Trauma roon in your ED... who gets it?

[A&OxNone, MSN, RN]

So, I feel like my job is kind of screwy about who gets trauma and how the room assignments are split, so I wanted some advice on how you devided your trauma rooms up!

As it stands now, whoever has trauma usually has 2 or 3 other rooms (depending on the charge nurse), but it always screws a nurse either way. (which requires a long explaination that probably doesn't matter)

So, I have heard of the charge nurse taking a trauma if it comes in, or whoever float is having trauma (if your ED has a float), or you being assigned blocks of time when you would be the trauma nurse... Tell me what your system is and what works best for you!

I will say that we have only one true trauma room that is kept open for the seriously sick. (like cardiac arrests, ect). STEMI's dont even get put in the trauma room usually, so honestly anybody can get a sick patient, but you have to have a rhythm of dead or vitals of almost dead to go in trauma.

[PMFB-RN, RN]

At my hospital if there is a a level I or II trauma activation one of the SICU nurses comes down and is the trauma nurse. The ER doesn't staff enough nurses to staff the trauma bays. Large hospital, tiny ER.

[Anna Flaxis, BSN, RN]

We are assigned to zones, not rooms. The trauma nurse is assigned at the beginning of the shift. The ICU nurse comes down to be the scribe.

[shoegalRN, RN]

We are assigned by zones as well. There are a total of 4 nurses assigned to a trauma at the beginning of the shift. I work in a large ER, and we have 3 trauma bays. There are two nurses assigned to scribe and two nurses assigned to be circulator (sp). We are assigned by order of event. A scribe and a circulator will go to the first trauma and then the other two to the second event. If we are open to everything, sometimes we get traumas either back to back, or two going on at the same time. The same 4 nurses that have been assigned at the beginning of the shift will be the trauma nurses for that shift. And this is in addition to running their rooms.

[KDS1313]

The ED that I precepted in (I'm a new grad, so dont have a job there YET! ) My nurse was one of the highest qualified so she often was assigned the trauma room as well as two or three other rooms. If someone did come in needing that room, she and the charge nurse would be solely assigned there while the float nurses and/or nurses with either VERY stable pts or unfilled rooms took over the remaining originally assigned rooms. I remember a couple of nights when a pt would come to the trauma room and we didnt see our other pts the remainder of the night. It seemed to work very well for that ED. Hope this helped?

[PAERRN20]

Anyone of us could get the trauma bays. In fact, we could get assigned 2 traumas at the same time. It sucks.

[hiddencatRN, BSN, RN]

Trauma/resucitation room usually has two other beds reserved for very sick patients. If it's a slow day it's a super light assignment but if it's one of THOSE days it's crazy and hectic and the charge nurse and floats and your partner are helping you out.

[tvccrn, ASN, RN]

We have six rooms in our ED and at night one nurses takes them ALL. During the day we are staffed with one nurse from 0700-1900, a tech from either 0730-1530 or 0730-1730, a paramedic from 1000-2200, and another nurse from 1100-2300. No one has any assigned rooms, we all do what needs to be done.

[star77, MSN, RN]

We rotate each day. Usually there are 3 RNs in there until 3am, and the Charge RN and another float will help scribe if it gets bad. Lesser, blunt-force traumas don't always end up in the trauma bays- our rooms are set up so that anyone can be treated anywhere (except for negative pressure and dialysis requirements).

We're pretty good about helping each other out. If our resuscitation room nurse is getting overwhelmed, ie MCI or back-to-back BAD burns or penetrating traumas, we all pitch in if our patients are relatively stable.

[A&OxNone, MSN, RN]

Thanks for all the input! I never thought about having the ICU nurse that will eventually take the patient come down and be a nurse (although I think our ICU nurses would have a COW if we suggested that... most of the time they dont even want to call us back for report) But I think having a scribe nurse is a good idea.

[danny_RN]

I have heard of this happening, but never seen it. And I have travelled in over 100 ER's across the US. The idea of the ICU nurse "coming down" for a trauma is a good idea to be a second nurse in the trauma, but I think it is a poor idea to assign an ICU nurse as the primary trauma nurse. I worked ICU, and I know what is done in ICU. An ICU nurse is an awesome asset in a controlled code, but I think is an entirely poor asset for an uncontrolled traumatic condition in a department that is not their home department (such as the ED).

[Anna Flaxis, BSN, RN]

I have heard of this happening, but never seen it. And I have travelled in over 100 ER's across the US. The idea of the ICU nurse "coming down" for a trauma is a good idea to be a second nurse in the trauma, but I think it is a poor idea to assign an ICU nurse as the primary trauma nurse. I worked ICU, and I know what is done in ICU. An ICU nurse is an awesome asset in a controlled code, but I think is an entirely poor asset for an uncontrolled traumatic condition in a department that is not their home department (such as the ED).

Agreed. But I *do* like having an ICU nurse for a scribe. Having someone else to do the paperwork is an amazing asset. They are familiar with the paperwork, and may even be the nurse who eventually takes the patient when they are transferred out of the ED. I think it's a win-win.