NurseNewbie

Hi there, I suppose this is a little bit of a venting session on my part but also something that I wish to learn from. I have only been working in emerg for 1 year and have been loving every moment of if. With that being said I did encounter a less the desirable situation last week. I was working in our ambularoty care area last night, where waiting time was approx 3 hrs between triage time and actually seeing a physician, which isn't that bad for our department. Anyways....earlier that night I noticed a 5 yr old triaged with a presenting complaint of SOB, c-task 5...I kind of brought it to the attention of some of my coworkers but they told me not to worry that this pt had a long wait because of where they were triaged to, the complaint wasn't severe at all. 3 hrs later bring the pt into ambulatory area and they are in moderate respiratory distress, using accessory muscles, lower SaO2 for a child....Definately got the dr in there very quickly.... That certainly lessoned my faith in triage at times.... Any input on how this situation can be avoided in the future would be greatly appreciated.....

Hi I'm looking to relocate to Toronto from Western Ontario area. I am wondering how are working conditions for nurses in the Toronto area. I have an interview with UHN next week and would appreciate any feedback regarding this topic. Thanx

I hate the statview pagers...our telemetry monitors are terrible they alarm off false rhythms many of the times. Such ringing off V-tach or asystole when the patient is in a textbook sinus rhythm. I work a lot of night shifts and the worst is when they alarm off while you are doing your hourly checks on patients while they are sleeping.....At times I've felt the urge to toss them out the window. I can see the need for them on our unit (60 beds) but they cry wolf too many times a nite that some are not as vigilent as others when they do beep off. Its kind of like, pt rings off asystole, almost everyone runs to check the monitor first before the patient to verify. Some work needs to be done on these devices.

:) Thanks for all the excellent responses and gems u have given me. Especially llg, its nice to see what is expected from this question from an interviewers perspective. I think I have identified my weaknesses as being reading ECG's (those 12 leads besides lead II i'm absolutely hopeless at, and those junctional rhythms always trip me up) also the position I applied for is in peds emerg so i think IV starts is going to give me some problems because I'm not very good at starting IV's in frail little old ladies as it is right now...Thanks for all your help

I loved my first job stayed there for almost a year. All the staff were extremely supportive and although we were constantly understaffed I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else in the world. Work was always fun no matter how terrible your day was going. Then our Cardiac Surgery ward was closed due to amalgamating all services in the city, and I was moved to another hospital with most of the old staff. Now I've been there a couple of months and I can't get out of there soon enough:o . There is absolutely no support for the nursing staff, everything is the nurses fault...and its plain old no fun working there. I have an interview tommorrow to try to get out....:uhoh21: There are good jobs out there and I'm a firm believer that nursing has so many different opportunities that there is a right area for everyone....

hey there I just hate the dreaded job interviews:o ...but it looks like its time for a change of scene. I've been nursing just over a year on a CVT unit and now am trying to get into emerg. I've got an interview tommorrow and have already come up with the pre interview jitters. It always seems that just when everything is going well in an interview they always slip in the dread name 3 strengths and one weakness question:uhoh21: . And at every interview I always get stumped by that one.....Anybody have any suggestions.... Thanks in advance