Cominginhot

Hi all! There may be a better place to post this question and, if so, please help direct me there. Basically, I'm an ER RN at a busy level 1 trauma center and I have recently joined the committee to help develop a policy that enables family presence during resuscitation. I'm working on writing the policy and I have most of the information needed to do so, but I would like to try and review policies from other facilities. Does anyone know if searching for another hospitals policies is possible? I'm, obviously, not looking to plagiarize anyone but I do feel it would be helpful to compare/contrast our policy with theirs and to ensure we're not overlooking something that should be obvious. As I said, please point me in the right direction if there is somewhere else where this question may get more attention. Also, having said all of this, does you hospital have such a policy? If so, how does it work? Are you happy with the way your hospital does things? Are there things you'd like to see done differently? I will happily take your input and concerns to the committee and ensure that we have the most effective policy for handling such a delicate scenario. Thank you all so much!

Hey! Congrats on making a change! There are a lot of different ways to skin a cat, as they say. I work with several nurses who use and love their, "brain," but, personally, I've never used one. The ones I've seen others use are typically handwritten and just consist of the pt's name, chief complaint, and hx. It's a little different in the ER as you'll typically be gathering all the information on your pt's in real time. When meds get ordered, you'll be the one hanging them, you'll place their IV's and be monitoring their vitals all in real time, so theres not much reason to have all of that written down for your pts, IMHO. As for time management, prioritization is key. When you have 4 or more pt's, you just need to think, "what NEEDS to be done first?" The rest can wait. It sucks to have people waiting, and often times tempers are relatively high in the ER, but you can't do it all, especially not at once. So, do what you can, when you can. As far as the research goes, IMO you won't really know what to expect until you've done it. I don't really feel there is a whole lot you can do to prepare until you get down there and figure out what your weaknesses are. There are some handy commonly used drug dosages that I have taped to my badge but other than that, you won't really know until you know. I know that must be kind of silly-sounding, but i really feel that you just need to jump in with both feet and figure out what you're a little deficient in once you're there. Lastly, please ask ALL of the questions. Your co-workers, more than likely, are GLAD you're there and they want you to do well. Most ER's are relatively short staffed with fairly high-ish turnovers so we are almost always glad to see new help. Ask questions and don't "fake it until you make it," down there. We can usually tell when a newbie doesn't know something and when they just bluster behind bravado it can be annoying and potentially dangerous. We want to help. Let us. Good luck with everything! Try not to stress too much and just know that we're happy to help you if/when you need it!

As an OUMC employee, WELCOME! We could not make it without our new grads! :) I was in the nurse residency program 4 years ago.

I really love new grads! I love that they come in as a blank slate, no bad habits! My new grad residency is 12 weeks. I usually spend 2-3 weeks orienting them, having them follow me, practicing new skills (IV's, NG's, foley's, compressions during codes, medication administration, etc) learning to communicate with pt's (which can be harder than most think!), getting them acquainted with our charting system, and quizzing them on what they already know (what tests will we run on this 25yo F abd pain? what does this EKG rhythm look like to you? what side effects should we expect with this medications?) After that, I have them take 1 pt and then progressing as I feel they are ready to. Towards the end, I give them 4 pt's and try my best not to help them out. Obviously, pt safety comes first and I would never allow them to cause harm, but I think it's important for my new grads to "drown" a little. They're going to have days where they spend the majority of their shift feeling like they're drowning, and I would MUCH rather them be familiar with that feeling while they still have a safety net, than to have them feel that when there is no one peering over their shoulder. Obviously, there are differing opinions on how new grads should be taught, but that is the way I feel works best. Also, I started as a new grad, so this also comes with the added bonus of what I preferred when I was learning.