding patient over a stable patient in the waiting room.

we owe it to each other to look out for each others back. It could have been any of us lying on that trolley, waiting and watching while the life drains out of us with fellow colleagues so engrossed in the care of others.

As an emergency room nurse, you dont need a doctors order to arrest or ligate an active bleeder, you dont need a doctors order to set up a line of normal saline to maintain circulatory volume, you dont need a doctors order to suction a patient whose airway is frothy or oxygenate one whose Oxygen saturation level is below 80percent, you dont need a doctors order to splint a fracture or even put a waiting patient in recovery position.

These are all basics of Emergency room nursing that could buy the few minutes the patient needs pending when the doctors arrive to review.

The mere mention of "I AM A REGISTERED NURSE' should elicit some form of assistance from colleagues in any establishment. When i tell you : I AM A COLLEAGUE", i deserve to be treated like one.

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we are, by way of our profession tied in a bond of mutual respect and dedication to each other. We must recognize each other. We MUST RECOGNIZE each other!

No Nurse deserves to die in the emergency room waiting to be attended to! Actually, No one does.

(IN MEMORY OF NURSE OGAH CHARLES WHO DIED 4/13/2014)

No Nurse Deserves to Die in the Emergency Room BY Jude Chiedu| Nursing World Nigeria - Nursing Jobs, Forum and News

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

I am at an absolute loss of what to say. What a horrendous situation and I am appalled and bereft that it would be able to still happen in today's world. Please accept my sincerest sorrow for your loss.

[MunoRN, RN]

I'm sorry for your loss. I think your last line said it best; "No Nurse deserves to die in the emergency room waiting to be attended to! Actually, No one does." If an ER is dysfunctional, the concern shouldn't be that an RN can't get preferential treatment, it's that the patient, regardless of whether or not they are a nurse, didn't get appropriate care.

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

I have no words. And THAT never happens.

My sincerest condolences to you and your colleagues, what a tragic loss.