What goes on in an ED?

[BlueBoxSearcher]

What does a nurse in the emergency room do?I have heard they do not do much except set IVs and send them to their floors for treatment.I dont think this is true but I would like some verification and possibly an example of what an ED nurse does.Thanks!

[pockunit, ADN, RN]

You give enemas?? I thought we were just supposed to just give lactulose when the patient is assigned a room upstairs. :|

MILK & MOLASSES, BABY. Pink elephant if we're feeling frisky.

[bgxyrnf, MSN, RN]

The other day I kicked ass starting IVs. I had a developmentally delayed man who was clearly septic. He had nothing for veins but I still managed to get a 22 in the back of his hand which gave us all his labs and let us start abx and fluids. His pressure started tanking. The doc ordered another bolus (the first was still running) and said to get some norepi ready. I have given norepi through a little hand vein but he really hadn't had a chance with fluids. I grabbed an ultrasound and managed to get a 16 into a deep forearm vein (AC wasn't a great choice because he like to stay fetal) and got a liter in within less than 10 minutes... and behold his pressure bounced up and stayed up.

Sometimes it is about starting IVs... which sometimes is much easier said than done, especially a suitable IV.

[bgxyrnf, MSN, RN]

The better question is "What dont ER nurses do?"

Windows.

Well...

I did have a dialysis patient that had a bleeding shunt. When we exposed it, it shot streams of blood across the room and through the door about 6 feet. Some of the spray got onto the glass slider. I cleaned it up. Basically just doing windows...

[JmanRN80]

In the ED I like to think that we take chaos and make it become organized chaos. After that we take the organized chaos and try to make the pt stable to be able to be on the floors. We act as a detectives in situations with no information provided sometimes to figure out what is wrong with a patient. We work hard to make sure that the ABC's are intact. We have to organize the chaos that EMS brings us and those that walk in the front door. We get both the truly sick patients and patients that think the ED is there primary care doctor. We have to be the eyes and ears for the phsycians at times when the ER becomes overwhelmed with really sick pts or pyschiatric patients which is another handful of its own. We have to decipher the truly sick from those that are stable, we manage the codes and traumas. Yes we start IV's, we take vitals, we put in foleys and NG tubes, but we also give lifesaving meds, and meds to make people get better. Until someone truly spends time in the ED, it is hard to truly understand all that we go through.