What is the best experience to transfer into ER?

EmergencyNrse · Apr 13, 2012

Ranger School.... Maybe Navy Seal BUDS.

Learn to tolerate pain and suffering. Lack of sleep. Stress...

Forced starvation and denying yourself basic elimination needs.

Probably the best way to get a feel for life in the ER

sserrn, BSN · Apr 14, 2012

Greetings!
I am a nursing student, graduating in December. I really want to be an ER nurse, but I am preparing for the possibility of not being able to jump right into an ED straight from school. One of the local hospitals regularly hires new grads for Med/Surg, Main OR, and some of the ICU floors. Which area would be the best experience to have in order to transition into the ER in a year or two?
Thanks!

ICU for sure. You have ICU holds a lot in the ER, and having ICU experience will make you more comfortable with pts. on the vent, intubations, drips, CV emergencies, etc. If not ICU, m/s would be your next best option. I don't see OR experience helping you much in the ER.

wpallais · Apr 16, 2012

thank you for the advice!! it makes perfect sense.

10pat · Apr 25, 2012

I transferred into a Level one ER after 6 months experience in an Intermediate Medical Care. The types of patients I took care of there were to sick to be on a med surg floor and not sick enough to be on the ICU. This I felt like was the perfect floor to built my experience especially know knowing and seeing what I see every day. The majority of the patients that we admit to our hospital at IMC worthy patients. I feel like for the ER minus Traumas and Recess patients this was the best place to start. ICU teaches you intubated patient care and the IMC teaches you continuity of care and family support. Just suffer through and put your time in the ICU or IMC, just something a little more critical than the floor and come play down in the ER.

libran1984, ASN, RN · Apr 25, 2012

I think working in a prison clinic setting is great ER experience. It definitely helped me find my first ER nursing position, and honestly, I found more trauma and craziness in the prison than I do in the ER. However, ppl think I'm cooler now that I work in an ER despite doing less work than in the prison.

wpallais · Apr 27, 2012

everyone's insight has been great! honestly, i didn't know there was an IMC floor (how ignorant does that make me sound?)....but it seems clear that ICU or a similar type experience is better than Med/Surg for ER experience....and I have considered prison work as well. I found a volunteer experience after I graduate in an ER in a hospital in Nicaragua (my mom lives there) so I think this will really get me ready to see it all. Thanks again to everyone. These blogs are invaluable for newbies such as myself :)

brainkandy87 · Apr 28, 2012

The highest acuity of care setting you can get into. However, other than a regular med-surg floor, I don't think what floor you're on matters. It's how much knowledge you soak up that does. I started on a step down/tele unit with a 5:1 ratio. It was rare to have a patient that required serious intervention or a ton of procedure time, but I always got my eyes on clinically important and educational situations, learned why I was giving the meds I was giving, researched my pt's disease processes, and so on. Then, I learned as much as I could from older nurses.

IMO, if you've got a drive to learn, you'll make a great ER nurse no matter what floor you transfer from.

sauconyrunner · Apr 30, 2012

Couple of schools of thought on this.

I was an ICU nurse before I became an ED nurse. When I got to the ED I was very good at managing the very unstable patients. I SUCKED at handling a load of 6-7 patients. I just had never done it.

Nurses hired out of Med Surg were excellent at taking care of a load of patients, but were not so great at managing drips and such..

So in an ideal world. 1 year of Med Surg. (MOST ED patients are admitted to a Med Surg floor, not the ICU), and then a Year of ICU and then Bam, hit the ED.

I say take what interests you most. I never could have worked a Med/Surg floor, and while the experience may have helped me, I would have withered in the environment.