What to do in a busy ER??

[analee23]

OK, so here's the thing... not a big HUGE deal, but something I've been thinking about and trying to figure out how I could've done it better under the circumstances.

I work in a pediatric ER, we're pretty small... 12 beds, 4 hall spots, we see usually around 60 patients a day and that's a bit busy. On sunday we saw 90, so it was very VERY hectic and all of our Techs called in sick, so it was just the doctors and nurses to do everything. I had a patient I was transfering to the floor that was sitting in a "made up" hall spot with her IV pump plugged into a room she was next to since there was no plug, and she was in DKA. For her safety, I was trying to get her to the floor ASAP as well as freeing up another "spot" for another patient. So, I faxed report to the floor (1835) called ten minutes later (1645) and the secretary said the nurse had gotten the report, had no questions and to give her 10 minutes to get the bed ready... fine, I needed the 10 minutes to switch her from NS to D5 1/2.. So, I transfer the patient up myself (1915... no techs) and say, well, only thing that's really changed is the fluid which I've switched... go running back down stairs to see the rest of my patients that are waiting, when I get down there I'm told that I didn't give report and that the charge nurse had to do it for me. I explain what has happened, show him the fax sheet which verifies it was sent and tell him it was because of shift change. UGH, so now he's all upset at me about it. I dunno, maybe I need a bit tougher skin but it's still frustrating. What can I do in this situation to make it better? any suggestions?

Thanks for the advice in advance!

Analee23

[stardogdaisy, RN]

:clown:Always document that you gave report. Document the name of the nurse and the time that you gave your report. You guys don't give verbal or telephone reports? My advice is just to document, document. Hope that helps.