mercRN

How many of you in your ED's do central lines, art lines, swans, etc that are Critical care procedures in your ED. We don't do many at all but have to do competencies on them every year. Most of the staff at my hospital have never done them except ...

If they have to be on a monitor for radiology then someone ACLS goes with them. Some of our pt's the docs will say they don't need to be on the monitor to go to radiology.

Just love reading these. It makes us all appreciate our jobs. I had almost forgot about this pt. until the other night when the Doc that took care of her brought it up. She come in stating that she was "lactating". Now the weird thing is she had a...

I have to agree with the other posts. Ask lots of questions not only to the ER docs but to the nurses. Some of the nurses will be more receptive than others. You will figure that out in the first couple of hours probably. Do lots of EKG's. Anyon...

To go to a tele floor has to have someone ACLS certified on a monitor. CCU I am pretty sure has to have an RN plus someone else and one has to be ACLS certified.

I just had a pt the other night c/o epigastric pain and needed to have lab work done. Well she was one of those ones scared of needles and yes I did have to baby her. I told her let me have one stick and when she said yes and turned her head I put ...

Last night at work was horrible. I am thankful I was in triage. Our hospital typically doesn't get codes or traumas unless we are the closest facility. Well we got them last night. 3 code's in a row, d/t a house fire. We had a brother and sister...

We use NP in our fast track area. We don't use them in the main ED but they do staff fast track. There are times when I think some of them know more than the ED docs do.

Thanks alot. Have to take this to work to show the docs. :)

It depends on how high the temp is where I work at. If the temp is below 102 we usually give tylenol unless the parents actually gave them some within the last 4 hours. For temps over 102 we start with Motrin unless it had been given within the las...

I know our hospital is not supposed to do EJ's but I think there are a few who have and will do them if need be. We are getting ready to do all of our competencies in March. We have JHACO coming in August so we need to do all of ours early. I am h...

With IBEX when the doc puts orders in it comes right up on IBEX. When we finish an order we mark done on the task and then go chart it in the appropriate spot, either under medication, IV's, lab draws, ua's, whatever. We still have to go to the py...

How many of you still do paper charting or do you do computer charting in the ED. Last May our hospital went to IBEX for the ED. At first none of us liked it but now most of us love it. We just don't like the mobile units because people won't plug...

We have 2 visitors per pt. When we had the bad flu outbreak in Dec we had everyone who walked through the door put on a mask if they had flu sx's. We are not real strick on the 2 visitors unless they are in our way. I was very thrilled with all of...

I agree 100%. Ask your questions. If you don't you might not ever understand something. If the answer you get doesn't make sense ask again. The day I stop asking questions will be the day I die.

I like the idea. I know with us having room assignments we try not to place a bunch of critical pt's in one block of rooms. At our hospital we have the three blocks. The front block has two major medical rooms and the back block has two major medi...

IBEX is really great. Make sure when you go live that the "super users" from IBEX are at your facility 24/7. They would leave our facility at midnight and come back between 6 & 7 in the morning. The nightshift nurses didn't get any help from t...

I am just finishing up my orientation as a new grad starting in ED. We get 6 months orientation with a preceptor. We have to obtain ACLS, PALS, TNCC by our 1 year anniversary. We have all of the new RN orientation to do like BCRA, IV's, orientatio...

Every so often if we have a float house nurse in the hospital and we are holding pt's to be admitted. She/he will come to ED do the admission data base and give the meds that are ordered by the attending. Not very often do we have a float house nur...

One night before I went to night shift we had a bunch of admissions, not only for tele but for medical. We ended up, since the pt's were stable, moving as many as possible to the back block so it was quieter and then that nurse got to play m/s nurse...

My ED has 15 rooms and one trauma/code room. We have it split into blocks. The front has 6 rooms, the middle 4 and the back 4-5 depending on if our fast track is open or not. If you have the front block and it is full you never see the light of da...

Ohio University in Zanesville for me.

In our hospital we use EMT's and Paramedics. Our paramedics can push emergency drugs, intubate, and start lines, as well as do dressing changes and EKG's. Our EMT's do alot of our phlebotomy, EKG's and dressing changes. The Paramedic I work with t...

I am a new RN in a rural community. I work in the ED, where I wanted to work, I just went to 12 hr night shift where I will probably continue to work. We have 2 hospitals in our town which merged 7 years ago and the other hospital is considered our...

You have said what I have been telling not only people that I graduated with but other nursing classes. I have to agree with what you have said 100%. Go after your dreams. Don't go somewhere where you won't be happy.