shootemrn

Working in the ED nothing really freaks me out. Well one thing does that makes me want to barf is when pt's have pureed soft diet and seeing pureed beef. UGH! :imbar

I have been named in a lawsuit and was named as a defendant. The lawsuit was actually for a child who died of menengititis. We saw the child in our ED one week before he died. He was diagnosed with URI and sent home and did well for three days and came back to the hospital and DX with bacterial menengititis. He died two days later. The whole purpose of the lawsuit is that we misdiagnosed him the first time. Even though we could not have DX him so far ahead. The hospital won the suit. Whenever a lawsuit is filed the name everyone in the suit even lab techs, or anyone who may have come in contact with named patient. Do as the other posters have said and forward all your stuff you get to the lawyers let them handle it. Dont woryy too much either. You werent even named in the suit.

In our hospital we have a 30 minute blackout period at shift change. Works out well and I work in the ED

Katana that was soo funny.

Okay folks I hold my hand on a bible and have witnesses to the following poop story is complety true. I work in The ED of my hospital and we get a frequent flier who is the most disgusting woman in the world. first a brief history about this patient. When she is not admitted to our hospital whe is in our ER constantly. She has had two respiratory arrests in the last year and smokes about three packs a day while on O2 at 4L a minute. She has a colostomy and when it is full she throws it on the floor. She constantly calls 911 when she runs out of colostomy bags or is drug seeking. Smokes in her room when she is admitted while on oxygen and the floor nurse litearely pay other nurses to put her on their assignment. Okay now on to the poop story! A fellow nurse asked me and the paramedic to start a IV on this lady since she has awful access. I was on one arm and the medic was on the other. All of a sudden we hear a awful grumbling sound from the patient. The medic and I looked at each other and he said "I think she is perculating" all of sudden we hear a gush like someone pouring a pitcher of water. I looked down and saw a HUGE amount of watery putrid smelling stool dripping of the bed onto my shoes and off of her heels. I asked the medic to get some help and of course the nurses were all "involved" So the medic and I were trying to clean her upand change her johhny. she was literally coverd from head to toe. When I took her johnny off I found a pack of cigarettes in her bra. I said "you really dont need these" and grabbed the pack and turned to place them on the table. When I turned back around i caught a slap on my face from the patient. Did I mention that her hand was covered in watery putrid stool. I was stunned and turned and walked to the scrub sink and stuck my head underneath. Then I did something that I never did in my 10 years of nursing. I woofed my cookies. I must say that was the most disgusting thing I have ever lived through. The next time I see this patient I will buy her a carton of unfiltered cigarretts.:imbar

Last year we got a (1) pencil with the hospitals name on them. Can only imagine the massive budget for nurses week!

i wish there was a rolling electronic marquee sign that says over and over we are not a detox.....we are not a fast food franchise....your version of a emergency may differ from the triage nurse's version.....we are not a detox... get the picture :)

The holding situation got so bad in our hospital with consistently holding 20+ patients in our 25 bed ED that the DON did something drastic. He cancelled all elective surgeries and freed up about 15 beds a day. The surgeons were so upset about this that they went to the newspapers and threatend to leave the hospital. They didnt and the holding situation got better overnight. Now we only hold 5-10 on a average night.

Of course I am proud of being a Nurse! If someone is ashamed of being a nurse they need to get out of the profession. I am a male nurse. So I face even further scrutiny from other female nurses and from the public. (my name is not Gaylord Focker :) ). But whenever anyone asks me what I do I tell them "I am a RN". To have the oppurtunity to care for people when they are ill or injured is the greatest responsibility and one I do with pride.

Hi All, I just wanted to ask everyone if they have the same problem that my ED is currently facing. The last three weeks we have been holding patients in our department because the hospital is full. My department is a 34 bed Level II ed. The last three weeks we have been holding patients up to 24 at a time and some pt's sometimes stay for three days. I can see it burning the staff out because we are running a department on top of caring for these patients. Our adminstration currently has no plan and the ED nurses take care of the holdings and ED patients. I work nights and we sometimes go down to three RN's and have 20+ holding patients and a busy department. Our waits for non urgents to get seen has gone up to 12 hours+ because the hallways are literally lined with patients. A Very dangerous place for a RN to work and I see the patient care suffering; since we are emergency nurses by nature and tend to neglect the holding patients. They do get care but I also find myself caring for the MI patient or the trauma first. Is there anyone out there in the same predicament? Any solutions? Ideas? Your experiences in dealing with such situations? Thanks and Be Well