ednurse

Our facility sends ct images via internet for an outsourced radiology outfit to read them when our radiologist is not in house (off hours, holidays, etc.). It takes any where from 1 to 3 hours for our rad tech to send the images. Does anybody else have this problem? Patients have to stay immobolized for hours. Administration gets nasty when these delays are brought up because they are promoting our "state of the art" diagnostic imaging equipment (32 slice Ct scanner) and ED physicians don't even order plain films anymore. LOS can be a guaranteed 2 to 3 hours when CT is involved. :

Our DON is in charge of "staff development" It is all passive. Articles to read every month-handouts and online. The only off-site offering 2003 was the basic PALS. Is this the way staff development is heading-or is it just lack of creativity, laziness. Con ed is way low on DON's/Administration's list of priorities.

In a rural 7 bed ED, there is no dedicated triage RN or front-line triage room. It's 1 RN and 1 LPN. The RN is triage, primary, etc. Visits approx 5700 annually. What are thoughts on LPN staff in ED? Difficult complying with RN only triage, documentation, etc.