trauma alerts

Editorial Team / Admin · Mar 3, 2009

We send one person to the trauma bay to scope out what's coming in. They can be either an RN or ST. Basically, they listen to report, see who's being consulted, and wait for the trauma doc to give us an estimate of if/when they will be coming up and for what. They then return to the OR and give report to the charge. Our ER has several different staffing plans, and if a trauma is called, they page overhead "Nurses follow plan 7" or whichever one they decide to use. This way, two nurses are freed to report to the trauma bay, and other nurses automatically pick up their patients until they return.

mcmike55 · Mar 9, 2009

For the most, we don't go to the ER...primarily, because we would likely be in the way!!

We'll send someone over to check things out if we can,,,sort of get a head start on the situation.

We also can help out putting in chest tubes, etc, freeing up an ED nurse to do other things.

When a trauma alert is called while we are in house, we'll free up an OR asap, and hold it until we know it's ok to go on.

After hours, the anes. doc is paged with each trauma alert, but the on call team often isn't notified unless the surgeon or house nursing supervisor thinks that we need to be on stand by or come in.

By the way, my hospital is a Level III in rural Ohio.

hope that helps

Mike

KayceeCA · Mar 9, 2009

We send one person to the trauma bay to scope out what's coming in. They can be either an RN or ST. Basically, they listen to report, see who's being consulted, and wait for the trauma doc to give us an estimate of if/when they will be coming up and for what. They then return to the OR and give report to the charge.

Same thing here, although this is the first hospital where I've worked that did this. It's nice to know what may or may not be coming our way. The times I've been sent, I just made sure I stayed out of the way of the ER nurses and waited for the trauma doc to either clear me to leave or let me know what we'd be getting in the OR.

lindaloo51 · Mar 11, 2009

During day shift, the charge nurse calls the ER and gets the info on what the trauma is, a room and staff would then be designated if needed.