ERNurse678

We tube report. We have computerized charting and we print a copy of the chart, tube it to the floor, give them 15 minutes and take the patient upstairs ourself. We have transporters until 3am in the morning, after that the RN has to transport. Every month each nurse gets an individual report in their box that tells us what our average admission times. The report breaks down into times for bed ready-report sent, and report sent to patient discharge and bed ready-patient discharge. We try to get our average time for bed ready-patient discharge in the 30 minute range. This past month our patient satisfactions scores dropped and the biggest complaint was the time that it took to get admitted, so that is our goal!

I can't believe that phenergan is given straight without dilution. My grandmother was in the hospital recently for a pretty bad ankle fracture and the nurse came in the room and gave her 6mg of morphine iv push, no dilution over about 2 seconds, of course the minute the nurse walked out of the room she became very nauseated and began vomiting. I walked out to the desk and requested something for her for nausea and the nurse returned with phenergan that was not diluted and went to push it straight into a heplock. I stopped her and questioned her as to whether she was going to dilute it and she looked at me like I was out of my mind. I know someone who got a PE after receiving phenergan undiluted which he developed a DVT from and eventually a PE. Dangerous drug, dilute and give slow!!!!

Very well said. I have dealt with both both RN's and Paramedics that I would not want taking care of me or my family and I have dealt with RN's and Paramedics that I would trust with my life in their hands. We need to all learn to work together and stop talking about whose job is harder. We all have a hard job and I give EMS a lot of respect, because I don't think I could do their job. And because I respect EMS, they respect me when they bring me patients in the ER. None of us are superior to one another. We all have a different job. So, EMS does a wonderful job. Keep up the good work.

I am not going to argue with you over what I am for and what I am against. No, I don't support telemetry nurses having a ratio of 1 nurse to 6-7 telemetry patients. However, in nursing school nurses are taught to be advocates for our patients, not have someone else be the advocate for us. Part of the role of nurses needs to be to take some responsibility in getting things changed that they are unhappy with. Write to legislators, be politically active in trying to get things changed. This is what I believe we can do. If you want to pay someone else to do that for you, more power to you. I believe in mandatory staffing ratios, I think they are a necessity. I just think that there is better ways to go around it. I am a nurse, one of the few that seems to have become a nurse because I do care and I do want to make a difference so why would I be "knocking nurses" as you say I am

I have recently started doing triage more often and have also noticed that I have been geting colds more often. Our triage area does not have a sink nearby to wash our hands in between each pt. We do keep antibacterial hand was up there, but personally I don't think it is the same as washing your hands with good old soap and hot water. Fortunately, they are in the process of renovating our triage and the new triage will have a sink. Maybe until then the glove and mask thing would be worth a try.

Look, I am not knocking the unions, if that is how you choose to work then that is fine. All I am saying is don't knock those who decide to actually step up and take care of the pt's when you guys walk away. I am sure that the hospitals that all of you union members work at are wonderful hospitals. Just because we don't have mandatory ratios doesn't mean that our hospitals are not wonderful hospitals. Fortunately in this country we are all able to choose which hospital and which state we work in. Lets all just leave it at that.

We do rectal temps on all pt's under the age of 3. This is the most accurate way. And it does matter whether their temp is 101 or 106. As for our ER we have different protocols for tylenol and motrin depending on the fever. Also, if a child has a temp of 106 and I am the triage nurse, they are going to the critical care area versus the intermediate area

For our ED that depends on how bad the patient is. We don't admit all of our RSV patients.

Well I live in south carolina where no nursing unions exist. We only have 9 BSN programs in the state and 13 ADN programs, all of which have waiting lists. I was one of 30 people admitted to the BSN program at my college in 1999. We do not have mandatory staffing rations and our nurses per capita is 70 per 1000 and the national average is 78 per 1000. So the staffing ratio and the waiting list for entrance into programs is not a factor here. Yes, we are below the national average for nurses per capita but not 30% below. I am not saying that CA is a bad place to work I am just saying that everyone who thinks that unions are good, need to look at these statistics.

I work 3 12 hour shifts. Work the same days every two weeks. Everyone has a set schedule. I love it. I know what I am working 2 years from now. Most of us do every other weekend. There are a few schedules with no weekends, but they are not really popular due to the great shift/weekend differential we get. This works great for planning vacations and time off

You know what I find interesting? If CA is such a great place to work because of the unions why is their nursing shortage worse than everywhere else? CA has 30% fewer nurses per capita than the national average. Something to think about for everyone that is so much "for unions"

How about this one. Had a cardiac arrest the other night. Pt. was DOA, we pronounced it upon her arrival. The ER doc and I walked over to the family room where there is 50 family members. The doctor gives the news and then quietly exits the room as I am left to try and calm the family and support them however I can. Now, also let me mention that due to renovations in our ER the family room that we were in is not actually in the ER, you have to walk down the hallway away from the ER to get to it. So I am in the room with the 50 family members crammed into this little family room and the daughter "passes out" So I am trying to get her out of the middle of the floor and put a cool cloth on her head when the next thing I know the son is having a seizure. So here I am by myself climbing over the "passed out" daughter to get to the son who is having a seizure and whose airway is becoming non patent very quickly from all of the secretions. Would have to say that was my least favorite in a long time. Needless to say after getting him stable for a second I ran to the phone, called the ER told them to send me another nurse and a stretcher. The other nurse and I lifted this 230 lb man off the floor and onto a stretcher. He then starts seizing again. We run back over to the ER, get a line give him some ativan and eventually find out that he is supposed to be taking dilantin but hasn't taken it in months. Dilantin level is next to nothing. Sad to say, this was only in the first couple hours of my shift, any guesses on how the rest of the night went.

I agree. Our cafeteria just started opening from 1am-3am and you would think that we were getting served a gourmet meal. We were so excited. We don't get food brought to us on night shift. So, before the cafeteria opened we either brought something from home or the vending machine was our best friend

Well said!! Not to mention the fact that these drug seekers end up getting addicted to these drugs and then come in in a coma like my pt. the other day who was a 24 year old who apparently had been given fentanyl patches by his pain management doc and is now a vegetable for the rest of his life becuase he put several fentanyl patches on, had periods of apnea which led to hypoxia. He will now be unable to function on his own for the rest of his life, not to mention that he does not have insurance so you and I are paying for it. Now, please don't take this the wrong way because I feel like he definitely needs medical care, however this all could have been avoided by someone not supporting his drug seeking habits!!