Okay, why do ER nurses think they're so cool?

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Specializes in Oncolgy, telemety, Midwifery.

I get it, we on the floor don't see what you see- gunshots, knife cuts, fights, rape victims. But you chose that. Nursing is a wide, varied profession and ER is just a piece of it. So you work with firefighters, paramedics, police. Okay. But you're not a firefighter, paramedic or a police officer. You're a nurse. When you call the floor for report and we say we're too busy right now, we'll call you back, please don't call your boss, or the House Supervisor, and tell them we refused report. Again, I get it. Nobody is as busy as you. But we may have had our hands deep in poop, or in the middle of a dressing change, or with a doctor, or administering chemotherapy. Or we may be already getting report from the offgoing shift. And yes, another nurse is just as busy and can't take the report I would rather get first hand anyway. When we get report from you for a hip fracture patient and you say the BP is 191/92 and she has a history of hypertension, please don't get offended if I ask if you've covered the blood pressure. I know she's being admitted with a hip fracture and not for hypertension. But hypertension is something we're aware of, because it is also bad. If you send the patient up without covering the BP, by the time she's moved from gurney to bed that BP has spiked to over 200 and I have a possible stroke to add to that fracture. Will it kill you to walk over to your MD, the one with whom you enjoy a closer relationship, and ask for some Vasotec? And while you're at it, could you not forget some pain meds before you send the patient to the floor? You see, I have to call the admitting MD, that very MD your doctor just spoke with to admit the patient, and wait until he calls back, before I can give any medications. That can and does take hours. Meanwhile I have an increasingly uncomfortable, unstable patient and a family who is getting very concerned that this new nurse can't help their mother.

I'm sorry for the long post, but I just read another Megalomaniac ER blog slamming floor nurses as stupid and lazy, refusing report, fighting with ER because they're uncomfortable taking unstable patients ER wants to move because they need the beds. There is more than just you, ER.

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LOL! I just laughed uncontrollably just reading the title to this post! Oh my Gosh! I've worked E.R. on and off for years, Its actually very easy compared to floor nursing and ltc. But don't try to tell this to the "Real" nurses. My gosh! what's with all the drama. I worked with one in particular in the E.R., she had "the hardest Job in the world. I wish I had it easy like the lazy floor nurses". I always asked her how is it soooo hard to be a triage nurse? The only thing hard was breaking up her clucking hen party.

Oh goodness. Drama queens!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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lol...i also laughed...but nervous as to where this thread is heading... :sofahider

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lol...i also laughed...but nervous as to where this thread is heading... :sofahider

Yeah, these threads get ugly quick, I figured I'd get my two-cents in before it gets closed.

lol

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

I take this as a venting thread and nothing more.

Lets just keep it civil and realize that we all have difficult jobs.

And...we all have bad days.

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Specializes in LTC, office.

ER nurses are cool. :coollook: Anyone who can stay cool, calm and collected in emergencies are way cool.

I am an office nurse; who no one thinks is cool. But I could care less. :D

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LOL! I just laughed uncontrollably just reading the title to this post! Oh my Gosh! I've worked E.R. on and off for years, Its actually very easy compared to floor nursing and ltc. But don't try to tell this to the "Real" nurses. My gosh! what's with all the drama. I worked with one in particular in the E.R., she had "the hardest Job in the world. I wish I had it easy like the lazy floor nurses". I always asked her how is it soooo hard to be a triage nurse? The only thing hard was breaking up her clucking hen party.

Oh goodness. Drama queens!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Easy? I'm not even going to dignify that with a response except to say that it is one of the most disrespectful things I've ever heard from a fellow nurse.

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I have a really good relationship with most of the ER nurses that I work with (I'm that med surg nurse who always goes to the ER when they call ( I'm in a very small hospital) ). But every once and a while they feel the need to tell me how cool they are in way that puts down M/S nurses. I always smile and invite them to come work a shift with us so they can show us how it's done. Since they're the big bad Emergency nurses. Point made, because nobody ever takes me up on my offer.

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Specializes in Home Care.

We're all :nurse:, we all have good and bad days.

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Specializes in tele, oncology.

I had to giggle, b/c we've got a couple of those where I work. Honestly though at my hospital it's the ICU nurses who have the rep for feeling superior.

Mostly though I've found over the years that those kinds of nurses are the limited but obnoxious ones who really aren't a good example of that dept in particular...they've just the most showoffy attention getters. Most are nurses who are capable of being team players within constraints placed on them by the facility. An example of this...we were supposed to be written up by ED if we didn't take report the first time they called. A small minority of the ED nurses gleefully embraced this; most declared it ridiculous as long as they got a call back within a reasonable amount of time. So many ED nurses refused to comply that it was dropped in a fairly short time, and only those who were repeat offenders were documented.

We've got tele nurses who think they're the bomb and way better than med-surg nurses, everyone knows that psych and LTC nurses don't know what they're doing (but God forbid we enlightened nurses be relegated to those areas)...

(Please realize that that last bit was pure sarcasm...I don't care if you don't know afib from V-tach if you'll just take my Borderline pt who has been screaming obscenities at me for three shifts running! Or if you aren't ACLS certified, but you're going to take my Alzheimer's pt who has been calling me every five minutes ticked off b/c I won't call his dead wife. Either way you cut it, I could kiss you as they wheel off the floor.)

Sorry, worked last night and I'm rambly...the point I'm trying tangentally to make is that regardless of where you work, there's always going to be some butthead who thinks they're God's gift b/c they're in a different area...and they give a lot of other nurses a bad rep they don't deserve.

So I totally understand the sentiment and can sympathize, but please realize that it's entirely likely that it's just a few bad apples ruining the bunch (and oftentimes, the good apples would love to drag the bad ones outta the tree and beat them).

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You cannot deny that some specialties are "easier" than others. The same can be said for floors in a hospital. I am a new nursing student but I have 4+ years of CNA experience (all in med/surg). Some floors in a hospital (I'm not going to name floors (and you know I'm not talking med/surg) are simply EASIER to work on than others. Easier for CNA's, easier for RN's, easier for HUC's. This is undeniable, one floor in a hospital may be consistently busy/busting their butts while another may sit quietly for 95% of their shift because their patients are so stable/don't need intervention.:twocents:

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I'm sorry for the long post, but I just read another Megalomaniac ER blog slamming floor nurses as stupid and lazy, refusing report, fighting with ER because they're uncomfortable taking unstable patients ER wants to move because they need the beds. There is more than just you, ER.

gayle, i get your frustration...definitely.

the only comment i have about er nurses needing to give report, is if they didn't...

couldn't the er become backed up?

imagine if all floor nurses said, "can i get back to you"?

it's the makings of something potentially catastrophic.

as for the personality, i can promise that you will find the histrionic, righteous, indignant diva damsel, on every floor.

it is NOT only er nurses, nor is it all er nurses.

so look at it as a character flaw, vs a specialty flaw.

again, appreciate the vent as i'm sure most of us can sympathize w/you.

it's easier to deal with, when you don't stereotype everyone as from the same cut.

besides, the nurses who do act like that...i see it as their problem, their shortcoming, and their burden.

let it go, and move on.:)

leslie

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