Pros and Cons of an emergency room nurse

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I am about to graduate nursing school and have been considering the ER as a place I would like to work. I would like to know if current ER nurses can give me some feedback about what you have found to be the pros and cons of working in the emergency room as an RN.

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Specializes in ER,m/S,tele, stepdown.

I have been a Nurse for 13 years and have worked in multiple units,Med surg,tele,vents,float,managment. The last 4 years I have neen working in the ER. It can seem a bit overwhelming at first and I doubt anyone is ever completely comfortable because anything can happen and you see the patients first(assuming they survived ems). on the whole I enjoy working here much better then anywhere else in my career. Its fast passed, my coworkers are a certain "bree" and are fun to work with. You are much closer with drs then when you are on the floor. You are on first name bais and they are your friends as well as co worker. I have learned more here then I learned all along and can get an IV in alost anyone. If you can get in a hospital thats willing to train you for 6 months to a year then go for it. Any other questions dont hesitate to ask.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, ER.

Pros:

stabilize and ship wherever they're going

lots of action

lots of opportunity to educate patients

lots of cardiac (my favorite)

most days you feel like you really do make a difference

lots of teamwork and help when crap hits the fan

Cons:

lots of cleaning up puke and poop (contrary to what you may hear)

tastes of critical care

lots of abuse of the system

depending on where you work you may have to act as the SANE nurse (sex assault nurse examiner)

lots of redundant documentation

you have to have a strongggg backbone, because you will have to assert yourself often

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Thanks Neo and Anthony. I am also thinking about ER. I just need to get my foot in the door and get into a hospital period.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, ER.

Tastes of critical care should've been under pro, not con :)

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Thank you NeoPediRN, it was nice to see that most of the pros you listed I have thought about, it was also nice to see some cons listed that I had not considered. Can you tell me more about what you mean when you say there is a lot of abuse of the system?

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Pros:

stabilize and ship wherever they're going

lots of action

lots of opportunity to educate patients

lots of cardiac (my favorite)

most days you feel like you really do make a difference

lots of teamwork and help when crap hits the fan

Cons:

lots of cleaning up puke and poop (contrary to what you may hear)

tastes of critical care

lots of abuse of the system

depending on where you work you may have to act as the SANE nurse (sex assault nurse examiner)

lots of redundant documentation

you have to have a strongggg backbone, because you will have to assert yourself often

Thank you NeoPediRN. It was nice to see that most of the pros you listed I agree with, and it was also nice to see that some of the cons you listed I had not yet considered. Could you tell me more about what you mean when you say there is a lot of abuse of the system?

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Thank you NeoPediRN, it was nice to see that most of the pros you listed I have thought about, it was also nice to see some cons listed that I had not considered. Can you tell me more about what you mean when you say there is a lot of abuse of the system?

People arriving by EMS for an earache. "He felt hot so I brought him in" (nevermind checking for a temperature first).

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