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.
The way it seems to work at my hospital is that we're told we have a room to send a patient to the MOMENT the patient upstairs is out of their room. Housekeeping is notified right away too, but they aren't genies so sometimes it takes time for them to walk to the room and clean it. And, like nurses, most housekeeping workers are on the ball but a handful are sloooooow. If they're short staffed or have had a day of heavy room turnovers, even the most on-the-ball housekeepers get behind.
Another issue that slows room turnover in my hospital is, as a peds hospital, sometimes beds need to be switched for cribs and vice versa.
This whole thread has reminded me of another inter-departmental beef at my hospital: OR vs ER. The OR folks at my hospital are all a bunch of stretcher thieves- they'll come and get patients and transport them to the OR in our stretchers, then want to go through ALL their pre-op stuff while the patient is STILL in OUR stretcher (rather than just move them to one of their stretchers to do all that, which they have to do eventually anyway) and we have a room without a stretcher meanwhile just sitting there. The kicker is, the OR always has a long line of stretchers outside in the hall, but they will still try to snatch ours up. Ok, it's not everyone from the OR, but it happens enough that whenever we see someone from the OR come down to the ER without their own stretcher we watch them CLOSELY.
The OR and the ER at your hospital fight? Seriously? Like...............how does.................see, when the situation is.................why does..............what I'm saying is, who.............................forget it, its beyond me.
The OR and the ER at your hospital fight? Seriously? Like...............how does.................see, when the situation is.................why does..............what I'm saying is, who.............................forget it, its beyond me.
Talk about the need for intervention.
It's like the Sharks and the Jets. Except over stretchers.
It's like the Sharks and the Jets. Except over stretchers.
I don't know their side of it. Maybe there's some manager in the OR somewhere pushing his/her people to get MOAR STRETCHERS! "We must have them all! Then we will rule all the stretchers! Muahahaha!" IDK. I think it might just be a result of what happens when you let doctors try to do the nurse's job :-P
It's like the Sharks and the Jets. Except over stretchers.
Eh?
I am so confused.
Sharks and Jets.......................Sharks and the NHL and Jets as in the NFL or.........................Jets flying over the ocean causing problems for the sharks. I have no idea.
I don't know their side of it. Maybe there's some manager in the OR somewhere pushing his/her people to get MOAR STRETCHERS! "We must have them all! Then we will rule all the stretchers! Muahahaha!" IDK. I think it might just be a result of what happens when you let doctors try to do the nurse's job :-P
Oh. Once the ER at my hospital sent a transport around, a very aggressive one to boot, to collect all the excess pillows and take them back to the ER. The manager on our unit was nice and gave her some and told her which rooms had excess pillows. The transport took these pillows, but then continued to go into pt. rooms and remove more. The manager told her to stop. She got a real attitude with the manager. It was.............kinda funny kinda sad at the same time, to watch anyway. A nursing manager being tied up by a transport "Pillowburglar". Not like we have anything important going on in a hospital, ya know, like pt. care issues or codes or anything. lol
Sharks and Jets.......................Sharks and the NHL and Jets as in the NFL or.........................Jets flying over the ocean causing problems for the sharks. I have no idea.
I would love to stay home & read some more post....but I gotta go to work! Oh but wait....I forgot I will be doing triage tonight.....so I have it made..... Triage is easy! I will be surfing the net all night long
Oh. Once the ER at my hospital sent a transport around, a very aggressive one to boot, to collect all the excess pillows and take them back to the ER. The manager on our unit was nice and gave her some and told her which rooms had excess pillows. The transport took these pillows, but then continued to go into pt. rooms and remove more. The manager told her to stop. She got a real attitude with the manager. It was.............kinda funny kinda sad at the same time, to watch anyway. A nursing manager being tied up by a transport "Pillowburglar". Not like we have anything important going on in a hospital, ya know, like pt. care issues or codes or anything. lol
I've done this on nights, but I'm limited to 5 or 6 pillows cause that's all I can carry. Usually I can find all I need in radiology, but the next night I have to steal them back again. Labor and delivery are the chicks with the pillow stash, if you're ever looking. If you're looking for IV pumps, that's the big challenge. If I see one without a chaperone, I'll pinch it every time.
The sad part of this is I think you're serious. ETOH and a keyboard son't mix well, tho' I'm not sure how much of it is the etoh....
Never saw West Side Story. Is it good? Although..................isn't a movie about old time gangs? Where do sharks and.............well, especially "jets" mix in to that?
OK, I googled it. West Side Story, gangs, Jets vs. Sharks. Gottcha.
Thats a chick flik.................why would I know anything about that story?
<_>
>_>
[Quickly goes to DVD collection case, covers up Fever Pitch, You've Got Mail, Sweet Home Alabama, Forget Pais and a few other titles. Moves Terminator, Rambo, Porky's and others in front of them]
OK. Now you are just messing with me, making up stuff to confuse me.
eriksoln, BSN, RN
2,636 Posts
The OR and the ER at your hospital fight? Seriously? Like...............how does.................see, when the situation is.................why does..............what I'm saying is, who.............................forget it, its beyond me.
Talk about the need for intervention.