nolaEDrn

If I could like this twice I would! You need to know what should be done and why, and ALWAYS be ready for what will come next.

If you are bored in the ED you will be bored in every field of nursing. Every field eventually turns into doing the same tasks repeatedly at some point or another. The ED at least has a wider array of tasks you will do: neonates to peds to adults to the elderly; minor wound care to foleys and NG tubes to critical drips/monitoring to shocking a patient. Whether a tech or a nurse, you should be thinking beyond the task to the rationale and preparing for the next step with every interaction you have with a patient. Most burn out in the ED comes from the non-stop nature and high acuity of the unit.

Oh the one word every ED nurse dreads!!! That is most definitely my biggest pet peeve!!!!!! And I am def guilty of the poor "inside voice" (you can hear me whisper from at least 30 ft away, inside a pt room, with the door shut)

Maybe try a different department? Having to change the scene does not make you a bad nurse, not everyone is meant to be in the ED. You need to be both stern and empathetic at the same time. If you can't find more meaning in the help you provide to the 1/10 people that really need it instead of the 9/10 people that challenge you, then you are going to have a tough time in any ED. The ED is a stressful place for everyone: staff are always prepared for the worse case scenario and every patient thinks their problem is an emergency. That's just part of being in the ED. Hope things get better for you!!!