Reporting to ICU

Specialties Emergency

Published

I havent been a nurse for long ( a year and a half) so I have only worked in ER. I have noticed when I give report to ICU they often times speak "down" to us constantly asking why didnt you do this? Why that? why didnt the dr. do this? Its like they're trying to guilt me all the time...

Some of the questions I can answer but often times I just say "the dr. is aware and no further orders were given"

I had a RN get ****** last night because we didnt start a central line on a pt who was supposed to get an insulin drip!??? I DON'T PUT IN CENTRAL LINES!!!

Does anyone else have similiar issues? Also, I think its funny how the male ICU nurses NEVER give me crap when reporting...its always pleasant, short and simple. :)

Yep...we see it all the time. But it goes both ways. Ive had to give report to ICU nurses who take out their stress on the wrong person and are just plain RUDE about it.....for the massive GI bleed that we had to transfer to ICU I got, "This pt should have had vassopressin!" Me: "I agree, but we cant give vasopressin on the floor." "Well they should have given it in the ER!!" What the hell am I supposed to do about that??? Thats why we are transferring the pt to ICU!!! Or for the pt that had massive CP, HR in the 180s, BP 210/120's. He needs to go to ICU for a nitro drip. I get flack because the doctor ordered a nitro drip, when we should have just "kept him on the floor and dealt with it."

It goes both ways though: Ive seen some of the floor nurses ask ridiculous questions to the ED nurses...."When was his last BM?" or "What color is his urine?" Please!

Oh well...for every jerk nurse I have to deal with, there are usually some pretty cool ones I can give report to as well. Its all in the tone of how we speak to eachother....one would hope that this everlasting power struggle between floors would end some day. I mean we ARE on the same team right?

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Specializes in Critical Care.

I don't like getting a poopy patient, but it's not my top pet peeve. IV access is a must. I have never heard of the ED sending a patient to ICU without IV access. Who does that? And if you have a septic patient the patient better be pan cultured, first antibiotic started, and fluid resuscitation started within an hour of triage. That is basic standard of care, not being fussy. And our ED is super on top of that. No complaints from me on that topic.

SBAR is a great format. And something that I do to help expedite report is (if I have time) look up labs and whatever diagnostic reports are available on the computer as soon as I know I'm getting an admit (before I even get report). I would love to be able to look at the VS and orders, meds given, etc.), but that is on a different computer system (which I wish they would do something about). The point is, I do what I can to get as much 411 ahead of time. Sometimes the RTs and lift team, and obviously the house supervisor have some skinny on what's coming up from the ED.

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Specializes in Emergency Dept, ICU.

As a male ICU nurse (and ER nurse) I agree I don't give the ER nurses a hard time when they call. All I want to know is where and what kind of IV's do you have? Is there any family? Did you send the family to the Crit care waiting room? and what are my vitals now?

I know you guys are busy doing 4+ patients at once I'll look up labs ect myself, i don't expect you guys to do anything on the admit orders sheet unless it says STAT or NOW next to it.

I consider foleys and cleaning up the pile of crap they are laying in bonuses if done before they get to the ICU.

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Specializes in Trauma/ED.

I think I've said this before but...

To my fellow ED RN's, how much time to you spend in the ICU forum???

and To my fellow ICU RN's...GO TO YOUR HOME!!! This is why you have your own forum.

Other than that, yes there is a battle between ICU/ED...yes there will ALWAYS be a battle. We just need to treat each other with respect, do all we can do to make the other's job easier, and ultimately take care of our patients to the best of our abilities. I'm not going to get into specifics regarding this common issue that the OP stated.

Now I got my vent in...love you all! :-)

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Specializes in Emergency Dept, ICU.

hmm the above post is yelling at people about nothing.... you must work in management somewhere.

We can talk about giving report to ICU nurses from the ER in the ER forum. I don't think we need to

move it to another forum, but thanks for your random soap box hall monitor.

:yeah:

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Specializes in adult ICU.

For what it's worth, this thread actually showed up under the general nursing discussion....I don't know how that happens when you post in a specific section, but that's how I found it. I don't go to the ER nursing section.

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For what it's worth, this thread actually showed up under the general nursing discussion....I don't know how that happens when you post in a specific section, but that's how I found it. I don't go to the ER nursing section.

Yeah, I've wondered about that too, with this and other threads.

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Specializes in ICU.
I think I've said this before but...

To my fellow ED RN's, how much time to you spend in the ICU forum???

and To my fellow ICU RN's...GO TO YOUR HOME!!! This is why you have your own forum.

Other than that, yes there is a battle between ICU/ED...yes there will ALWAYS be a battle. We just need to treat each other with respect, do all we can do to make the other's job easier, and ultimately take care of our patients to the best of our abilities. I'm not going to get into specifics regarding this common issue that the OP stated.

Now I got my vent in...love you all! :-)

Hey, now, I usually just lurk, but thought I might have something to contribute to this thread (which I picked up off of the AN home page). And I lurk, because 1) ER forum usually has some interesting threads, and 2) because I often learn something! I think you guys are pretty smart. Please don't begrudge me that. :redbeathe

:paw:

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I don't go to the ER nursing section.

Why not? We don't bite...

hard.

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I think I've said this before but...

To my fellow ED RN's, how much time to you spend in the ICU forum???

and To my fellow ICU RN's...GO TO YOUR HOME!!! This is why you have your own forum.

Other than that, yes there is a battle between ICU/ED...yes there will ALWAYS be a battle. We just need to treat each other with respect, do all we can do to make the other's job easier, and ultimately take care of our patients to the best of our abilities. I'm not going to get into specifics regarding this common issue that the OP stated.

Now I got my vent in...love you all! :-)

Have you considered decaf?

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Have you considered decaf?

Blagh! No point in drinking coffee if it's decaf! :p

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Specializes in Trauma/ED.

Yeah I was on a soap box for sure but how many threads have been stirred up by ICU nurses here???

I'm not in management but am a charge nurse in a very busy ED.

I would never drink decaf and am actually a very laid back person.

I worked the floor the other day for some OT and tried to call report to ICU on one of my 4 patients but the secretary said the nurse was on lunch so she would have to call me back. So I charted as such then sent an email to their manager because in this scenario their charge nurse is supposed to take report and we can send the patient up when the nurse comes back...wasn't offered and they didn't know it was me trying to call report (the other nurses probably wouldn't pitch the fit I did).

Back to the OP...please don't let them bully you, just give a complete report and if they give you grief about not knowing every lab or having every procedure done for them just tell them..."I can't do all of your work for you". And if they are mean to you please tell your charge nurse so they can call either their charge nurse or their manager because that should not be tolerated in any dept. Write them up...yes nurses (even union nurses) get fired from time to time.

I may have a little supervisory outlook on the matter but have been there when I was a new nurse so I know where you are coming from.

Maybe Allnurses needs to address the General Nursing thread issue?

I have "lurked" in the ICU forums but out of respect I would never post a "troll" response to a thread in their neck of the woods. I don't think you'll find an ED nurse that doesn't know that all the ICU nurses want is "a little more" than we give them.

Peace...sorry for the double post...I won't post again in this thread :-)

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