Trauma Nursing

Mods, please move to General Nursing Discussion

I agree, I would love to be able to click the trauma button and chat/ask questions from others in the same specialty as myself. Our trauma unit is still called SICU, however, 90 % of the pts are there due to trauma's.

ya our hospitals SICU IS Trauma ICU too

agree to an extent about the trauma subgroup, but reality is that almost every trauma nurse is also an ED nurse, and it goes hand in hand....Very few nurses can actually say that they are "true" trauma nurses...At my hospital, a level II trauma center, we rotate through the position among staff.....

^^I think those who work at a level one trauma center qualify as trauma nurses.

agree to an extent about the trauma subgroup, but reality is that almost every trauma nurse is also an ED nurse, and it goes hand in hand....Very few nurses can actually say that they are "true" trauma nurses...At my hospital, a level II trauma center, we rotate through the position among staff.....

*** Actually a fair number of trauma nurses are NOT ER nurses, but trauma ICU or SICU nurses. In some hospitals the ER nurses, like the ER physicans are not involved when there is a trauma team activation. There are even some nurses whose entire job is to deal with trauma cases. I once had a job like that except we were called the "casualty & accident staff".

^^I think those who work at a level one trauma center qualify as trauma nurses.

Maybe, but it seems to vary enough that there's no hard and fast rule. When we have level 1 traumas come in, the trauma docs are from the surgical department. Our nurses and medics take care of the patient, but an ICU nurse comes down to draw up meds. Who are the trauma nurses in that situation? Patient gets admitted to OR or ICU if necessary, or our step down or med surg unit if they end up being more stable (usually the trauma alert gets downgraded).

I work at a level 1 trauma center, for reference. Does that make me a trauma nurse? Or only the ICU or OR nurses who take the patient after we have them stabilized enough to move out of the ER? And then the stepdown and medsurg nurses who have to keep up continuing trauma edus...do they count? Cause we're all in different specialties, but in this hospital we all have a hand in trauma care.

^^I think those who work at a level one trauma center qualify as trauma nurses.

*** Oh not at all. Suppose one is an infection controll nurse at a level 1 trama center. How is he a trauma nurse? Compair this to an ER or ICU RN in a busy level II hospital who spends most of their time dealing with every sort of the worst trauma patients. How are they not trauma nurses? There is very little difference between a level I & II trauma hospital. I work at a level II. The only thing we lack for level I is an inhouse neuro surgeon. Ours is on 30 min call and we have a neuro surg PA in house who does most of the work up prior to the surgeon arriving.

I work at a level 1 and there is not one RN, tech or doc that works trauma exclusively. We all staff the main ED. We all rotate. There are a few who do it more often but not exclusively. I doubt that other places are set up much differently.

*** Actually a fair number of trauma nurses are NOT ER nurses, but trauma ICU or SICU nurses. In some hospitals the ER nurses, like the ER physicans are not involved when there is a trauma team activation. There are even some nurses whose entire job is to deal with trauma cases. I once had a job like that except we were called the "casualty & accident staff".

What you wrote is what I have seen. ER is not involved in trauma care.

I work at a level 1 and there is not one RN, tech or doc that works trauma exclusively. We all staff the main ED. We all rotate. There are a few who do it more often but not exclusively. I doubt that other places are set up much differently.

That's what we do in our ED

In our ER the ER nurses and Techs are the trauma nurses and techs. When a trauma is called we will have a Pharmacy person, Trauma Surgeon, 1RRT Nurse, Chaplin and Security, X-Ray, CP and Lab all show up. But it's the ER nurses and the ER techs that are doing everything with our ER Doc with the Surgeon.

There aren't any of us specifically set for this either. We rotate each shift and we all work in the trauma bays. When a Code is called in the hospital it's one of our ER techs, and ER docs and a RRT nurse that goes to it and if available one of our Nurses as well. If it's during a time we only have one Doc on and they are in the middle of our own emergency then our tech will go but it's the hospitalist that will need to take care of it.

Speaking of this topic, I have to say I am amazed at the amount of people that don't realize that just about everything (outside of a glidascope but that's in the bag our techs take up) that you need for a code is in the Code card. I went to a Code the other day in the ICU and a complaint was actually made against the ER staff because they are running around everywhere looking for things for this code that were all IN THE CODE CART. They didn't even have the cart in the room. It was absurd and so frustrating. They keep sending someone to go and get meds, syringes, flushes, NG tubes etc. etc. and we keep yelling out when someone says "get this" that it's IN THE CODE CART. No instead people are running around to the stock room, to the pyxsis, to other rooms and so on.

Anyway, their is my rant on that.

But I would think a Trauma nurse is the nurses that deal with the traumas. I never really looked at it as a nurse that has dealt with patients that went through a trauma. But the ones on the front lines of the trauma. So in my hospital that would be the RRT and ER nurses, but primarily the ER nurses. I suppose that could expand to the OR nurses too but we usually are getting them semi stable before they leave for surgery. I suppose everyone can have their own definition of what it entails.