Trauma Nursing

Wolf at the Door, BSN · Apr 6, 2012

Mods, please move to General Nursing Discussion

Sun0408, ASN, RN · Apr 7, 2012

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.

Pneumothorax, BSN, RN · Apr 7, 2012

ya our hospitals SICU IS Trauma ICU too

gesrn · Apr 11, 2012

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.....

Wolf at the Door, BSN · Apr 13, 2012

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

PMFB-RN, RN · Apr 13, 2012

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".

hiddencatRN, BSN, RN · Apr 13, 2012

^^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.

PMFB-RN, RN · Apr 14, 2012

^^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.

domontoy · Apr 14, 2012

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.

Wolf at the Door, BSN · Apr 15, 2012

*** 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.

Pneumothorax, BSN, RN · Apr 16, 2012

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