Rural ER Staffing

[RainbowSkye]

I work in an itty-bitty rural hospital ER with three beds. We do have 24 hour physician coverage (some of the other hospitals around here don't) and an RN on each shift. Night nurses work alone, the day nurse has another staff member (tech, EMT, paramedic or LPN) from 11am - 11pm. There is no registration clerk on the night shift. We see about 600 patients/month.

I would like to know how other rural ER are staffed. Thanks.

[veetach]

I work in an itty-bitty rural hospital ER with three beds. We do have 24 hour physician coverage (some of the other hospitals around here don't) and an RN on each shift. Night nurses work alone, the day nurse has another staff member (tech, EMT, paramedic or LPN) from 11am - 11pm. There is no registration clerk on the night shift. We see about 600 patients/month.

I would like to know how other rural ER are staffed. Thanks.

about 10 years ago I worked at a rural hospital.does anyone remember the EACH/PEACH program of the Clinton administration?

Anyway we had 2 ER beds, and 8 swing beds, one RN held the place down all night. During the day we had 1 RN and one CNA. Our ER was seldom used. We also had 24 hour doc coverage. It was spooky to work on night shift, I didnt like being there alone...

[pkapple]

I am at a very rural location, ER has 3 beds with 2 available for longer observation cases. The hospital has 14 beds, so there are always 2 RN,s in the building at night. We usually have 2 LPN's and an aide, but no back-up for those if someone calls sick. Our Doc is in house sleeping-if the patients let him! All ancillary staff is on call at home.

I worked one time at a free standing ER. It had 4 beds. The doc slept in call room. Only one awake in the building at night was the RN. One advantage there was the EMT's were on call and sleeping in the ambulance bay area connected to the ER.

[obliviousRN]

We have a 3 bed ER, a 15 bed med/surg unit, 2 bed ICU, 4 bed L&D. There are always 2 licensed on no matter what. Usually 2 RN, 1 LPN, 2 CNA's. A lot of the time we'll have 3 RN's if the floor is full and an OB is active. I think we have excellent staffing. Plus our paramedics help staff the ER when we're really busy.